*Photo from the St Joseph News Press*
It was a night of pent up emotion for Los Angeles Dodgers fans, just ready to be released. Boy they did. However, the Houston Astros had the last laugh. Yordan Alvarez homered, Michael Brantley had an RBI double, and the Astros defeated the Dodgers 3-0 on Tuesday night.
It was a raucous night for the Dodger faithful, who were of course the team beaten by the 2017 Astros in the world series. They made their voices heard throughout the night, with loud boos when Astros hitters came to the plate, with even louder "cheater" chants. There were also multiple instances of inflatable trash cans being thrown onto the field, as well as foul balls.
Astros reliever Ryne Stanek said "It was kind of wild. It was maybe the sixth or seventh inning, things got a little bit hectic in the bullpen. People started throwing stuff at Astros fans and stuff and for a few minutes you basically sat there and watched people throw full beers at people for half an inning. It was kind of a bonkers atmosphere to play, for sure."
Brantley got the Astros going in the 3rd inning, ripping a two out double to right field, scoring Martin Maldonado and making it a 1-0 Houston lead. It remained that way until the 8th inning, when Yordan Alvarez cranked a two run homer to center field, increasing the lead to 3-0 and effectively sealing the Houston win.
Lance McCullers Jr got the win in a brilliant start for the Astros, allowing 4 hits and walking 3, adding 9 strikeouts in 6 2/3 shutout innings, improving to 9-2 on the season. Blake Taylor finished off the 7th inning, followed by a scoreless 8th by Kendall Graveman. Stanek then worked the 9th to get his second save of the season.
McCullers said of the Dodger stadium atmosphere that "I enjoy pitching in games like this and environments like this. It’s probably the most fun I've had pitching in quite a long time. Just wanted to go out there and give it a best effort for the guys. We’re trying to win ballgames, trying to stay ahead in our division."
For the Dodgers offense, it was a failure to launch against McCullers and the Astros, despite playing in front of a very, very passionate fan base at Dodger stadium. After all, they didn't play in front of them last season, and there was still fireworks between the teams. But, they ultimately couldn't get anything going this time around.
Walker Buehler fell to 11-2 on the season by taking a loss, allowing one run on 5 hits and 3 walks, with 5 punchouts in 6 innings pitched. Blake Treinen, Victor Gonzalez, and Brusdar Graterol all pitched in relief, with Gonzalez responsible for the Alvarez homer.
Buehler said of the loss that "It’s a playoff game in terms of how it feels and sounds out there. It’s a big game for us, obviously there’s a lot of emotion in that clubhouse. But we need to play good baseball to win games and I didn’t put us in a position to go and do that, so it was disappointing for me, to say the least."
The Dodgers and Astros play again tonight, with Jake Odorizzi receiving the start for Houston, and new acquisition Max Scherzer making his Dodgers debut.
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