The second game of the 2019 World Series was like two games in one. The first six innings were a pitchers’ duel. The next three were a clobbering.
The Washington Nationals were on the right side of it, scoring six runs in the seventh, three in the eighth and one in the ninth as they ran away with a 12-3 victory and a 2-0 series lead over the Houston Astros. Here’s how it all went down.
Verlander being Verlander
Houston starter Justin Verlander’s night began with a Trea Turner four-pitch walk and an Adam Eaton single before Anthony Rendon clanged a two-run double off the scoreboard in left:
It ended up being a 20-pitch first inning, which isn’t what you want. But Verlander being Verlander, he settled in and motored right along from there, holding the Nationals scoreless over the next five frames.
It was same old, same old from Verlander — a bevy of 95-96 m.p.h. fastballs setting up hard sliders and slow curves — who finished with 21 swinging strikes (9 on fastballs, 7 on sliders, 4 on curveballs, and 1 on a change-up).
Plus, Verlander made history when he got Victor Robles to foul tip a slider into Robinson Chirinos’ glove in the second inning — his 200th career post-season strikeout, the most in MLB history. John Smoltz, who watched Verlander break his record from Fox’s broadcast booth, retired in 2009 with 199 post-season strikeouts.
Remarkably, no one seemed to notice. Chirinos threw the ball back to Verlander, and he was preparing to put it back in play before someone clued in and alerted the home plate umpire. The memorabilia was subsequently collected.
All Verlander’s done this season, at 36, is pitch over 250 innings between the regular season and playoffs, throw a no-hitter, strike out 300 while reaching 3,000 strikeouts for his career, and lead the league in starts, innings pitched, walks plus hits per innings pitched, strikeouts-to-walks ratio, hits per nine innings, batting average against, and left on base percentage.
Astros score two, could’ve been three
The two-run lead the Nationals earned against Verlander in the top of the first didn’t last long, as Washington starter Stephen Strasburg coughed it up in the bottom of the inning. With a runner on first and two strikes on Alex Bregman, Strasburg left a change-up middle-in, which is candy for a right-handed hitter at Minute Maid Park:
Alex Bregman CRUSHED this.
(: @MLB | #WorldSeries) pic.twitter.com/XWyTXOnv4I
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) October 24, 2019
The Astros really should have had three runs in the inning, but Jose Altuve’s one-out double was erased when Kurt Suzuki gunned him out trying to swipe third base. Michael Brantley hit a two-out single moments later that Altuve would’ve scored easily on, and then there was Bregman’s blast.
But these things happen. Altuve’s an above-average runner and Suzuki threw out only 5 of 50 attempted base stealers this season. And Rendon’s tag of Altuve at third was made at just about the last split second possible. It was a fine gamble. It just didn’t pay off.
Strasberg stays a step ahead
After Bregman’s homer in the first, Strasberg settled into a pitcher’s duel with Verlander, trading scoreless innings with the future hall-of-famer. Four-seamers, two-seamers, curveballs, and change-ups were offered in steady increments, and Astros hitters found themselves consistently thinking just a pitch behind Strasburg.
That was never more evident than in the sixth, when Strasburg faced one of the game’s highest leverage moments. After Yuli Gurriel smacked a one-out double into the left field corner at the end of a seven-pitch plate appearance, the Nationals chose to intentionally walk Yordan Alvarez and go after Carlos Correa and Chirinos. Correa gave Strasburg a battle but ultimately broke his bat popping up a full-count change-up
Astros manager A.J. Hinch turned to his bench for Kyle Tucker to hit in place of Chirinos and the game hung in the balance as Strasburg fell behind the Astros outfielder 2-0. That’s an action count, a fastball count. But Strasburg threw a curveball for a called strike and then got Tucker to swing over a change-up when he was clearly looking for a heater.
Tucker fought off a sinker and a change-up from there, and then took a fastball way out of the zone to work the count full. But Strasburg was a step ahead once again, flipping another curveball into the zone for a called third strike that froze Tucker’s bat.
That was Strasburg’s 114th pitch on his third trip through the order and the Astros still didn’t have a good read on what was coming their way. That’s a credit to both Strasburg and his catcher, Kurt Suzuki, who called a masterful game but will get much more credit for what he did a half-inning later.
The Nationals break it open
Second pitch of the seventh, a 94-m.p.h. fastball up:
Kurt, for the lead! #WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/jPvCqmVDS1
— MLB (@MLB) October 24, 2019
That pitch was just clobbered by Suzuki who did an awful lot for his team Wednesday night between gunning out Altuve in the first, guiding Strasburg’s performance, and taking Verlander over the Crawford boxes.
From there, the Nationals tried to manufacture another run as Robles and Turner both walked before Eaton sacrificed them into scoring position for Rendon, which is how you draw it up. Rendon hit his fly ball, but couldn’t get it deep enough to score Robles from third.
The Astros understandably wanted no part of the prolific Juan Soto, issuing their first intentional walk of the year to load the bases for Howie Kendrick, who chopped a groundball to Bregman at third. And off went the wheels.
Bregman booted it which allowed a run to score. Then Asdrubal Cabrera lifted a single into centre to plate two more. A Ryan Pressly wild pitch put Kendrick and Cabrera in scoring position for Ryan Zimmerman, who dribbled another groundball to Bregman. The Astros third baseman had little chance to make a play, but tried anyway and ended up throwing wide of first as two more runs came in and Zimmerman cruised into second.
It was an onslaught of soft contact. Kendrick’s ball came off his bat at 83.5-m.p.h. Cabrera’s at 75.7. Zimmerman’s was only 62.8. Call it bad luck or call it baseball, the Astros quickly fell into a hole from which they would not emerge. And the hole got deeper an inning later when Eaton sent a two-run shot into the right-field seats.
From there the Nationals just kept scoring as Cabrera drove in another run, Michael Taylor hit a solo shot, the rambunctious dugout celebrations raged, and the Astros schadenfreude thickened. And from here it’s off to Washington they go, with the Nationals full of confidence and the Astros needing a gem from Zack Greinke to save their season.
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