Reporting from Minute Maid Park
The Astros have brought in their third pitcher of the night. Cristian Javier just climbed the mound here in Houston, where Atlanta is getting ready to come to the plate in the fourth.
Staked to a 3-0 lead, Max Fried kept things fairly quiet.
A suddenly red-hot Martín Maldonado led off with a single to center. But Jose Altuve lined out and Michael Brantley grounded into a 1-6-3 double-play to end the inning.
Reporting from Minute Maid Park
Luis Garcia’s night is over here in Houston after Jorge Soler crushed his 42nd pitch of the night over the fence and toward Crawford Street. Brooks Raley is in for Houston.
Jorge Soler put Atlanta ahead … emphatically ahead. His three-run homer was the kind of blast that will be shown on replays for years to come and it has Atlanta up early in a game that could deliver the team its first championship since 1995.
Ozzie Albies singled to right to start the inning and was trying to steal second when Travis d’Arnaud flied out to center. He was going for second again when Dansby Swanson lined out to the wall in left. Eddie Rosario took a hack at a 3-0 pitch and missed, settling for a walk on five pitches (yes, Albies was running on the pitch).
With runners on first and second and two outs, Soler got ahead 3-0, ended up in a full-count and after a few foul balls he uncoiled on an 83-m.p.h. cutter, absolutely demolishing the ball over the train tracks deep beyond the fence in left field and then celebrating the shot at home before rounding the bases for a three-run homer. Albies, after so many attempts, got to jog home along with Rosario and Soler.
Garcia had thrown only 20 pitches through two innings. By the time Soler’s homer chased him from the game, he’d thrown 22 more.
Brooks Raley came on in relief of Garcia and retired Freddie Freeman with only one pitch, getting him to ground out to second.
Jorge Soler’s home run makes it 3-0 Atlanta.
A mammoth blast over the train tracks in left was a no-doubter.
Reporting from Minute Maid Park
Dropped to seventh in the lineup tonight after batting third in each of the first five games, Ozzie Albies responded with a leadoff single here in the top of the third inning. It is Albies’ first hit since Game 2.
Max Fried must have been jealous of Luis Garcia’s efficiency.
Fried’s hard luck seems to have turned around some in terms of defense. Dansby Swanson made a nice play to retire Kyle Tucker on a grounder to short, Joc Pederson adjusted his path to the ball to snag a fly ball in right and Fried got out of the inning when Jose Siri flied out to left.
Reporting from Minute Maid Park
As an Astros official noted before Game 6, Major League Baseball takes control of the building for the World Series. And as an MLB official explained regarding the reasoning for the roof being open tonight: “The decision is based on weather factors including temperature, humidity and chance of rain after consultation with our external weather service. We felt the good weather was conducive to having the roof open.”
During the regular season this year, the Astros opened the roof for just five games. They prefer the roof closed for a variety of reasons, including that a closed building increases the noise level, their batters prefer hitting in those conditions and when the weather is hot, it is far more comfortable for fans in air conditioning. Game-time temperature Tuesday night was a beautiful 72 degrees.
Luis Garcia is dealing.
In a remarkably quick inning, he struck out Austin Riley, got Adam Duvall to ground out to third and finished things off by getting Joc Pederson to fly out to left.
Garcia is only at 20 pitches after two innings.
Reporting from Minute Maid Park
Let’s just say there are some… opinions in Atlanta on a particular play in the bottom of the first.
In Game 2, Max Fried was beaten not by line drives and home runs but by infield hits and defensive miscues. The bottom of the first started off the same way but this time Houston couldn’t capitalize.
Jose Altuve led off with an infield single on a grounder that Dansby Swanson fielded but couldn’t convert into an out because of Altuve’s speed. Michael Brantley hit a soft grounder to first that Freddie Freeman fielded but couldn’t convert into an out when Fried struggled to cover first, with Brantley appearing to step on Fried’s right ankle as he tried to tag the base. The play was ruled an error on Fried but on replays it seemed like Brantley should have been out.
With two men on and no outs, Fried struck out Carlos Correa on four pitches. He got Yordan Alvarez to ground out to second (the runners advanced to second and third) and then finished off the inning by striking out Yuli Gurriel, the 2021 American League batting champion, on three pitches.
Something to keep an eye on going forward is the health of Fried’s ankle after that strange play at first.
Reporting from Minute Maid Park
The Astros have been having a terrible time with runners in scoring position, and as they attempt to stay alive in Game 6, it’s more of the same: After putting the first two runners aboard, they went 0 for 3 with RISP to end a scoreless first inning.
