Series shifts to Houston
Bregman, Astros have fun recalling home runs in remarkable Game 2
HOUSTON — As a couple of Astros loosened up in the outfield as the retractable roof at Minute Maid Park made its slow crawl Thursday, turning the bright sun into shade.
That might be the only way to keep balls from flying completely out of the yard at this power-packed World Series.
A day after Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and Houston combined with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a Series-record eight home runs in the Astros’ 7-6, 11-inning win, the baseball world was still marveling over the moonshots.
So were the players who launched them.
“Actually, when I was getting off the plane with (Carlos) Beltran, I was talking to him, and I was like, what was going through your head when Altuve hit the homer? He was like, ‘We were going crazy in the dugout,’” Astros third baseman Alex Bregman said.
“Then I was like what about when Correa hit his, what about when they hit theirs? And they hit theirs,” he said, laughing. “We were just going back and forth.”
After a Major League Baseball season that set a record for the
most home runs, the World Series is off to a flying start.
A whopping 11 homers as the side split the first two games at Dodger Stadium. At this rate, they’d shatter the Series record of 21 in 2002 when Barry Bonds and Giants lost to the Angels.
Lance McCullers starts Game 3 for Houston against Yu Darvish, and the roof will be shut.
Just the way the Astros like it — the highest-scoring team in the majors is 6-0 at its thumping home this postseason, and the top hasn’t been open since early June in order to block out the Texas summer heat.
Rain is in the forecast, the final call on whether to close the roof rests with MLB. That decision is based in part on what the home team normally does during the year.
“We want it closed. We’ve got to have it closed,” reliever Chris Devenski said. “I feel the electricity when it’s closed is so much better. And we love playing here. We have so much excitement being here and the electricity and the vibe. And I feel like we feed off of it.”
The Astros had plenty of energy Wednesday night, too. Marwin Gonzalez hit a tying homer off Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen in the ninth inning, Altuve and Correa connected back-toback in the 10th and George Springer hit a two-run shot in the 11th.
“Yeah, last night hurt,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.