2017 World Series: Game 2 live blog

Major League Baseball is exploring ways to shorten games.

Clone Clayton Kershaw and Dallas Keuchel. Game 1 was an old-fashioned pitching duel. If it had been played in the ’70s or ’80s, both Kershaw and Keuchel would likely have pitched complete games.

You probably won’t see a shorter World Series game. Ever. Again. 2:28. In fact, when is the last time you’ve seen a baseball game — any baseball game — finish in under two and a half hours?

If we learned anything in Game 1, we found out that the Dodgers and the Astros are the two best teams in baseball. Clearly.

Tonight, Justin Verlander will help determine destiny for the Astros. He’s only 9-0 when wearing his Astros’ uniform and has run the gamut in performance from bulldog-to-dominant. It’s a pivotal game and the team has climbed on his shoulders.

Someone, though, needs to help spread the responsibility for destiny. Jose Altuve? George Springer? Carlos Correa? Yuli Gurriel?

Join in the conversation. It’s sort of a Gameday Free Blog. The only rules are to keep it clean, informative and respect the commentary of others.

 

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183 responses to “2017 World Series: Game 2 live blog”

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  3. The announcers were assuring the audience that this does not mean the Dodgers are going to lose.
    Man I would like to punch Joe right in his Buck

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  6. Giles gives me a heart attack but gets out of it – I think Josh Fields is entering the game.
    The announcers sounded like someone stole Christmas

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  13. I am so proud of these guys for picking up Verlander. I want more than a two run cushion. Got to get Yuli home.

    The FOX guys sound almost chagrined.

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  23. Ok, at this point, we’ve got a stronger pen than them. This is a game for the ages, regardless of how it turns out. Let’s survive it and go home tied.

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  35. Most remarkable game in club history. If nothing else does, I hope this game convinces a few folks not to give up on our team. We outhit them 14 to 5 in their place. The Dodgers will try to get as many innings possible out of their staters for the balance of this World Series. We’ve changed the entire complexion of how Roberts will run his pitching staff the rest of the way. Their pen has not come across a hitting club like ours when we’re functioning. And we’ll hit Jansen again too.

    Not sure who closes for us, but it will be several guys. Devenski did not fool anyone. I think Giles is hurt. He sucked again tonight, but he also helped get us into the Post Season, so I’m not going to dog him or anyone else. Regardless of what happens now, it’s offiicallly been a successful season, from players to the manager to the GM. And I think we’ve got a hell of a chance now to win it all.

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  37. Now that I have settled down, I MUST take a shot at Hinch. This game was just like the 4-1 lead in New York. There are times that you need THAT GAME. There is no reason to have LMJ AND McHugh on the roster and not use them to win a game. YEAH YEAH it takes them longer to warm up and all of that. But when your pen is sketchy, then use what you have to close it out. Now if it were in the 4 or 5th and tied, no. But Hinch could have put this game in the win column an inning earlier. But we won, and I can now sit down. Great game and the bats FINALLY came through.

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      • I agree with you. Other than Game 2 against Boston every run Giles has given up has been in his 2nd inning of work. Look what happened to Kimbrel and Jansen, the 2 best closers in the game, in their 2nd inning of work (Kimbrel in Game 4 against Houston). I had no issue with how Hinch managed the game. Giles is still one of your best, if not the best, reliever on this team and he showed it the entire season (he is up for reliever of the year with Kimbrel and Jansen). If I was going to take issue with any move Hinch made it would be letting Gattis PH when he didn’t represent the tying run. He is your best power hitter and after that DP I would have saved Gattis for another situation. Otherwise, I think Hinch did exactly as I would have done and most managers would have done.

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      • I thought Smoltz had a great point last night – if you want your closer to work more than 3 outs then you should probably do it a few times during the regular season.

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  38. Okay, so . . . maybe . . .

    Maybe rumors of our team’s untimely demise are greatly exaggerated.

    Maybe first inning rallies are over-rated.

    Maybe the Dodger bullpen is fallible after all.

    Maybe the Astros bats are not filled with styro-foam.

    Maybe George Springer can contribute to the offense without resorting to the lead-off push bunt.

    Maybe bat flips, tongue-sticks, and other ‘in-your-face’ home run celebrations need to be reserved for actual walk-off blasts.

    Maybe Ken Giles and Kenley Jansen need to go out for a beer together – with Brad Lidge.

    Maybe that drunk Dodger fan just thought he was taking a shortcut to the restroom.

    Maybe the monkey of having an MLB franchise without a single World Series win just got body-slammed all over the stinking L.A. skyline.

    Maybe the whole world will soon be saying ‘Houston Strong’ instead of ‘Houston, we have a problem’.

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  39. I’ll point out, among other things, that the Astros have two quality starts. Just saying.

