On a day where we were shocked once again by the act of a cowardly terrorist in New York City, the fact that there was a World Series happening 3000 miles away in Los Angeles seemed insignificant. We look to sports and other entertainment venues to ease the pain sometimes. It pulls us together. Could a baseball game on the other coast take away the uneasy thoughts in all of our minds today?
There will be baseball things to talk about tonight. Home runs will be hit, great plays will take place and managers will make decisions that we will question. Someone will win and someone will lose. The scene from Houston’s Minute Maid Park showed thousands going crazy when George Springer led off the third inning with a home run to right. Good for them, they need something to cheer about after what they went through this summer. They could feel something special in the air tonight. The thought of winning their first ever World Series had to have them psyched.
But there was a strange feeling in L.A. on a creepy, cool 60 degree, rainy, misty Halloween night. Maybe it was a let down after that wild game six Sunday that went into the wee hours on the east coast.
The Dodger fans were a sea of energy in Chavez Ravine as they held out hope for a win that would take them to a game seven tonight. That feeling of a let down disappeared in a hurry when starter Rich Hill was removed in he 5th inning with 2 outs and the bases loaded. Manager Dave Roberts brought in a the “overused” Brandon Morrow to face the red hot Alex Bregman. When he got Bregman to ground out to Cory Seager at short, it put a charge in the Dodgers and their fans.
When Austin Barnes led off the sixth inning with a sharp single to left, that brought the crowd of 54,128 out of their seats with a thunder of cheers. When Chase Utley was hit in the foot and went to first, they brought it up a notch. When Chris Taylor drove a Justin Verlander 97mph fastball to right for a game tying double, they went wild. When the next batter, Seager, hit what looked like a three run home run to right that was caught at the wall and allowed Utley to tag up with the go ahead run, the noise from the crowd woke up a sleeping pod of “humpbackwhales” in the Pacific Ocean.
Did Astros’ Manager A.J. Hinch keep Verlander in too long? People will second guess that non move in a World Series that has had more calls to the bullpens than “Dancing With The Stars” on the final night.
I remind you that baseball has decided to have starters not pitch deep into games anymore. They are not equipped to pitch strong into the seventh or eighth innings. So every team needs an army of arms in the pen.
In this series, these are two very tired bullpens. In the seventh inning Joc Pederson went opposite field to give the Dodgers a two run cushion for his relievers, who did all they were asked to do tonight as they pitched 4.1 scoreless innings. Kenley Jansen finished it off by getting asix out save. A great performance that shut down this power house Houston lineup.
Well what do you know? Hollywood does know how to write a happy ending. here will be a seventh game of this World Series tonight. Someone will go home elated and someone will leave extremely disappointed. Both teams will be able to proudly say that, they gave all of us something to smile about. Yes the sun will come out tomorrow and there will be a game seven in our fall classic in what has been a great World Series.
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