Braves vs. Astros commentary, scores, stats and updates: World Series Game 2
Braves vs. Astros: World Series Game 2
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The series now moves to Atlanta and it is wide open. Anything can happen and the teams couldn't be more evenly matched.
The big difference tonight was in the four run second inning, the Astros bats finally coming alive. The unhittability of Jose Urquidy was the tide-changer though. Atlanta has huge offensive capability and it was just shut down completely by an outstanding performance on the mound from the Mexican pitcher.
He swings and misses for the final out. The Astros win and even the series with one win apiece.
Dansby Swanson comes to the plate with only one life left.
Travis d'Arnaud squibs one along the ground to Gurriel at first. He steps on the bag and the Astros have two out.
Adam Duvall slaps the first pitch into left for a fly ball out.
Dusty Baker will call on Kendall Graveman to try and slam the door on Atlanta.
Jose Altuve gets five pitches for a backward K. We move to nine, the Braves needing five to stay alive.
Martín Maldonado goes down looking on four pitches. Wright is finding the zone.
Three pitches and Siri goes down swinging for the first out.
Jose Siri will lead off the inning and face Kyle Wright on the mound.
He can argue all he wants but the inning is over and we are going to the bottom of the eighth.
Two outs now for Joc Pederson and he gets a called strike three. He is not happy at all about the call.
Jorge Soler hits an absolute bomb to left field, caught by Brantley right in the corner.
He is caught looking for a called strike three. Three pitches three strikes.
Austin Riley quickly gets in trouble no balls and two strikes.
Albies manages to work the count full. The payoff pitch misses and the Braves have a leadoff baserunner.
Ryan Pressly will come on to face the Braves in the eighth and he will start with Ozzy Albies.
The third pitch is identical and the result is the same. Swing and miss to end the inning. The Astros pile it on though and are now up 7-2
Martín Maldonado will face Smyly with two outs and the bases loaded and he takes a huge cut at each of the first two pitches. He's in a hole 0-2
Kyle Tucker gets four balls and the bases are now full. Rick Kranitz comes out to the mound to try and calm his man down.
The pitch to Kyle Tucker is in the dirt and Yordan Alvarez moves up to second.
Correa hits one to center. Duvall grabs it for the second out and Brantley tags up and advances to third.
Carlos Correa comes in with two men on and one out.
Yordan Alvarez is hit by the first pitch to take first base.
ALex Bregman rolls one to Riley at third base. He makes the throw to first for one away.
Michael Brantley knocks it into the gap in right center and has a double.
The Braves will task Drew Smyly with the pitching duties and Jose Altuve swings at the first pitch and it is an absolute rocket! Gone by a long way! Left field, just a few feet inside the foul pole.
Freddie Freeman comes up and hits one into the shift, Altuve grabs it and makes the throw to end the Braves threat in the seventh.
Rosario pops one to shallow center and Siri makes the catch for the second out.
Eddie Rosario will be the first batter that Maton faces. There is a man on first and one away.
Dusty Baker makes the walk out to the mound and that is the end of Javier's night. Phil Maton will come on to try and put this away.
Dansby Swanson manages to work the count to full and the payoff pitch misses for the walk.
Three beautiful pitches and d'Arnaud can't hold off the slider for strike three.
Cristian Javier on the mound for Houston will face Travis d'Arnaud to lead off the seventh.
He skies one into shallow left and the Astros strand two runners, but bring another across to make it 6-2 to Houston.
Maldonado comes up to the plate to face Chavez and swings at the first two, digging himself into a hole 0-2
Jesse Chavez is brought in by the Braves to try and get out this jam.
Big strikeout and that will be it for Dylan Lee.
A swing and a miss on a high fastball.
The count runs to 3-2 and Lee delivers the payoff.
The Astros now have men on second and third with one out for Siri.
One out and two on. The first pitch and the Astros go for the double steal and the throw is the wrong side of the bag. Safe!
The play is under review and it all stands.
He hits into what should be a double play but Albies drops the ball on the glove to hand exchange. Everybody is safe! Another run scores for Houston.
Yuli Gurriel will try and push these runners around the base paths for Houston.
The Braves bring on Dylan Lee to face Kyle Tucker and he grounds to Albies at second. They can only turn one and we have men at the corners with one out.
Carlos Correa comes up swinging and pokes one through to left field. The Astros now have two men on and that will be all for Max Fried.
The payoff delivery misses and Alvarez ges the walk. That is the first of the night for either side.
Jesse Chavez is warming up in the Braves bullpen.
