Game 5 not ‘best’ but classic

For sheer emotion, hard to beat power, thrills of this Series

HOUSTON — The greatest testament to Game 5 and the delicious madness of the whole Astros-Dodgers World Series maelstrom is that the players themselves can hardly believe what they, and their opponents, are accomplishing.

Many teams in many sports respect each other. But the Astros and Dodgers almost seem in awe of their foes and, a bit sheepishly, of themselves. Are we truly this evenly matched, this obstinate and, under incredible pressure, performing so superlatively, inning after breathless inning?

After the Astros’ 13-12 victory in 10 innings — a 5-hour, 17-minute game that ended early Monday and had so many thrills that it never lost its insane pace and pressure — Astros shortstop Carlos Correa, a 23-year-old superstar in the peak of health, said:

“I feel like I’m going to have a heart attack out there. It’s (so) high-pressure. The game is going back and forth. Both teams are great, scoring runs. Hopefully we can win one more game and take a break because this is hard on me.”

I’ve covered every World Series game since 1975. Game 5 was the most entertaining I’ve ever seen. That’s not the same thing as “best,” a distinction usually reserved for World Series games with the highest stakes.

The amazements of Game 5 fall into a different category: glorious games of continuous disbelief when all of our baseball expectations, built over our lifetimes, are shredded. The obvious comparison is the Blue Jays’ 15-14 win over the Phillies and reliever Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams in Game 4 in 1993. But there is little comparison.

That game was a mess, a slashed canvas of 14 walks, hit batters and sloppy play in rainy conditions, plus bad pitching by several hurlers whose names were barely known then and forgotten now. That was a crazy game but not one that made you a baseball fan. More likely the opposite.

In Sunday night’s classic — and, yes, we have now had two genuine classics in a week — the Astros made their early comeback against Clayton Kershaw, the ace of the age, having the best postseason of his career and working on full rest. And the Astros just stomped him. In his regular-season career, Kershaw has been given six or more runs of support 61 times. He won 59 of those games. On Sunday, he got seven runs of support in the biggest game of his life and left with a no-decision after allowing six runs and being so wild that he couldn’t escape the fifth inning.

Also, for the second time in this Series, the Astros won an extra-inning thriller in which they battered the best reliever of this decade, Kenley Jansen. Alex Bregman lined the game-winning single to left to beat Jansen in the 10th.

If the Astros win this Series — and they have Justin Verlander, in perhaps the hottest streak of his future Hall of Fame career, lined up to start Game 6 on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium — Game 5 will drip with symbolism. In addition to the Astros defeating Kershaw and Jansen, the Dodgers’ second-best reliever in October, Brandon Morrow, faced four men, got no outs and allowed four runs and 11 total bases.

How does any team recover from that? Lefty Rich Hill, who was trusted to work just four innings and throw 60 pitches in Game 2, will suddenly be captain, first mate and lookout on the Dodgers’ life raft.

For just the second time in postseason history, threerun deficits were overcome three times. The Dodgers led 4-0 and were tied 4-4 on a three-run homer by rookie Yuli Gurriel. Then the Dodgers went back ahead 7-4 on a three-run homer by rookie Cody Bellinger, only to be caught again at 7 on a three-run homer by Jose Altuve.

If you see one such dramatic three-run bomb in a World Series game, you have a special memory. To see three crucial, clutch three-run homers in the span of two innings is almost preposterous.

Can these teams, especially the Dodgers, still keep punching after all of the emotional damage and energy drainage of Game 5?

“It was tough. What can you do?” Jansen said afterward. “But I’m already looking for Tuesday.”

Tuesday will come soon enough.

But trust this: Baseball will be looking back at Game 5 of the 2017 World Series for decades. RESULTS, SCHEDULE All games at 8 p.m. on FOX Dodgers 3, Astros 1 Astros 7, Dodgers 6 (11) Astros 5, Dodgers 3 Dodgers 6, Astros 2 Astros 13, Dodgers 12 (10) Tuesday at Dodgers Wednesday at Dodgers

TANNEN MAURY/EPA Alex Bregman is mobbed by his Astros teammates after driving in the game-winning run in the 10th inning of Game 5.