Astros 3, Dodgers 2
Game 1 at L.A.: Dodgers 3, Astros 1
Game 2 at L.A.: Astros 7, Dodgers 6 (11)
Game 3 at Houston: Astros 5, Dodgers 3
Game 4 at Houston: Dodgers 6, Astros 2
Game 5 at Houston: Astros 13, Dodgers 12 (10)
Game 6 at L.A.: Tuesday, 8 p.m. Fox
Game 7 at L.A. if necessary: Wednesday, 8 p.m. Fox
I need to take a timeout from college football and talk about the World Series. How nuts has it been? Last year's Cubs-Indians World Series was just what baseball needed to get people interested in the sport again. This season, even though we didn't get the classic Yankees-Dodgers matchup some pined for, we still got a terrific series -- and that is being borne out in front of us currently -- pitting awesome teams that both won 100-plus games in the regular season.
Of course, I won't get too far into this post without mentioning the UVa ties that both teams have. Chris Taylor, who hadn't really done much in his time with the Mariners, came to the Dodgers last year in a trade and has had a breakout season. Taylor, who played shortstop for Virginia from 2010-12, hit .288 in the regular season with 72 RBIs, 21 home runs, and 17 stolen bases. In the NLCS against the Cubs, the 27-year-old started games at both shortstop and center field and hit .316, getting rewarded by being named co-MVP of the series. Taylor tied Game 5 in the ninth inning with an RBI single. And the Astros have outfielder Derek Fisher, called up this year to the majors, on their bench. He entered the wacky Game 5 for Brian McCann as a pinch runner at second base and scored the winning run on Alex Bregman's single to left field, sliding at home plate just before the ball arrived.
Fisher, who is 24, was a teammate of Taylor's in Charlottesville for one year, playing from 2012-14.
The stories for this series compare favorably to what we got last October with the Cubs and Indians when we knew a bad-luck franchise would finally win another World Series. The Dodgers are one of baseball's most iconic franchises with six championships but hadn't been back to the Fall Classic since they won it in 1988. They feature young exciting hitters like Jason Turner, Yasiel Puig, and rookie Cody Bellinger and an ace in Clayton Kershaw who is known as one of the best regular-season pitchers of all time, but one who also comes up small in the postseason. The Astros feature a bearded ace in Dallas Kuechel and youthful players such as 5-foot-6 sensation Jose Altuve (the AL's probable MVP), George Springer, and Carlos Correra. And Houston is the feel-good story of the playoffs after the devastation that occurred in and around the city because of Hurricane Harvey over the summer. The Astros are also a great testament to team-building. They were one of the worst teams in history just a few seasons ago when they went 51-111 in 2013. That was actually the last of three consecutive 100-plus loss seasons. Since, they've won 70, 86, 84 and 101 games in the following seasons.
Sunday night's Game 5 was even more incredible than what was a fantastic Game 2 that went 11 innings and was called by some a top-10 Series game of all time. If you like pitchers' duels, it was expected you'd like Game 5, because the Dodgers had Kershaw on the mound, and the Astros had Kuechel, who only lasted 3.2 innings. Kershaw was given a four-run lead but then deepened the storyline about him not being able to get it done in the postseason. By the end of the game, it was hard to keep track of how many times each team had had the lead and difficult to even remember that Kuechel and Kershaw had both started the game and neither ace had pitched well.
The teams combined for seven home runs in Game 5 and now have a record 22 in the Series, beating the mark of 21 set by the Angels and Giants in 2002, and that series went the full seven games. The seven tied the old record for homers in a single game from 1990 -- it is now an old record because in Game 2 of this series, the teams combined for eight, which is the new standard. The interesting thing to come out of the home runs story is that multiple pitchers and coaches have said the balls feel different than the regular-season baseballs did and even, I presume, the other playoff baseballs. Photos are circulating showing it seems like you can indeed see a difference in the texture of the balls. MLB has said the only difference is the color of a logo. Pitchers says the ball is slicker and therefore, harder to grip, making sliders harder to throw. Obviously, this gives a big advantage to the offenses. And that seems to be showing in these games.
The series now shifts back to Los Angeles, where the Dodgers will need to win the final two games to capture the title. The Astros just need one more victory. In Game 6, the Dodgers, who have Rich Hill starting on the mound, have to get through Justin Verlander, a former star for Goochland County High School and Old Dominion, and he's been one of the best pitchers this postseason after getting traded late in the year from the Tigers to the Astros. It would be a shame for such a back-and-forth Series to not go seven games, so that's what I'll predict, though the Astros are probably favored in Game 6. Then in Game 7, all bets are off, and I'm not going to pretend I can predict what will happen in an unpredictable series.
