2017 World Series: Game 1 live blog

It’s Game 1 of the 2017 World Series! Sports Illustrated predicted the Astros would be here before A.J. Hinch, before Carlos Correa, before Alex Bregman, before Justin Verlander and before most people knew who Jeff Luhnow was!

Now, the Astros are on the national stage in the biggest baseball series of the season.

Sound off about the game, in real time, by the pitch, by the hit, by the play.

ASTROS LINEUP.

1. George Springer, CF
2. Alex Bregman, 3B
3. Jose Altuve, 2B
4. Carlos Correa, SS
5. Yuli Gurriel, 1B
6. Brian McCann, C
7. Marwin Gonzalez, LF
8. Josh Reddick, RF
9. Dallas Keuchel, P

DODGERS LINEUP

1. Chris Taylor, CF
2. Justin Turner 3B
3. Cody Bellinger, 1B
4. Yasiel Puig, RF
5. Enrique Hernandez, LF
6. Corey Seager, SS
7. Logan Forsythe, 2B
8. Austin Barnes, C
9. Clayton Kershaw, P

UMPIRES.

HP: Phil Cuzzi. 1B: Paul Nauert. 2B: Gerry Davis. 3B: Laz Diaz. LF: Bill Miller. RF: Dan Iassonga.

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117 responses to “2017 World Series: Game 1 live blog”

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  1. Small victories here… Devo looked as good as he has in over a month. Completely dominated the bottom of the 8th. Tall task here against Jansen.

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  8. I still like our chances. We’ve got to get Verlander some run support tomorrow. It’s not like they just tore the cover off the ball tonight. Stinks to be down 1-0 but tomorrow is another day. Still the greates time of the year and our Astros are still playing baseball!

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  9. Springer really does need to be moved to 6th or 7th. For the good of the team and also to take some of the pressure off him.
    Can’t keep on starting the game with an out every day. Especially in a NL Park where you only have eight hitters.

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  10. That didn’t go as I hoped. This team has gotten up off of the mat many times this season, so I’m hoping they do it again tomorrow night.
    Keuchel threw two of the same pitch to the top two of their order tonight and that was that. But, if you get Taylor out instead of walking him, Turner doesn’t hit a two-run homer.

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  11. We ain’t going to win squat if we don’t put the ball in play. George are you listening? It look like everybody or almost everybody is trying to pull the ball. Guys relax, go with the pitch and lets get some run support for JV tomorrow. I couldn’t hear the announcers tonight. Were they as bad as they were for the ALCS?

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  13. On the postgame show they talked about George at length, each taking turns making points about struggles at the plate, looking lost, guessing, swinging for the fences, etc even suggested he be moved up in the lineup. But they also said Kershaw was a problem for the tm in general, that they need to give JV run support tomorrow. While this tm has been resilient of late by coming back from adversity, this is not the same 1st half, ‘confident’ free swinging club we saw back then. If so we would not be having these conversations. When I saw the 1st inning lineups for each club with the BA’s my stomach turned a few knots. As desperately as I want our hitting tm to show up minus the leaky bp for the world to see, we know these guys will have to grind out wins from here on out, they’ve already proven they can do that too. If they get their mojo back so much the better. It is still theirs to win or lose

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  14. Keuchel pitched a good game. He’s just not consistently as effective as he once was. He’s a bit more prone to a mistake, and hitters are a bit better at recognizing his mistakes. But he was forced to match the other guy and again got almost no help from his offense. A win tomorrow and all is well again, but one run won’t do it, I don’t think anyway.

    And thanks everyone for ditching me with this live blog thing tonight. I’m posting over there and wondering where the heck everyone went. Ha ha ha. You guys jinxed us!

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  15. dave, is it that Keuchel isn’t his old self or that he faced a great team tonight on the road. If the score had been reversed everyone would be saying this isn’t the old Kershaw, instead of giving credit to the Astros.
    I’d rather wait and see how this series ends up before I go and place any blame on anyone. I think Keuchel pitched well, but that wasn’t the Astros 2017 offense out there tonight, especially with all the Ks.

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    • I think it’s a bit of both 1OP. Keuchel also had a somewhat less than Keuchel outing in NY, where he had never run into problems before. You pointed out his two out walk that led to the homer last night. Then the homer pitch was up. Those are two things that we typically do not see from our lefty. But I place no blame on him. I’ll say it again. He pitched a good game and was given no room for error by an overmatched offense. And I still think the live blog jinxed us. It’s all on Chip.

      And what about Keuchel having to “warm up” in the sauna? What kind of home park advantage can we create for ourselves? Maybe turn the AC down to 48?

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    • Let me add quickly that the strike zone was not consistent but had no outcome on the game. One team gave up 6 hits, 2 walks and no errors. The other team gave up 3 hits, 0 walks, and no errors. A good clean game that was determined by the players. Wish we had won, but it was not to be.

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  17. Kershaw’s performance may be the most impressive World Series pitching performance I have ever seen. No team was going to beat him last night. He had the movement. He had all his pitches working to perfection. He had the umpire in his back pocket. He had us guessing -and guessing wrong – all night. We should consider ourselves lucky we did not get no-hit.

    On to game 2. JV, sorry, but we have no choice but to ask you to match Kershaw’s performance.

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  18. An observation: against the Dodgers, late-inning comebacks are not in the cards. That means we need first inning rallies. And that means the series rides, in significant degree, on the top of our order. George, now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.