Fried goes to work here in the bottom of the sixth on Yordan Alvarez.
He pops one up to third for the end of the inning.
Adam Duvall falls behind 0-2.
Pederson is a bit more picky than his first two at-bats and manages to work the ount to 2-2 before hacking big and lifting one into center field for the second out.
Now with one on and one out Joc Pederson comes to the plate.
Jorge Soler steps in and smokes it down the third base line for a one-out double.
Nasty slider and Riley goes down swinging for the first out.
Austin Riley will lead off for the Braves and he quickly falls behind 1-2
The Astros will bring on Cristian Javier to see to the pitching duties in the sixth.
Alex Bregman gets three breaking balls and goes down swinging for the final out.
Michael Brantley goes down chasing a very low cutter for the second out.
Altuve leads off the botton for the fifth for Houston. He shoots one at Riley and the long throw gets him for the first out.
Ozzy Albies swings at the first pitch and slings it toward Gurriel at first, who steps on the bag and ends the inning.
Freddie slaps it into left for a single and d'Arnaud will score from third.
Rosario rolls it to the right side of the infield and is put out at first. D'Arnaud moves to third with two outs now for Freddie Freeman.
Maldonado lets one get past him and d'Arnaud advances to second.
Eddie Rosario steps in with a runner on first.
Dansby Swanson chases a low slider for strike three and the Braves now have one away.
Travis d'Arnaud leads off with a single up the middle. He is now 2 for 2 on the night.
Martín Maldonado takes a strike and fouls one off before getting a ball and then going down swinging on high cheese. That will do it for the fourth, we move to the fifth the Braves down by four.
He chases a low curve and goes down on strikes. Two out
Jose Siri comes up aggressive and falls behind 0-2
He floats one out to left field and Rosario pulls it down for the first out.
The bottom of the fourth sees Yuli Gurriel come up to face Fried.
Adam Duvall pops one up into shallow right to put out the side.
He fouls a couple off before whiffing a great change up. Yet another strikeout for Urquidy.
Joc Pederson stands in now and quckly falls behind 0-2.
Urquidy is really catching all of the strike zone and he gets Soler swinging on a change up. That is his fifth punch out of the night.
The Braves start off with Jorge Soler in the fourth and they really need to get something started.
Kyle Tucker skies a shallow popup taken by Albies for the third out. Both teams retire each other in order and we move to the fourth inning, the Astros up 5-1
Carlos Correa taps a soft grounder to short stop and Dansby Swanson makes the throw to first for out number two.
On a two strike count, he couldn't hold off the check swing. He went after a big breaking ball for strike three. One away.
Yordan Alvarez will lead off the batting for the Astros.
The roles are reversed from Game 1, where Atlanta were superb in having their leadoff men get aboard last night, tonight they are being quickly dealt with by Jose Urquidy. On seven pitches, he retires Freeman, Albies and Riley. Houston will head into the bottom half of the third four runs up.
He hits one to Riley at third, the long throw to first getting the Braves finally out of the second.
Bregman comes to the plate with a runner on first and two outs.
Brantley pulls one through cover into right and the Astros score another run!
Michael Brantley comes up now with a man on third and two outs.
Altuve loops one into center where it is pulled down by Duvall. Maldonado wisely decides to stay put, because Duvall does have an arm on him.
The third pitch is in the dirt again and it gets away from d'Arnaud. Maldonado easily takes third base.
Altuve comes up and is first pitch swinging for a strike.
Maldonado hits it into the gap in left! Gurriel scores and the throw to third gets by Riley. Siri scores on the error and Maldonado goes into second. The Astros now have four!
Jose Siri hits a slow chopper toward second and Albies has to charge it. The throw to first is not in time, everyone is safe! Tucker scores from third and Gurriel advances to second. Still one out and now there are runners on first and second for Martín Maldonado.
The third pitch is slammed into the gap for a single. Tucker goes standing up into third and the Astros have men on the corners with one out.
Yuli Gurriel comes up and gets two quick strikes on him.
He jumps on a high fastball and steams one right back up the middle for a single.
Houston is counting of big thing from Kyle Tucker at the plate. Last night he was not as productive as they would have liked, but he is always on the edge of brilliance.
Fried comes out throwing breaking balls and Correa is well out in front and goes down swinging.
Max Fried will face Carlos Correa to start the inning.
The top of the order rolls around and Rosario swings on the first pitch, a line drive directly to Gurriel to end the inning. We go to the bottom of two with the score even 1-1.
