The Los Angeles Dodgers are leading the World Series against the Houston Astros 1-0. For Game 2 (Thursday, 2pm in LIVESTREAM on SPOX and DAZN) all Texas hopes for an away win in Justin Verlander, who has been pitching irresistibly well since his arrival in Houston. Does the Astros manage to equalize, or can the Dodgers gain a comfortable advantage? The first four games of the World Series 2017 are available in LIVESTREAM FOR FREE at SPOX and all games of the World Series live on DAZN!
All of Houston wants another gala performance by Justin Verlander. In the World Series, it is said to provide the necessary momentum changer, as the Astros are lagging behind thanks to a strong performance by Clayton Kershaw in the first game (7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 11 K, 0 BB).
Verlander, who was traded by the Tigers just seconds before the trade deadline at the end of August for just such situations, is under enormous pressure:”The mental component is a completely independent aspect in baseball,”Verlander said on Tuesday evening.
Verlander didn’t show that he can handle pressure until last week when he scored a 3-3 equaliser against the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series. Together with his Complete Game in the second ALCS duel, he was justifiably named MVP of the series.
It’s so easy to play when Verlander comes into his rhythm and gets such strong performances,”said the 34-year-old, saying,” Why don’t you do it in every game?”and emphasized,” The fact is that you just can’t go through this level over the long regular season. If you were so extremely focused, you’d get a burnout someday.”
But that’s exactly what big players are good at: they try to “roam their way in”over the regular season and then reach the peak of their performance in October baseball. In four outings in this year’s postseason, Verlander is on a 4-0 record and has beaten an ERA of 1.46 over 24 2/3 innings,”he is probably our best player over the past two months,”says Astros manager A. J. I’d like to know the importance of his aces.
Considering that Houston is sending the spearhead of their rotation into the race, a victory in Game 2 is a must-have, so to speak,”said Hinch on Tuesday, adding with complete conviction:” We were going to sweep the World Series, but unfortunately that’s no longer possible “.
It is also clear that Verlander alone will not win the game, but will also need the support of his Hitters. All in all, the Astros only made it to base three times in Game 1, had to accept twelve strikeouts and couldn’t force a single walk.
“They are a strong hitting team that hit a lot of home runs and only allow a few strikeouts,” said Dodgers star Kershaw after the game,”so it was very important for me to be able to throw a lot of different pitches.
44 of his 83 pitches were nasty Breaking Balls, which caused some problems for the Astros-Offense:”Sometimes you can just take your hat off for the performance of a Pitchers, that was the case today,”said Astros-Star-Hitter Jose Altuve.
Verlander’s counterpart in Game 2 is Rich Hill, sent to the Mound by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts,”I’m going to attack these guys right from the start,”Hill says with a battleground for the start. Compared to superstar Kershaw, Hill is certainly weaker, but in his two previous playoff starts, he only allowed the opponent’s hitters an average of. 188.
To get it to swing, you have to pitch aggressively,”says Hill,”and try to follow Kershaw’s tactics:”You have to trust your best pitch, and if that’s a breaking ball, then so be it.”
Alex Bregman, who scored the only score for Houston with his fourth inning home run in the fourth inning, tries to calm down:”They had a very good pitcher, but we still have the best offense in baseball.”
The Astros scored 896 runs in the regular season, which was the highest number of 896 runners in the regular season – compared to only 770 runs (12th place). in the MLB). But L. A. plays in an impressive form: a playoff balance of 8-1 with a run ratio of 51:20 speaks for itself.
The problem with the Astros-Offense is that it just can’t get going, especially in foreign countries. In the last four away games, the stars scored just six runs, four of them in Game 4 against the Yankees,”they had two good swings, we had one,”Hinch’s sober analysis says,”A walk in front of one of their hits was 3-1, that’s all. Let’s go to Game 2.”
The Dodgers have dominated on the other side at home recently: The Blue Crew, led by the strong Hitters Justin Turner and Chris Taylor, is in the playoffs at home games 5-0. With the right to a home away from home, which is due to the better balance in the regular season near Los Angeles, the Astros have to kidnap a game from the Dodger Stadium if they want to win the first World Series of club history.
It would be premature to speak of another Astros defeat as a preliminary decision, but in the history of the World Series, teams that lost the first two games only made a comeback eleven times in 54 attempts. Most recently, the New York Yankees succeeded in doing so in 1996 against the Atlanta Braves.
There is a lot to be done by the Astros to prevent such a situation. Everything is set up for the next big Verlander show.
This article was published without prior view by the Major League Baseball.