Reporting from Minute Maid Park
Minute Maid Park has been loud during the playoffs with the roof closed, but it is certainly still very loud with it open.
Reporting from Minute Maid Park
Somehow Max Fried’s right ankle appears to have survived getting stepped on by Michael Brantley.
HOUSTON — Though they’ve still got a good-sized hole to dig out from under, the Astros are pleased that they pushed this World Series back home to Houston for Game 6. And for a team trailing three games to two, their confidence is high.
“It seems like business as usual for our team,” Manager Dusty Baker said before Game 6. “After losing the first two games in Atlanta, our goal was to take it back to H-town. We accomplished one goal. Now the goal is to take it to Game 7, and the only way to do that is to win tonight.”
Then Baker lapsed into Yogi-speak for a moment with a statement reminiscent of Berra’s commenting that nobody goes to a particular restaurant anymore because it’s too crowded.
“It feels great to be back home because you didn’t want to come back home,” Baker said. “Which I’ve done in the past, feeling that you were home for the winter or feeling down about the outcome. Yeah, we’ve got a great opportunity here.”
Luis Garcia’s shimmy was in full effect to start the game and Houston’s starter looked terrific.
He started by getting Eddie Rosario to line out to right on a slick diving catch by Kyle Tucker that robbed Rosario of extra bases. Jorge Soler, who is in Freddie Freeman’s customary No. 2 hole tonight, worked a full count but struck out on a cutter that darted out of the zone.
With two outs, Freeman came up, and Garcia was electric, striking out the 2020 National League Most Valuable Player on three pitches.
Reporting from Minute Maid Park
We’ve seen the first pitch of Game 6 here in Houston: Luis Garcia’s offering to Eddie Rosario was a four-seam fastball for a strike.
Reporting from Minute Maid Park
Atlanta is the 69th team in World Series history to have a lead of three games to two. Most of those teams — 45 — ultimately won the series. (Atlanta’s 1995 team was one of them. The 2017 Astros were another.)
HOUSTON — Since breaking his right leg while starting Game 1 in Houston, Atlanta right-hander Charlie Morton has not been visible since. And Atlanta Manager Brian Snitker confirmed before Game 6 that Morton did not travel to Texas with the team, instead remaining at home.
“He’s not allowed to fly,” Snitker said. “I hate it for Charlie that he couldn’t come, but he physically couldn’t, wasn’t able to come with us.”
Morton fractured his right fibula in Game 1. Yuli Gurriel hit a hard smash up the middle that ricocheted off Morton’s shin. Morton remained in the game, getting two more outs in the second inning and then striking out Jose Altuve to start the third. But he was in obvious pain after the final pitch to Altuve and X-rays later revealed the fracture. The team contended the fracture was not visible on an X-ray between the innings.
There has been plenty of debate since whether Morton had stayed in the game on a broken leg, or whether Gurriel’s shot compromised the leg and then the fracture occurred sometime later. Either way, Atlanta held on to win the game.
Reporting from Minute Maid Park
For just the second time this postseason, the roof is open here in Houston. The Astros won Game 2 of the World Series, the other time during this playoff run that Minute Maid Park was open-air. It’s a clear, cool night here, with a very light wind so far.
HOUSTON — Atlanta dropped second baseman Ozzie Albies from third to seventh in tonight’s Game 6 lineup and first baseman Freddie Freeman from second to third against Astros right-hander Luis Garcia.
It is the first time in this World Series that the switch-hitting Albies has not batted third, and that the left-handed Freeman has not batted second. Albies is struggling against Houston, hitting .167 (3 for 18) with a .286 on-base percentage.
“Just change the look, which we do a lot over the course of the year,” Atlanta Manager Brian Snitker said, explaining that he wanted Jorge Soler, who is batting second behind leadoff man Eddie Rosario, “to split the lefties, if nothing else. I don’t think it matters to Freddie whether he hits two or three. He’s going to get up in the first inning regardless. I think Jorge has been having some really good at-bats. And it just kind of balances things out a little bit.”
Albies hit only .235 batting lefty against right-handed pitchers this season. Batting right-handed against lefties, he hit .323.
HOUSTON — Part of the reason the Astros are starting Luis Garcia in Game 6 on short rest, rather than running back Jose Urquidy after his one-inning, 14-pitch outing in Game 5 on Sunday, is because of what they saw in the American League Championship Series against Boston.
