The World Series finally showed up back in Washington, 86 years later—and, sparked by Jose Altuve, the Houston Astros finally showed up in this World Series. Altuve doubled twice and scored both times, Zack Greinke repeatedly worked out of trouble, and the Astros made sure they wouldn't go quietly, despite looking listless while falling into a big hole at home, beating the Nationals 4-1 on Friday night to cut their deficit to 2-1 in the best-of-seven Fall Classic, the AP reports. Washington's eight-game winning streak, tied for the longest in a single postseason, ended with a sloppy performance in the first Series game hosted by the nation's capital since the Senators lost to the New York Giants in 1933. Still, a sellout crowd of nearly 44,000 soaked it all in, even getting to do its "Baby Shark" sing-and-clap-along when that tune blared as a walk-up song in the sixth.
The wild-card Nationals were unable to move one win from a championship, undone by an inability to come through in the clutch: Birthday boy Juan Soto, MVP candidate Anthony Rendon, and Co. were 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position, leaving 12 runners on base. How big was this win for Houston? No team ever has come back after dropping the first three games of a World Series. Maybe that's why several Astros players gathered for a private meeting following their 12-3 loss in Game 2 on Wednesday; whatever was said apparently worked. As for the Nationals, they made two errors and at least three other misplays on what were ruled hits. They allowed the aggressive Astros to steal four bases, two by George Springer. Houston can even things up in Game 4 on Saturday night at Nationals Park.
(More
World Series stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
