(Photo: Sporting News)
By: Catie Cheshire, Staff Reporter
It was 103 degrees on Tuesday night as what will surely be a series of impressive baseball began. The American League Champion Houston Astros met the National League Champion Los Angeles Dodgers at home on for the first of a potential seven-game series. For once, most experts agree that the two best teams in baseball (sorry Cleveland fans) are meeting in the World Series.
With Clayton Kershaw and Dallas Keuchel as their respective starters, the game began with the Dodgers coming out with fire. First, Kershaw pitched a three-up, three-down inning. Then, Center Fielder Chris Taylor hit a home run off the first pitch from Keuchel to take a 1-0 lead.
Keuchel let the first Dodger batter reach first in each of the first three innings. Luckily, the stalwart Astros defense came to his aid by turning double plays in both the first and second inning. Kershaw, meanwhile, remained dominant, striking out five through the first three frames.
Then, in the fourth inning, Alex Bregman stepped up to the plate for the Astros. Following his post-season pattern of disrupting lefty aces, he slammed a home run to tie the game.
The game stayed tied through the fifth inning with both Kershaw and Keuchel asserting their dominance as starters throughout this time with Kershaw reaching 11 strikeouts through six innings. However, trouble came for Houston when Keuchel gave up the first and only walk of the game to Austin Barnes. Then came Justin Turner. Turner blasted a two-run homer to put the Dodgers up 3-1 in the sixth. Keuchel didn’t last much longer, coming out of the game in the seventh inning.
The score remained the same until the top of the ninth when Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen came in to shut down the game. He did his job, registering three consecutive outs to end the game.
The matchup continues in Los Angeles at 6:00pm on Fox with Justin Verlander taking the mound for the Astros and Rich Hill starting for the Dodgers.