Nathan Eovaldi started Game 2 for the Red Sox on Oct. 16, then threw 24 pitches while getting two outs in relief on Oct. 19 (while surrendering four runs). He then came back to start Game 6 on Oct. 22. Eovaldi, who had held Houston to three runs and five hits over five and a third innings in his Game 2 start, was the losing pitcher in Game 6 despite allowing only one run and five hits over four and a third innings.
Houston was taking notes.
“He wasn’t quite as sharp on that start after his bullpen day,” Houston Manager Dusty Baker said. “So you sort of take a page from other people’s groups. You tend to know your personnel.”
Baker noted that Eovaldi lasted only 63 pitches in Game 6 after throwing 81 in Game 2.
“So you had all those things in there,” Baker said, before adding about Garcia: “If it works, it’s great. If not, he’ll probably get criticized. But you’ve got to do what’s best that you think for the team and for the player.”
Something to keep an eye on tonight 👇
Luis Garcia has an 80.6%(!) miss rate (25 misses/31 swings) on his cutter this postseason, including 9 misses in GM 3 vs. Atlanta.
League average miss rate on cutters is just 24.4% this season.#WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/Jy2RWZmO1P
— Inside Edge (@IE_MLB) November 2, 2021
Atlanta’s starting pitcher tonight is Max Fried, who lost Game 2. He gave up six runs, five of them earned, and had a misery-filled second inning.
But he pitched well, with the box score being more a casualty of an error and the baseball finding holes rather than any egregious mistakes by the man on the mound.
“I’m having a hard time convincing myself that he struggled,” Atlanta Manager Brian Snitker said after Game 2, which Houston won, 7-2. “The second inning, when they scored, it was kind of a weird inning, you know what I mean? It wasn’t like he was getting banged around. Balls found holes, checked swings, we threw a ball away.”
Fried was less forgiving of himself.
“You got to do everything you can to keep the crooked number off the scoreboard,” said Fried, who noted that Houston had seemed ready for the fastball he ordinarily uses to try to get grounders. “At the end of the day, they put up four runs in that inning. You need to do better next time, just making pitches, getting out of it.”
When he spoke to reporters on Monday, Fried said that while he expected to tweak his approach as Tuesday’s game progressed, people should not anticipate anything close to an overhaul.
“It’s just sticking with your strengths, pitching my game and really just trusting what we see with our eyes,” he said. “We’re going to make adjustments. At this time of year, it’s about just getting outs. So whatever we can do to get outs is what the plan of attack is going to be.”
The Astros are looking to break a long streak in Major League Baseball: Since the 2013 Boston Red Sox clinched at Fenway Park, no team has locked up the World Series on its home field.
Really.
In 2019, when the Washington Nationals beat the Houston Astros for the title, they not only failed to win the World Series at home, they never won a single game in Washington.
Atlanta spoiled its chance to win a title before its fans at Truist Park — where, until Sunday, it was 7-0 this postseason — but Manager Brian Snitker said he would ultimately not mind where his team won, if it did.
“I don’t care where we’re at,” he said. “If we win the World Series, it doesn’t matter where it is. I’d have loved to have done it in front of our fans. Hopefully, we can do it the next couple of days.”
If Atlanta wins a championship tonight, it will happen without a key pinch-hitter, as Ehire Adrianza was placed on the paternity list ahead of Game 6 so he could attend the birth of his child.
Adrianza has not made much of an impact in the postseason — he’s 1 for 10 in 10 appearances. But his lone hit was a two-out double in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, which came one batter ahead of Eddie Rosario’s game-changing (and largely series clinching) three-run go-ahead homer off Walker Buehler.
During the regular season, Adrianza appeared as a pinch-hitter in 72 games and hit .250 (16 for 64) with three homers and 12 R.B.I. in those games.
Adrianza was replaced on Atlanta’s roster by Johan Camargo, who is 0 for 4 this postseason.
By now this should all feel familiar, even with the World Series shifting back to Houston for Game 6 tonight (and potentially Game 7 on Wednesday).
Who: The Atlanta Braves vs. the Houston Astros
What: Game 6 of the 117th World Series
When: 8:09 p.m. Eastern time
Where: Minute Maid Park in Houston
Watch: The game will be broadcast by Fox and can be streamed on FoxSports.com as well as streaming services like FuboTV, Hulu Live and YouTube TV.
What’s at stake: With Atlanta leading the series, three games to two, the Braves are a win away from the franchise’s first championship since 1995. A Houston win would force a decisive Game 7 on Wednesday night as the Astros seek their first title since 2017.
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