Move over Kershaw and Verlander, Alex Wood and Charlie Morton are taking over the World Series. If the final score of game four were to just pop up in a notification on your phone, you probably wouldn’t believe the pitching battle we witnessed on Saturday night. With both team’s number four starters taking the mound, the baseball world was left thinking that the first team to push a run across the plate would take the game.
Between the two teams we only saw two hits through five innings, one of which was a lead off single from Chris Taylor to start the game. Both Wood and Morton continued to deal as we entered the bottom of the sixth with a scoreless ballgame. In fact, Wood had a no hitter through 5 ⅔ IP. George Springer would change that.
With two outs in the fifth, Springer made great contact on a 3-1 Alex Wood offering and put the ball into the Crawford boxes to not only break up the no hitter, but end the 0-0 tie as well. Wood released the ball and dropped to a knee as soon as contact was made and at that moment it felt like that was all it would take for the hometown fans to see their Astros take a commanding 3-1 lead.
However, the Dodgers didn’t let the hometown crowd stay too high for too long as Cody Bellinger laced a double and eventually came around to tie the game when Logan Forsythe singled him home in the top of the 7th. That would be the lone run charged to Morton in his 6 ⅓ innings. Wood also allowed just one run, as well as one hit, in his outing.
The 1-1 tie stayed intact until the top of the ninth when the Dodgers blew the game wide open. After a Corey Seager single and a Justin Turner walk, Bellinger’s second double of the night would give the Dodgers a one run advantage. Joe Musgrove entered the game and at first it looked like he would do a good job of limiting the damage. He would allow a run on a sac fly, but found himself just one out away from giving the Astros a fighting chance with a two run deficit in the bottom of the ninth.
Musgrove was just two strikes away from ending the top half of the ninth before one swing from Joc Pederson changed everyone’s game four fate. Pederson sent a line drive to right center that got out of the ballpark in a hurry. After the Dodgers DH cleared the bases, the NL champs had a 6-1 lead, something no one who watched the first eight innings would ever see coming.
Alex Bregman, who had a solid game in the field, went yard in the bottom of the ninth, but that was about the extent of the Houston comeback as Kenley Jansen shutdown the Astros outside of that one dinger.
Houston’s postseason home win streak came to an end on Saturday night as the bats were stifled by the opposing pitching. The AL champs were looking to go up 3-1 in the series, but they managed just two hits, which both happened to be solo homers, and it would not be enough against the hard hitting Dodgers.
This competitive and entertaining series will continue on Sunday night with the winner taking a convincing 3-2 series lead. The aces will be back as Clayton Kershaw squares off with Dallas Keuchel.
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