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Nationals vs. Astros: Live Score from Game 1 of World Series – The New York Times, The New York Times

Nationals vs. Astros: Live Score from Game 1 of World Series – The New York Times, The New York Times


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Juan Soto hit the Nationals’ second solo home run of the night to tie the score in the fourth inning.Astros 2, Nationals 2.

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CreditDavid J. Phillip / Associated Press

On the second pitch of the inning from Gerrit Cole,Sototied the game, 2-2, with a 417 – foot homer to left-center.

Cole proceeded to breeze through the rest of the lineup, as Howie Kendrick flied out to right and Asdrubal Cabrera and Ryan Zimmeran both struck out, but it is a whole new ball game.

The score is still 2-1 Astros, but Max Scherzer’s lack of efficiency is becoming an issue.

After Jose Altuve flied out harmlessly to right, Michael Brantley lined a cutter to right for a single and Alex Bregman struck out on a huge cut at a 95 – mile-per-hour fastball.

Yuli Gurriel proceeded to hit a pop to cen ter that Victor Robles was playing too deep to corral. Robles, a 22 – year-old center fielder, was shaken up on his dive for the ball, but then the game was delayed to determine if Brantley had been physically stopped from attempting to run home by Houston’s third base coach, Gary Pettis. It did appear that there was some illegal contact between Pettis and Brantley, but no call was made.

After play resumed, with runners on second and third with two outs, Carlos Correa struck out to end the inning.

In what should be a troubling differential for Washington, Scherzer is up to 69 pitches through three innings, while Cole is at

Gerrit Cole worked around a two-out single to record a scoreless inning.

He got Victor Robles to pop out to first and Trea Turner to ground out to third, but with two outs Adam Eaton singled on a liner to left that a diving Alex Bregman very nearly snared at third base. Washington’s M.V.P. candidate, Anthony Rendon, then flied out to center to end the mild threat.

Max Scherzer had little trouble getting out of the second even if he is having a hard time keeping his pitches in the strike zone.

Yordan Alvarez drew a leadoff walk ahead of a fly out to right by Martin Maldonado. Houston’s No. 9 hitter, Josh Reddick, managed to get Scherzer to throw six pitches but popped out to Trea Turner in very shallow center field. Scherzer then froze George Springer on a terrific changeup to end the inning.

Ryan Zimmerman, the face of the Nationals essentially since the team arrived in Washington, homered to center on the second pitch he saw in a World Series game, narrowing the Nationals’ deficit to 2-1.

Gerrit Cole had started things off by retiring Howie Kendrick on a grounder to short and then kept Carlos Correa busy by inducing a pop-up from Asdrubal Cabrera that Houston’s shortstop also handled.

Up stepped Zimmerman, who joined the Nationals late in the 2005 season – the year they moved from Montreal. He launched a 96 – mile-per-hour fastball 413 feet for just the second run against Cole this postseason.

Cole was able to recover, inducing a grounder from Kurt Suzuki to – who else? – Correa, to end the inning.

Houston, which came in as a heavy favorite, took a quick 2-0 lead off Washington’s Max Scherzer thanks to Yuli Gurriel’s two-out, two-run double off the wall.

Houston’s leadoff batter, George Springer, drew a seven-pitch walk and on Scherzer’s next pitch, Jose Altuve singled to left. Scherzer pulled off quite a feat in striking out Michael Brantley on three pitches, but he was wild on his third pitch to Alex Bregman and Springer was able to advance to third.

Scherzer finished a strikeout of Bregman on a vicious slider, but with runners on the corners and two outs, Gurriel lined a 1-2 fastball off the wall in left, bringing both runners home.

Carlos Correa struck out to end the inning, but not before Scherzer had spotted Gerrit Cole a 2-0 lead – which is more runs than Cole has allowed so far this postseason.

Gerrit Cole quickly had to deal with a runner in scoring position, but nothing came of the Nationals’ brief threat.

Trea Turner led off the game with a sharp grounder to short that Carlos Correa couldn’t field cleanly, leading to an infield hit. On the next pitch, Turner stole second, just barely beating Martin Maldonado’s throw. Adam Eaton popped out to third on a bunt attempt and Anthony Rendon struck out, bringing up Washington’s powerful youngster, Juan Soto, who struck out swinging on a 99 – mile-per-hour fastball.

