Pitching Continues To Dominate World Series

The Los Angeles Dodgers extended the World Series to a decisive seventh game by beating the Houston Astros 3-1 on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium.

The World Series will go seven games for the second consecutive year and third in four, with Wednesday night’s festivities beginning at 8:08 p.m. with Fox televising.

The Astros were in a good position to win their first World Series with Justin Verlander pitching, and pitching with an early 1-0 lead on a George Springer home run. But the Dodgers got a pair of runs in the sixth and Joc Pederson hit a solo homer in the seventh for the insurance run. Kenley Jansen then came on for a two-inning save and did it in economical style for the Dodgers, throwing only seven pitches in the eighth inning and 19 overall (18 of them strikes).

The Series has been by turns wild or closely-played. After a 13-12 win by the Astros that included 28 hits by the two teams, pitching again dominated. The Astros were held to six hits, the Dodgers to five.

“We held our own,” Pederson said afterwards to Fox. “We put up some runs and our pitching was unbelievable.”

The meat of the Astros’ batting order – Jose Altuve in the third spot, followed by Alex Bregman and Yuli Gurriel – combined to go 1 for 12 against five Dodgers pitchers.

This will be the first Game 7 at Dodger Stadium, which opened in 1962. The Dodgers have played in nine World Series since the ballpark at Chavez Ravine became their home, but never before hosted a seventh game. They’ve not won a championship since 1988.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman