Men's Baseball MLB 2017

[phelps 8,730]

as expected, at home the Astros bats got hot and jumped all over Darvish early...

so the game was basically over after just a couple of innings...

McCullers had another excellent outing after the unbelievable relief appearance in game #7 of the ALCS, escaping a potential disaster in the 3rd (when he was affected by the long interval between his second and third effort, due to the long half inning with Houston at bat)...

meanwhile LA offense did perform something too little and too late...

now LA is at high risk to pay a very costly prize to Roberts' idiotic mistakes in game #2...they really need a 5-star outing from Alex Wood later tonight in game #4 (8 p.m. NY time, 2 a.m. on Sunday CET)...

and it's all but sure they're gonna get it...

[thepharoah 2,413]

1st hit for Astros and 1st home run by Springer ! i think Wood wished the umpire would have walked Springer and didn't count the 4th pitch a strike  it's 1-0 for Astros after 6th 

[thepharoah 2,413]

it's a tied game at middle of 7th 1-1 

Edited October 29, 2017 by thepharoah

[phelps 8,730]

and finally, it's the LA Dodgers who score a big inning in the top of the 9th and get the win in game #4...

the series is now tied 2-2...

the first 8 innings were dominated by the pitchers, with LA collecting just 4 hits (for 1 run) and Houston doing even worse, getting their only run until that moment with just one hit (Springer's HR) off a very effective Alex Wood...

but in the 9th the Astros manager Hinch took the decision he should have never taken, giving the ball to his designated closer, Giles, who's totally out of mental shape...and he and his collegue Musgrove were just destroyed by the LA bats, despite being totally out of sync in the last 2 games...

tonight (8 p.m. NY time, 1 a.m. of Monday CET) the pivotal game #5 is scheduled once again in Houston...

for the Dodgers it's Clayton Kershaw's turn, for Houston Dallas Keuchel will start on the mound...it's the same duel we already saw in game #1 (and it was a classy one)...

with Verlander ready to start game #6 for the Astros, there's no need to say that LA desperately need a great game from their ace if they want to keep the hope of winning their first World Series title after 29 long and painful years alive...

on the other hand, for the Astros this is their best chance to complete their masterpiece and try to win their first World Series title ever...

I'm not saying: "it's all or nothing", but I think we're really close to something like that...

 

by the way, let's go Dodgers! now and forever!

Edited October 29, 2017 by phelps

[phelps 8,730]

do you think game #2 was crazy and exciting?

 

well, just give a look at game #5...

 

this was one of the most unbelievable baseball games I've ever seen...5 and a half hours of big plays, big mistakes, changes of lead in the scoreline...

for sure, something that people with their hearts not perfectly fit (nor the Dodgers fans) shouldn't watch...

 

in game #1, Keuchel vs Kershaw was an amazing duel, which came up as one of the shortest WS games ever because of the total domination by the 2 pitchers...

yesterday night, insted, both starters were beaten heavily since the beginning, this resulting in their shortest outing in the PO and in a bullpen battle where the team giving up the less home runs eventually got the win...and that team were the Houston Astros...

the key of the game was, once again, a capital mistake by LA's manager Roberts, who at a certain point didn't respect his own pre-game decisions and put relief pitcher Morrow on...the outcome of this move was that Houston scored 4 points on just 6 pitches from a gassed out Morrow and took a 3-run lead, which LA could only tie but not fully overcome in the 9th inning...

finally, in the 10th inning the Dodgers closer Jansen, too tired because of the clearly wrong managing of the pitching staff by mr. Roberts, gave up the winning run to Houston, putting LA in a very deep hole, since on Tuesday in game #6 the Astros will have their superstar pitcher Verlander on the mound and for LA it will be very hard to face him and try to take the WS to the 7th and final game...

[heywoodu 16,465]

Game 5 

[thepharoah 2,413]

Verlander is dominating game 6 till now , he's only allowed 1 hit in 4 innings and made 7 strike outs , Astros leading 1-0 after end of 4th 

[thepharoah 2,413]

Dodgers turned the table and now leading 3-1 at the middle of 8th , we're very close from game 7 

[phelps 8,730]

finally, in game #6 we had a real baseball game, after the crazy shootout of the previous match...

 

Verlander, as expected, dominated the game from the beginning and Houston looked almost ready to start the party, but at the end of the 6th inning a vmarginal mistake of the Astros starter opened the door for the Dodgers' comeback...

 

unfortunately, another series of questionable tactical decisions by the Dodgers' manager Dave Roberts, despite leading to yesterday's win, forced the team to a quite intensive use of the bullpen once again...

 

so, tonight in game #7 (first pitch at 8.10 p.m. NY time, 1.10 a.m. of tomorrow morning CET) LA need a really strong performance by their starter Yu Darvish (heavily beaten in game #3 in Houston) and maybe even a very short rest relief appearance by their superstar Clayton Kershaw, who could enter in the middle innings to help the team's cause like he successfully did in last year's playoff series against Washington...

 

on the other end, McCullers Jr. will be the starter for the Houston Astros..hoping he can take them in the game as long as possible, since their bullpen isn't their strenght as seen so far in the playoffs...

 

however, whoever wins it, this year we had fantastic world series, with a series of record breaking plays which normally people don't see in this stage of the season...

 

I love baseball...

[thepharoah 2,413]

Astros are the world champions for 1st time in History