No team has ever come back from 3-0 in the World Series and the Houston Astros didn’t want to be the first team to try to do that. Behind clutch hitting and great pitching from Zack Greinke and the bullpen, they made winning the series much more doable by putting the series at 2-1.
After leading the majors with 107 wins and putting together one of the most complete teams in baseball history, Houston looked very beatable in Games 1 and 2 with Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander losing at home.
While Houston made a couple of critical fielding errors and couldn’t hit with runners in scoring position in the first 2 games, it was Washington who copied those mistakes in Game 3. Juan Soto, celebrating his 21st birthday, made a couple of defensive miscues, and the Nats went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranded 12.
The Astros scored in 4 different innings behind Michael Brantley’s 2 RBIs and Robinson Chirinos’ home run off the left-field foul pole. They didn’t overpower the Nationals, but the first win in any series is critical, and the 4-1 win is enough to get the team back on track.
After losing the first World Series game in the nation’s capital since 1933, the Nats will look to take a 3-1 series lead behind prized free agent Patrick Corbin who is scheduled to start. The Astros will counter with rookie Jose Urquidy and probably go to their bullpen early in an effort to even up the series and send it back to Houston.