Dansby Swanson comes up and gets quickly behind in the count before slapping one into left field for a single. Back to back hits for the Braves.
Travis d'Arnaud runs the count to 3-2 and send the payoff pitch into the shallow porch in left field! That evens the score and is the first post season homerun for Travis d'Arnaud.
Adam Duvall comes up and swings first pitch. He lifts one to straight away center where it is reeled in by Jose Siri for the second out of the inning.
Three straight pitches and Joc goes down swinging. All four outs in the game so far have been by strikeout.
Urquidy will face Pederson to lead off the second.
Yordan Alvarez comes to the plate now with two outs. He grounds one to first base and the inning is over. One nothing heading towards the second.
Bregman sends one out to center, fairly deep, and Altuve tags up and trots home for the first run of the game.
Another pitch in the dirt and again Travis d'Arnaud goes down and blocks it. Great work behind the plate.
Alex Bregman takes a strike and then screams one down the third base line foul for strike two.
MIchael Brantley sends one deep onto the warning track in center. Duvall hauls it in and Altuve tags up and advances to third.
Fried is just coming off a loss in his last outing in Game 5 of the NLCS against the Dodgers. That was his first loss since July.
Altuve slaps one down the left field line just fair and he cruises into second base with a leadoff double.
Altuve is a first pitch swinger and he fouls the first three pitches off. Fried delivers the 0-2 for a ball in the dirt.
Max Fried will now take the mound for the Braves and Jose Altuve will stand in for Houston.
Soler takes a few and then skies a very long foul ball to bring the count to 2-2. Urquidy challenges him with a 94mph fastball right down the pipe and Soler can't catch up to it! The Braves are retired with no score.
Austin Riley takes an hack at an outside cutter and just pokes it into right field for a single. The Braves have men on first and second now with two outs for Jorge Soler.
Albies gets yet another weird little hit! Basically a swinging bunt, it rolled up the third base line and looked all the way like it was going to turn foul. But it just hugged the grass and Albies gets first base with two out.
Freddie Freeman comes to the plate and is taking all the way. He works the count full and watches a called strike three, painting the outside corner.
Rosario gets him chasing for strike three! One down in the first.
Urquidy jumps on top of him quickly. The young Mexican pitcher is not messing around.
Rosario has a hot bat this post season and he takes a strike.
Jose Urquidy takes the mound tonight for the Astros and will go to work on Eddie Rosario.
The teams are ready to go, the roof is open and the fans are ready to break the streak of five straight home post season losses.
While Dusty Baker has left his batting order more or less untouched, Brian Snitker has reshuffled the order yet again. Eddie Rosario is back in the leadoff spot and Soler has been moved down the lineup into the five-spot. The Braves are constantly looking for that magical combination to maximise run production.
The Home Team
Astros Batting Order
Jose Altuve (R) 2B
Michael Brantley (L) LF
Alex Bregman (R) 3B
Yordan Alvarez (L) DH
Carlos Correa (R) SS
Kyle Tucker (L) RF
Yuli Gurriel (R) 1B
Jose Siri (R) CF
Martín Maldonado (R) C
The Visitors
Braves Batting Order
Eddie Rosario (L) LF
Freddie Freeman (L) 1B
Ozzie Albies (S) 2B
Austin Riley (R) 3B
Jorge Soler (R) DH
Joc Pederson (L) RF
Adam Duvall (R) CF
Travis d'Arnaud (R) C
Dansby Swanson (R) SS
Houston will start Jose Urquidy and will look for a similar performance from him, although he is more prone to conceding runs than his Braves counterpart. When you consider the quality of hitting that Atlanta has, then Urquidy definitely has the more difficult night ahead of him. If the Astros have to go to the bullpen early, then they will likely lean on Zack Greinke to bridge the gap to their late relievers.
Atlanta will turn to Max Fried and will be looking for him to take them at least five innings deep. The heavy lifting in Game 1 was done by AJ Minter and he will be unlikely to be available for Game 2, although both Luke Jackson and Tyler Matzek will probably be called on to get Atlanta through an inning. The longer Fried can take them tonight, the fresher the relievers’ arms will be as the series progresses.
Game 1 saw both teams struggle with their starting pitchers, Atlanta losing Charlie Morton to a broken leg and Houston pulling Framber Valdez one inning too late as the Braves shellacked him for five runs. There was far more use of the bullpen than either team wanted for the first of a best-of-seven series and they will need to stem that tonight.
Welcome to the live commentary of Game 2 of the World Series between the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros.