What are we watching, a football game? No, it’s a baseball game!
Have you seen the scores of the World Series games? Besides Game 1, all of the scores have been high scoring affairs. With Game 5 finishing with a score of 13-12.
Who says baseball can’t be exciting? With this last game lasting five hours and 17 minutes, the second longest game in World Series history, the first being five hours and 41 minutes against the Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros in 2005 (this was before the Astros moved to the American League in 2013.)
Game Five saw many records broken. The most home runs hit in a series, runs and seeing a team come back from two deficits of three or more runs.
In five games, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros combined for 22 home runs in a series, breaking the previous record of 21 from 2002 set by the Anaheim Angels and San Francisco Giants. That series lasted a full seven games.
Yasiel Puig hit a two-run home run in the top of the ninth, cutting the lead down to one, to break the record. The pitch was down and away, and he was able to pull it over the left field fence. The most impressive part was that his right hand came off the bat as he was following through.
My favorite part of the play was actually after the play. A lady in the stands came up with the ball and a gentleman to her right took the ball and gave, what I’m assuming the guy she is with a death stare (like the stare when your momma catches your hand in the cookie jar), and threw the ball back. I understand that it’s the other team, but it is a World Series ball and the record-breaking ball at that.
In the game, Houston hit five home runs and LA hit two, tying the old record of most home runs hit in a single game, but that record was broken in Game Two, the other game that went into extra innings, which saw both teams combine for eight home runs.
Yuli Gurriel, Cody Bellinger and Jose Altuve each hit three-run home runs during Game Five, the first World Series game ever with three three-run home runs.
Bellinger, at 22 years and 108 days old on Sunday, became the youngest player to homer in the World Series since Miguel Cabrera in 2003. Brian McCann, at 33 years and 252 days old on Sunday, is the oldest to homer this series.
The Astros have hit 13 home runs in the series. The record for most home runs in a single World Series is 14 by the 2002 Giants.
With the regular season setting a record of 6,105 home runs in a single season, it is only right that the World Series sees the most home runs in the same season too.
Game Five was a back and forth battle with teams having to battle back multiple times.
The Dodgers jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first and added a run in the top of the fourth. The Astros would answer back, putting up four of their own in the bottom frame of the fourth.
The Dodgers would reclaim the lead by scoring three runs in the fifth. Not so fast LA, as Houston came back with three of their own in the bottom of the fifth. The first time a team has come back twice from a three-point or more deficit in a single World Series game.
Being up three in the top of the ninth, LA would tie the game and force the game into extra innings before Alex Bregman singled to left, scoring Derek Fisher from second to take a 3-2 series lead back to LA.
It’s crazy to think that all this has happened in five games. Yes, the potential that some of these records could grow with at least one more game with also the possibility of going to game seven amazes me. I’m writing this on Tuesday, so we all will know what happened by the time you read this. This is why baseball is America’s favorite pastime.