In the next installment of this Reliving History series, we re-live another key game of the 2017 World Series — Game Five. Game Five was an extra-innings thriller again. The Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Dodgers put on a fantastic World Series in 2017, and Game Five was perhaps the most exciting. Here is a little game buildup before the details of Game Five.
2017 World Series Game Five Buildup
The Astros and the Dodgers came into Game Five with two wins apiece, so this game was pivotal. The starters on the mound were a rematch of Game One — Clayton Kershaw and Dallas Keuchel. Kershaw dominated in the first game, giving up one run on three hits in seven innings. Keuchel had a solid start, giving up three runs in 6 2/3 innings, but got slapped with the loss. Both teams looked to get within a game of winning the championship, so the intensity was palpable.
Astros 13, Dodgers 12
The scoring got started right off the bat for the Dodgers. Logan Forsythe drove in a pair of runs on a single, and an additional run crossed the plate on a Yuli Gurriel error. The Astros did not answer, and the teams traded a pair of scoreless innings. Los Angeles added a fourth run in the fourth with an Austin Barnes RBI single. This put the Dodgers up 4-0 and put Houston in a hole early. However, the Astros climbed out of that hole pretty quickly.
Carlos Correa lined a clutch double into left, bringing in two runners. The very next batter was Gurriel, who atoned for his error with a two-run blast. His homer tied the game at four. Los Angeles snatched the lead right back in the top of the fifth with a Cody Bellinger three-run home run. However, this lead was even more short-lived than their first lead. A pair of walks knocked Kershaw out of the game, and Kenta Maeda replaced him. Jose Altuve greeted Maeda by blasting a game-tying three-run shot, knotting up the score at 7-7. The sixth inning was the last scoreless inning of the game.
Late Innings
In the top of the seventh, Bellinger hit an RBI triple. The Dodgers took the lead for the third time, and for the third time, it did not last long. George Springer immediately answered in the bottom of the seventh, leading it off with a home run, his third of this World Series. Later in the inning, Altuve doubled to drive in a run and Correa homered immediately after, to bring the score to 11-8 in favor of Houston. This time, it was the Astros lead that didn’t last too long.
The Dodgers began their climb back in the eighth with a Corey Seager RBI double. Houston answered with a Brian McCann solo home run, but the one insurance run was not enough. With Chris Devenski on the mound trying to close it out in the ninth, Yasiel Puig lined a two-run homer to pull within one run. Later in the inning, with two outs, Chris Taylor grounded an RBI single to center, tying the game at 12. The Astros did not score against Kenley Jansen in the bottom of the ninth, which forced extra innings.
Tenth Inning
The tenth inning proved to be the only extra-inning that was needed. Joe Musgrove pitched a scoreless top half of the inning, giving Houston a great opportunity to win it in the bottom half. Los Angeles brought Jansen back out for the tenth, and it started well. Jansen got the first two outs of the inning easily, but it unraveled after that. He hit McCann with a pitch and walked Springer after that. After replacing McCann with a pinch-runner, Alex Bregman lined a single into left to win the game 13-12. The game ended with the excitement due in a game of this magnitude.
All and all, there were 25 runs scored in this 10-inning thriller. It lasted five hours and 17 minutes, which, at the time, made it the second-longest game in World Series history. Game Five of the 2017 World Series was an instant classic in the middle of a very memorable World Series.
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