Playing in Houston, the Nationals will have a designated hitter for the game, and they went with Howie Kendrick, who won the MVP Award in the N.L.C.S.

1. Trea Turner, SS

2. Adam Eaton, RF

3. Anthony Rendon, 3B

4. Juan Soto, LF

5. Howie Kendrick, DH

6. Asdrubal Cabrera, 2B

7. Ryan Zimmerman, 1B

8. Kurt Suzuki, C

9. Victor Robles, CF

(Astros)

The Astros went with a fairly typical lineup for them, with the only aberration being Martin Maldonado starting at catcher, thought that is typical in games started by Gerrit Cole.

1. George Springer, CF

2. Jose Altuve, 2B

3. Michael Brantley, LF

4. Alex Bregman, 3B

5. Yuli Gurriel, 1B

6. Carlos Correa, SS

7. Yordan Alvarez, DH

8. Martin Maldonado, C

9. Josh Reddick, RF

  • Every game of this series could possibly be a marquee pitching matchup,with both teams boasting three terrific starters. In Game 1, it will be Max Scherzer on the mound for Washington and Gerrit Cole starting for Houston. There is no doubt that Scherzer, with his three Cy Young Awards, is the more accomplished of the two, but if you limit things to this postseason, the Astros appear to have a razor-thin advantage.

    In three starts, Cole has a 0. 40 ERA over 22 ⅔ innings, with 32 strikeouts and eight walks. Opponents have hit. 132 against him and Houston won all three of his starts. Scherzer has started three games and appeared once in relief, putting together a 1. 80 ERA over 20 innings with 27 strikeouts and eight walks. Opponents have hit. 134 against him and the Nationals also won each of his starts. The difference largely boils down to Scherzer having had a rocky first two innings in his wild-card round start against Milwaukee

  • The Nationals have a Most Valuable Player Award candidate in Anthony Rendon and the Astros have one in Alex Bregman, but the best postseason hitter between the two teams has been (Houston’s Jose Altuve) who has a. 349 batting average,. 767 slugging percentage and a postseason-leading five home runs, including a walk-off against the Yankees in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series to send the Astros to the World Series. Rendon has been rolling for Washington, slashing. 375 /. 465 / . 594, but he has just one home run . Bregman has struggled some, with a batting average of. 257, but has made up for that some by leading all postseason batters with 10 walks.

  • The Astros are heavy favorites to win the Series, with the Westgate SuperBook and other oddsmaking agencies starting them out as – 220 favorites. By most measures the Astros are the biggest favorite in the Series since the Boston Red Sox took on (and swept) the Colorado Rockies in 2007, withSportsoddshistory.comreporting that Boston was favored – 240 that season. Houston had been – 165 against the Yankees in the ALCS (which went to six games) and – 300 against Tampa Bay in their division series (which went to a full five games). Washington was an underdog against the Los Angeles Dodgers in their division series but was favored, – 140, in the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals.

  • Much will be made of this being the first World Series in Washington DC since 1933, but the Nationals have no connection to either Senators franchise – not the original American League team that played in Washington from 1901 to 1960 before becoming the Minnesota Twins, nor the expansion team that played in Washington from 1961 to 1971 before becoming the Texas Rangers. Instead, the Nationals get their franchise history from the Montreal Expos, a team that never advanced beyond the N.L.C.S. In 36 years of major league baseball being played in Montreal, the city hosted just five postseason games.

  • Even with interleague play, teams from the American and National Leagues, beyond regional rivals, simply don’t play each other very often. As a result, most World Series matchups are between franchises with relatively little history between them. But the Astros, as a result of their unusual shift from the N.L. to the A.L. in 2013, are the exception to that rule.

    Houston has faced the Expos / Nationals franchise 451 times in the regular season and owns an impressive 244 – 207 record against them. Contrast that to last year matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox: teams that had been around for a combined 253 seasons but had faced each other just 15 times. The record for regular season games between World Series opponents? The Astros and Dodgers, who were once N.L. West rivals, had already faced each other 711 times in the regular season when they met in the 2017 Series.


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