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  19. Whoa Nellie! Keuchel didn’t pitch a good game, he pitched a great game! I don’t count the opening pitch as a mistake. 99 times out of 100, a pitcher tries to throw a first-pitch, fastball strike to open a game.

    He had one walk and six hits and, in my estimation, pitched brilliantly. He had absolutely NO support at the plate and that affected his approach and psyche as much as the heat or anything else. He likely realized early on he would need to be perfect, and you just can’t be perfect against a team like the Dodgers.

    Face it. The Dodgers aren’t the Red Sox. They aren’t the Yankees. This is a great ball club and the Astros are going to have to hit to make this a series.

    Don’t get me wrong, the Astros are a great team too, but they didn’t look like it at the plate.

    Verlander can change the “balance” tonight. But Hinch may need to modify his lineup. And the rest of the lineup (read: Altuve, Correa, Gurriel et al) need to pick up this group.

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    • Chip, I’ll amend my description of Keuchel’s performance to very good. But I don’t think he would consider it one of his great performances. He was shaky early before he found his grove. He was really helped out by those three slick double plays. He did give up a couple of inopportune walks. And he did give up two long balls. But he did keep one of the two best teams in baseball in check. We all agree. We have to hit to win this thing. Which beings me to shaking up the line up and moving Springer down. It might be beneficial, but I don’t think they do it.

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      • daveb, I think we’re saying very similar things. In a “normal” Astros’ game this season, he wins handily with the way he pitched last night. Against a “normal” team, his performance would have been top notch and he likely would have pitched a CG. As it was, Hinch knew Keuchel couldn’t afford one more slip, so he pulled him at 80-something pitches.

        The Dodgers are good, have more weapons than most and can execute every facet of the game.

        To echo your thought: It’s pretty simple. If the Astros hit, they win. If they don’t hit, it could be a short series.

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  21. OK – we lost to a team that pitched a little better and hit a little better. But if we win tonight we steal the home field advantage. I expect JV to be strong tonight and I expect our lineup to dawdle around with a lefty going on the hill, though Hill may look a lot easier to hit after Kershaw.
    I hear a lot of arguments about whether moving Springer in the lineup is a panic move. I think taking him out of the lineup would be a panic move. I mean what is the worst that happens if you move him in the lineup? He doesn’t hit? He has barely hit in the post-season as is.
    Well, I’m guessing they leave him in the leadoff, just like they have all year. I’ve never been hot about that to begin with, but they have had a great offensive year that way. He just needs to stop pressing. You can’t hit a 700 ft home run – go for something slightly easier like a 200 ft single to center or right.

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    • Dan, I agree Hinch leaves Springer in the leadoff spot. If he was going to make a change, I’m guessing he would have made that move between series. But Springer has not been himself for a few months now. It’s just that Bregman/Altuve/Correa and now Gurriel have been there to pick him up and that didn’t happen last night.

      This is a different series than the last two. The Red Sox and Yankees had holes in the game. It’s hard to find that hole with the Dodgers and it quickly diminishes the opportunities for the Astros.

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    • Because you just told them our secret. The West Wing of the Dodger’s front office has been monitoring our blog for at least three weeks.
      Last night I watched most of the game live and had on my Astros’ stuff. Tonight, I will not be doing the same things.

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    • Springer has two sac bunts in his career – both in 2015. I believe it happened when he returned from the broken bone and could barely swing. I’ve never seen him try to drop one down for a hit that I can recall.

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      • Which just adds to the element of surprise. 🙂

        But seriously, since George hasn’t exactly had a ton of luck lately swinging for the fences a la Carlos Gomez, I figure we don’t really have a whole lot to lose.

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  23. I was watching that baseball classic Bad News Bears recently and I think I have a solution for the Springer situation. Just get A.J. Hinch to sidle up to Springer like Walter Matthau did to Rudi Stein and convince him to lean in and get hit by the pitch, since it is obvious he can’t hit it…..

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  24. Can’t blame the pitching anymore. But the offense that carried this team the first half of the year has gone on vacation.
    If Springer, Reddick, Altuve, & Correa don’t pick up the offense we will be talking about next year very soon.
    It’s taking me back to 1998 when Kevin Brown shut down our offense
    The 98 team and this team have followed similar paths. If my memory is correct that team’s offense struggled toward the end of the year as well.

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    • Yes this team’s offense has struggled but remember the ’98 team was one and done – while this team had made it through two tough teams to get here. That alone gives me hope.

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      • True Dan. I guess I’d forgotten how quick that 98 series was over. This ‘17 team has already won 7 post season games.
        The offense is just such a mystery.

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  25. Ok…..they’ve seen Kershaw, and the Dodgers don’t have another Kershaw.
    Rich Hill CAN be beat, so no more excuses or they limp home behind 2 games.
    These guys have beat Darvish as well. It was painful to see our guys keep striking out like that. I don’t pray for a win I pray they play their best baseball. They need to win tonight’s game….PERIOD.
    How’d you like the umpiring? Told you they were the worst.
    P.S. Chip I’m impressed with the new format!

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  26. I feel good about tonight. Did not realize though, that Hill is remarkably good against righties. That needs to change tonight. But with a .408 OBP and an .845 OPS against lefties, Reddick and McCann need to come up with some offense. Heck, I wouldn’t mind seeing Marwin go from the left side tonight. I feel pretty good though. And Hill has only thrown 9 post season innings since his last regular season start on September 27. So he’s rested, but maybe too rested. And hopefully Verlander will be doing his warming up under the stands somewhere instead of out there in the glaring sauna that is the visiting bullpen.

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