Game 1 at L.A.: Dodgers 3, Astros 1
Game 2 at L.A.: Astros 7, Dodgers 6 (11)
Game 3 at Houston: Astros 5, Dodgers 3
Game 4 at Houston: Dodgers 6, Astros 2
Game 5 at Houston: Astros 13, Dodgers 12 (10)
Game 6 at L.A.: Tuesday, 8 p.m. Fox
Game 7 at L.A. if necessary: Wednesday, 8 p.m. Fox
I need to take a timeout from college football and talk about the World Series. How nuts has it been? Last year's Cubs-Indians World Series was just what baseball needed to get people interested in the sport again. This season, even though we didn't get the classic Yankees-Dodgers matchup some pined for, we still got a terrific series -- and that is being borne out in front of us currently -- pitting awesome teams that both won 100-plus games in the regular season.
Of course, I won't get too far into this post without mentioning the UVa ties that both teams have. Chris Taylor, who hadn't really done much in his time with the Mariners, came to the Dodgers last year in a trade and has had a breakout season. Taylor, who played shortstop for Virginia from 2010-12, hit .288 in the regular season with 72 RBIs, 21 home runs, and 17 stolen bases. In the NLCS against the Cubs, the 27-year-old started games at both shortstop and center field and hit .316, getting rewarded by being named co-MVP of the series. Taylor tied Game 5 in the ninth inning with an RBI single. And the Astros have outfielder Derek Fisher, called up this year to the majors, on their bench. He entered the wacky Game 5 for Brian McCann as a pinch runner at second base and scored the winning run on Alex Bregman's single to left field, sliding at home plate just before the ball arrived.
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| Derek Fisher, a UVa alumnus, came on as a pitch runner in the 10th inning and scored the winning run for the Astros in Game 5 of the World Series. This came after another former Virginia star, Chris Taylor, tied the game for the Dodgers with an RBI in the ninth. |
The stories for this series compare favorably to what we got last October with the Cubs and Indians when we knew a bad-luck franchise would finally win another World Series. The Dodgers are one of baseball's most iconic franchises with six championships but hadn't been back to the Fall Classic since they won it in 1988. They feature young exciting hitters like Jason Turner, Yasiel Puig, and rookie Cody Bellinger and an ace in Clayton Kershaw who is known as one of the best regular-season pitchers of all time, but one who also comes up small in the postseason. The Astros feature a bearded ace in Dallas Kuechel and youthful players such as 5-foot-6 sensation Jose Altuve (the AL's probable MVP), George Springer, and Carlos Correra. And Houston is the feel-good story of the playoffs after the devastation that occurred in and around the city because of Hurricane Harvey over the summer. The Astros are also a great testament to team-building. They were one of the worst teams in history just a few seasons ago when they went 51-111 in 2013. That was actually the last of three consecutive 100-plus loss seasons. Since, they've won 70, 86, 84 and 101 games in the following seasons.
Sunday night's Game 5 was even more incredible than what was a fantastic Game 2 that went 11 innings and was called by some a top-10 Series game of all time. If you like pitchers' duels, it was expected you'd like Game 5, because the Dodgers had Kershaw on the mound, and the Astros had Kuechel, who only lasted 3.2 innings. Kershaw was given a four-run lead but then deepened the storyline about him not being able to get it done in the postseason. By the end of the game, it was hard to keep track of how many times each team had had the lead and difficult to even remember that Kuechel and Kershaw had both started the game and neither ace had pitched well.
The teams combined for seven home runs in Game 5 and now have a record 22 in the Series, beating the mark of 21 set by the Angels and Giants in 2002, and that series went the full seven games. The seven tied the old record for homers in a single game from 1990 -- it is now an old record because in Game 2 of this series, the teams combined for eight, which is the new standard. The interesting thing to come out of the home runs story is that multiple pitchers and coaches have said the balls feel different than the regular-season baseballs did and even, I presume, the other playoff baseballs. Photos are circulating showing it seems like you can indeed see a difference in the texture of the balls. MLB has said the only difference is the color of a logo. Pitchers says the ball is slicker and therefore, harder to grip, making sliders harder to throw. Obviously, this gives a big advantage to the offenses. And that seems to be showing in these games.
The series now shifts back to Los Angeles, where the Dodgers will need to win the final two games to capture the title. The Astros just need one more victory. In Game 6, the Dodgers, who have Rich Hill starting on the mound, have to get through Justin Verlander, a former star for Goochland County High School and Old Dominion, and he's been one of the best pitchers this postseason after getting traded late in the year from the Tigers to the Astros. It would be a shame for such a back-and-forth Series to not go seven games, so that's what I'll predict, though the Astros are probably favored in Game 6. Then in Game 7, all bets are off, and I'm not going to pretend I can predict what will happen in an unpredictable series.
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