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Home / Sports News / Game three of an epic World Series moves on to Minute Maid Park in Houston tonight, with the Astros and Dodgers

Game three of an epic World Series moves on to Minute Maid Park in Houston tonight, with the Astros and Dodgers

Houston sends Lance McCullough to the mound, Los Angeles counters with Yu Darvish

Commentary by Arnie Leshin

By ARNIE LESHIN, Santa Fe Today

Like a fighter on the ropes and about to go down, not out, but down enough to concern the baseball franchise that has played forever in Houston to see the light.

Not the lights at Dodger Stadium, but the ones going out on a Major League franchise that has never, ever brought a World Series championship to the largest city in the Lone Star state.

Now the eyes of Texas saw the Astros, born 55 years ago as the Colt 45s, down to its last out, an 0-2 count on Marwin Gonzalez with the best reliever in baseball, Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Kenley Jansen, staring down on him, and the Astros down 3-2 in the last of the ninth.

Back in Houston, the faithful fans in the only city that this franchise has ever called home, than watched as Gonzalez lined a fast ball into the stands in left field. The capacity crowd in Chavez Ravine was stunned, the Houston dugout erupted, and you can picture its fans watching on television jumping up and down, high-fiving one another.

Now its 3-3 as Jansen stroked his beard and went about retiring the next batter. It stayed that way into the top of the 10th with Jansen still on the

mound. He was greeted by lead-off batter Jose Altuve hitting the first pitch, a low heater, into the seats in left. Next up, Carlos Correra belted a 1-1 slider into the seats in center field.

Now it was 5-3 when the National League champion, the team with the best record in the majors, tied it in the bottom of the frame.

Ysilel Puig turned on the first pitch from reliever Ken Giles and clouted a rocket liner that quickly found the seats in left to cut the gap to 5-4. With two out Giles walked a batter with two out, and a wild pitch sent him to second, scoring on a single to right off the bat of Enrique Hernandez.

In came Chris Devenski to get the third out.

And with Jensen no longer on the hill, Cameron Maybin, who entered the game in the ninth inning to play centerfield, singled up the middle off of Brandon McCarthy, stole second, and up came George Springer to hit a home run into the right field seats as the Astros whooped it up again in their dugout.

But it wasn’t over yet. Trailing 7-5, Charlie Colberson hit a two-out shot into the seats in left. That left Devenski to face Puig. It went to 12 pitches when on a 3-2 count, Puig swung and missed at a low slider it was all over, it was all even in games, and now overjoyed, rejuvenated Houston was heading home to Minute Maid Park with the best home record in the majors.

It was a classic that wound up 7-6. Back-and-forth they went in nearly four hours at temperatures around 100 degrees for the second straight night.

Down but not out brought the Astros their first-ever World Series win. They had been there one other time, in 2005 when they were in the National League and swept by the Chicago White Sox.

Tonight, the Dodgers send Yu Darvish to the hill, the Astros go with Lance McCullough. There, the retractable roof had not been opened since June 8. Houston is 6-0 in the postseason and outscored the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, 31-7. On the road it went 2-5, so it will be a welcome sight to be back at home sweet home.

Coming alive with four home runs, the same as Los Angeles, in the last three innings, puts them in the comfort zone. The bats of the best hitting team in the majors came to live at just the right time.

If it had been down 2-0 in games, it would have put the Dodgers in the better situation. But who knows, Los Angeles, whose last World Series was in 1988 when they won it all, have traveled well this season, it is capable of bouncing back from the game that got away.

Game one went only two hours and 18 minutes. Game two appeared to go on forever. Batter up, game three.

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