    I can’t fault Hinch for going/staying with Giles. I do realize you have to win this game, but my guess is that McCullers is tandemed with McHugh for Friday night. Morton is slated for Saturday, Peacock pitched last night. Gregerson? No. Liriano? No.

    The six-out save (Jansen), six-out win (Giles) is not the norm and that situation forced the hand of both Roberts and Hinch. You dance with who brung you and, throughout the season, Giles has brought the butter home.

    Hinch is growing up fast over the past few weeks. First, he had to mend or play with a broken team, then he had to face two of the most storied franchises (Boston/NY). Now, he faces the best team in baseball (record-wise) and a national media.

    The problem in this series so far is that the team has not hit, until late last night. Hopefully, that monkey is off their back and it will be more business as usual going forward.

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    • Chip, I turned the game off when Giles allowed the tie, disappointed that when I woke up at 4am I would see an Astro loss. BOY was I wrong! Then I realized these things, its the WS, the two best MLB tms are playing in it, the pitching is tight, the batting timely (not explosive until last night) and the Astros won the darn game. It’s a game of INCHES for both sides and our guys proved they are in it to win it. Oh and I’ll tone down my complaints knowing the Astros are just as good as the Dodgers, if not better

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  41. Okay, I just have one question: Whatever happened to hitting a single, stealing second base, bunting the guy over, then getting him home with a sac fly? Huh? Didn’t there used to be a name for that? Small ball or something? Weren’t the Astros once famous for that?

    When did they become a power team?

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  42. Last night’s game is the way I see the Astros winning the series. The Dodgers won games like that all year long, as did the Astros.
    Everyone knew our bullpen wasn’t perfect and the Dodgers would score some runs off of it.
    But the Dodgers’ bullpen isn’t perfect either, much to the surprise of the majority of the baseball world.
    Just as Hinch won’t move Springer from the leadoff spot, he is not going to remove Giles from the closer’s role. Giles is the Astros closer!
    What needs to happen is for Harris and Gregerson and Musgrove, Devenski and Peacock to sneak in there and give us a good inning and allow the Astros hitters to do their thing at home.
    One thing I noticed from last night is Puig saying that they don’t have to face the Astros good starters in the next two games. That is a quote I would put on the bulletin board by LMJ’s locker.

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    • Not sure I fully agree on Giles. I think he’ll at least be used somewhat differently. And depending on who is coming up in the Dodgers order, we might see a different match up. Harris looked very composed last night. I want to see him more. And as I noted last night, if Giles can’t bring the heat at 100 in that kind of a setting, there might be something wrong.

      I’m looking forward to the breaking balls Morton and McCullers will be offering to Puig.

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  44. The Astros are leaving intriguing waves in their wakes (read: sarcasm). First, the beat the Red Sox, then Boston fires its manager John Farrell. Now, the Astros beat the Yankees and New York first ITS manager Joe Girardi.

    THEN, the Red Sox hire an Astros’ coach (Alex Cora) to become their new manager. Will the trend continue? Of course, I don’t think Dave Roberts is going anywhere. Right?

    And, what other former or current Astro could the Yankees hire?

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  45. I think most important thing is no one on this blog has ever given up on this team , we vent our sadness , call out guys out of frustration, as a stress reliever, example Springer and Margo and it worked (-: . I think it was my 68 Al Kaline jersey, one classic WS Game.

    Giles needs to learn another pitch cutter something , everyone can hit his fastball, and he rarely , I mean rarely, has a clean dominate 1-2-3 inning.
    I hope he can do better than what he has done so far in the last 2 series.

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  47. I did not realize this: Last night was the first time there have been five home runs hit in extra innings of any one game in MLB history.
    Not just postseason history, but in all of baseball history.

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  48. The Dodgers got a total of 11 hits in two games at home.
    The Astros didn’t just score a run off of Jansen. They scored six runs off the Dodgers bullpen on the Dodgers home field.
    I don’t expect LA to fold. I expect the Astros will have to play better than they have so far, to win this series.
    Is it possible for Chris Taylor’s hat to win a Gold Glove?
    Keuchel will be the first to tell you he did not deserve to win a GG this season.
    Saw 4 seats advertised today for $11,299 each for game 3. Two were on the Astros side and two on the Yankees side. Each more than 30 rows back in the field boxes.

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  49. OP – Those kind of costs for tickets is why I always fear we will have a much more subdued “corporate” attendance at the WS games. Hope it is not true – I guess we will see. Anyone know if the roof stays on or rolls off? Can someone go over there and short out the motor that drives the roof?

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    • What happens Dan is that some season ticket holders, those that are not corporate entities, have a hard time not rationalizing selling a couple of games to pay for all of their regular season next year. The worst part of that is the buyers tend to be out of town agencies supplying out of town fans.

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