*Photo from Sportsnaut*
Houston leads series 3-2
What a turnaround for the Houston Astros. Gerrit Cole dominated, Yordan Alvarez homered, and the Astros powered by the Washington Nationals by a 7-1 score to take the lead in the world series. After being down 2-0 heading into Washington, the Astros now have the stranglehold on the world series as they head home. The road team has never won every game of the world series, but that is the only hope left for the Nationals if they want to win. Houston, who was outscored 17-7 at home at the start of the series, has outscored Washington 19-3 at Nationals park.
In the second inning, Alvarez took a 2-1 pitch and hammered it to center field to make it 2-0 Astros on the two run homer. In the 4th, Carlos Correa cranked a two run shot to left to make it 4-0 Houston. In the 7th, Juan Soto got Washington on the board with a solo homer to left center field to make it 4-1. In the 8th, Yuli Gurriel hit an RBI single to make it 5-1 Houston. In the 9th, George Springer hit a two run homer to make it 7-1 Houston.
Cole went 7 innings for Houston, giving up one run on 3 hits and two walks. He struck out 9 in a bounce back effort after a subpar game one start. Joe Smith and Ryan Pressly finished the game in relief of Cole. Manager AJ Hinch said of the team's performance the last 3 games that ''We look like ourselves now." Hinch said of Cole's performance that ''He knew what this game meant to this Series, so, nobody better to have on the mound.'' Cole said of his performance that he just had a ''High level of confidence." Alvarez said through a translator that ''Obviously we did the job here, which was to win three games. And very happy to go back to Houston and to do my job to hit as a DH."
Emergency starter Joe Ross gave Washington 5 innings, giving up 4 runs on 5 hits and two walks. He had to start after Max Scherzer was scratched with neck and back spasms. When Ross took the field to warm up, he received a loud ovation from the Washington crowd, as they understood the position he was put in. Manager Dave Martinez said of his team's struggles that ''We actually hit some balls hard. We really did, we just can't get nothing going these last three days.'' Adam Eaton said that ''They came to support us and really gave us everything they had all the way to the end, all 27 innings. Hats off to them. We apologize that we didn't give them more to celebrate, it wasn't that we didn't try.''
Game 6 is in Houston on Tuesday night, where Stephen Strasburg gets the start for Washington, as they get set up to fight for their lives in front of a rowdy Houston crowd. Justin Verlander starts for Houston as he looks to secure Houston's second world series title in 3 years.
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