Springer delivers historic shot in the arm
Blast in 11th caps late homer barrage, nets first Series win
LOS ANGELES — George Springer etched his name in Astros’ lore with the biggest hit in franchise history Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.
Springer drove a go-ahead, two-run homer to right-center field in the top of the 11th inning to propel the Astros to their first win in a World Series game in their franchise’s 56-year history. The American League champions mashed four home runs from the ninth inning on to fuel a 7-6 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers and even the Fall Classic at 1-1.
Game 3 is Friday night at Minute Maid Park.
Before Springer’s heroics, Marwin Gonzalez, Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa each took turns playing hero.
With the Astros three outs from a 2-0 deficit, Gonzalez belted a game-tying solo shot in the ninth against usually unhittable Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen. In the 10th, Altuve and Correa homered in back-to-back at-bats against ex-Astro Josh Fieldsto open a two-run lead.
But closer Ken Giles blew the two-run lead in the 10th.
After pitching a perfect ninth, Giles began the 10th by surrendering a home run to Yasiel Puig. A two-out walk to Logan Forsythe, a wild pitch and a single by Kike Hernandez tied the game.
Springer, who had gone 0-for4 with four strikeouts the night before, bailed him out with his homer off Brandon McCarthy. Chris Devenski allowed a twoout homer to Charlie Culberson in the bottom of the 11th but struck out Puig to end the game.
The Astros were 0-5 all-time in World Series games before Wednesday’s heroics by their star-studded double-play combo. Altuve and Correa became the first teammates in World Series history to hit extra-inning homers in the same game. Gonzalez became the first visiting player to tie a World Series game with a ninth-inning homer since Dwight Evans in Game 3 of the 1975 Series.
The Astros improved to 10-0 in games in which Justin Verlander has pitched since they acquired the former MVP and Cy Young Award winner from the Detroit Tigers on Aug. 31. Verlander exited despite a two-run deficit after giving up only two hits. Both left the yard.
So did four long balls off the Astros’ bats. Making Gonzalez’s ninth-inning blast more impressive was the count in which he hit it. He fell behind 0-2 against Jansen before getting a 94 mph cutter over the plate.
The game featured a World Series-record eight homers, four from each side. A night after Dallas Keuchel’s outing was spoiled by a two-run homer in the sixth inning, Verlander found himself in a similar situation. Like Justin Turner the night before, Corey Seager flipped the second game of the World Series in Los Angeles’ favor with one swing of the bat with two outs in the sixth inning.
Seager’s two-run homer to left field broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth, the same score Turner’s long ball off Keuchel changed in Tuesday’s Game 1. The sixth inning proved Verlander’s last.
The Astros outhit the Dodgers 14-5.
Alex Bregman had a hand in the Astros’ first two runs, smacking an RBI single off starter Rich Hill in the third and scoring on a Correa chopper off Jansen in the eighth. Correa’s single snapped a streak of 28 consecutive scoreless innings by the L.A. bullpen.
Verlander was unhittable in the early innings. He struck out four of the first six he faced and retired the first nine before issuing a leadoff walk to Chris Taylor in the fourth. An inning-ending double play allowed him to face the minimum and he was one out shy of continuing that streak to five innings.
But with two outs in the inning, Joc Pederson spoiled a nohit bid and a 1-0 Astros lead with one swing. The lefthanded-hitting Dodgers left fielder capitalized on a rare Verlander mistake, belting a hanging slider out to right-center field to tie the game.
The Astros contended with the curveballing lefthander in Hill for only 60 pitches before Dodgers manager Dave Roberts turned to his vaunted bullpen. Hill went through the Astros’ lineup two times and allowed a run on three singles and a walk against seven strikeouts.
Bregman opened the scoring with a single to center field that plated Josh Reddick in the third inning, the Astros’ first run before the fourth inning of a game since the AL Division Series.
For the rest of the game, the Astros faced an ensemble of relief pitchers. Kenta Maeda gave the Dodgers four outs before lefthanded specialist Tony Watson recorded two outs with one pitch, which he used to extract a double-play grounder from Brian McCann to end the top of the sixth. Ross Stripling and Brandon Morrow served as the rest of the bridge to Jansen.
The bottom of the sixth proved pivotal for the second straight night. It was eerie how much the sequence that changed Wednesday’s game mirrored Tuesday’s, when Keuchel was on the mound.
Like in Tuesday’s sixth, Chris Taylor began the rally by grinding out a two-out walk. Like Keuchel on Tuesday with Turner, Verlander jumped ahead of Seager with a 1-2 count. In both cases, the game-changing home runs were hit to left field.
Seager screamed as soon as he connected with Verlander’s 97 mph fastball on the outer half. The 23-year-old shortstop, who missed the NLCS because of a back injury, became the youngest Dodger to homer in a postseason game since Pete Reiser in 1941.
Astros manager A.J. Hinch went to his bullpen after pinchhitting for Verlander in the top of the seventh. Will Harris worked around a wild pitch in a scoreless frame. Joe Musgrove pitched a perfect eighth and Giles a perfect ninth. Then madness ensued.