*Photo from the Everett Herald*
Houston leads series 3-2
Carlos Correa? Who needs him when you've got Jeremy Pena? Pena homered and drove in two runs, Justin Verlander got the win, and the Houston Astros defeated the Philadelphia Phillies with a 3-2 victory on Thursday night in Philadelphia.
Trailing the series 2-1 and with the Phillies unbeaten at home entering game 4, the Astros simply shrugged it off and have now won two straight games, taking a 3-2 series lead and are now one win away from winning the World Series. Pena was a big reason why once again with his two RBI game, and a slick catch to take away a hit from Castellanos in the early stages.
Another reason the Astros were able to stay ahead late was a couple of big defensive plays. In the 8th, Trey Mancini ended the inning with a pick on a Kyle Schwarber line drive at first, smothering the ball in front of first base and touching it to end the inning. Chas McCormick then took away an extra base hit from JT Realmuto in the 9th inning with a jumping catch at the wall to get the second out.
McCormick said of his catch that "Honestly, I thought he hit it out. At that point, I was going to be really aggressive. I was going to run through a wall and catch it no matter what. Earlier in the game, I wasn’t as aggressive, so I made sure to get the ball as much as possible."
It was Pena who got the scoring started right away, lacing an RBI single in the first inning to give the Astros a 1-0 lead. Schwarber instantly tied it in the bottom half with a leadoff solo homer to make it a 1-1 game. In the 4th inning, Pena showed up again, hitting a solo homer that just cleared the left field wall to give the Astros a 2-1 lead.
The game then went scoreless for a bit, with scoring not picking up again until the 8th inning. Jose Altuve crossed home plate on a groundout from Yordan Alvarez to make the Astros lead 3-1. Jean Segura hit an RBI single in the bottom of the inning to cut the deficit to 3-2, but the Astros held on from there.
Pena said he knew he hit his homer "When the umpire signaled home run. I hit it, you know, and it felt good off the bat, but I didn't know if it was enough. And I was running normal and then when the umpire signaled, that's when I started jogging."
Verlander got his first World Series win of his career, allowing one run while striking out 6 hitters in 5 innings pitched. Hector Neris got two outs in the 6th before Bryan Abreu got the next 4 outs. Rafael Montero got one out in the 8th before Ryan Pressly got the final 5 outs for the save, his 5th of the year.
Noah Syndergaard started for the Phillies, allowing two runs after failing to record an out in the 4th inning. Connor Brogdon pitched the next two innings, followed by one inning each from Jose Alvarado, Seranthony Dominguez, David Robertson, and Zach Eflin.
Schwarber said of the Phillies trying to bounce back that "We’ve got a pretty good pitcher going for us in Game 6. We’ve got to be able to bounce back offensively. I don’t think anyone believes more in this group than we do. That’s going to be a big thing for us. We’ve just got to be able to play all the outs. We’re going to see where it takes us."
After a day off on Friday, the series gets back in action on Saturday night as it shifts to Houston for at least a game 6. Framber Valdez starts for the Astros as they look to secure a championship, while Zack Wheeler goes for the Phillies as they try to even the series and force a deciding game 7.
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