World Series Game 5: Astros nose ahead of Phillies on Peña’s third-inning home run

Key events

Astros 3-2 Phillies, bottom 8th inning

Ryan Pressly, the Astros closer, is up next. He will face Brandon Marsh whose number one goal here is to drive in Stott and his second goal has to be: just not ground into a double play with Castellanos at first base.

His first pitch? Marsh fouls it off. 0-1. “Seven Nation Army” on the organ once again. Marsh fouls off the next pitch. 0-2. This is a bad way to begin what might be the key at-bat of the entire series, Brandon.

Oof, he takes the same big swing at the next pitch and misses. He strikes out for out number two and now the Phillies can’t tie the game on an out.

Table of Contents

Run scoring single! (Phillies) Astros 3-2 Phillies

Astros 3-2 Phillies, bottom 8th inning

One out, two on. Two-run deficit. Fans singing “Seven Nation Army.” It’s a tense situation, especially if you’re not a fan of that particular chant.

Segura seems to respond to it just fine, he hits a single to right field that scores Castellanos! It’s 3-2. Stott represents the tying run at third base! Dusty Baker goes to his pen!

Astros 3-1 Phillies, bottom 8th inning

Stott gets ahead of Montero 2-0. The Phillies wouldn’t mind an extra baserunner here. The next pitch is off the corner. 3-0. I’m going to assume he does not have the green-light in this situation. He does not, he instead takes ball four and he represents the tying run. The winning run, that will be represented by Jean Segura.

Astros 3-1 Phillies, bottom 8th inning

Montero gets ahead of Bohm 0-2 before throwing one way high to try to get him to chase. Not a bad strategy with Bohm, but it doesn’t work here. 1-2. It works the next time though, with a pitch just a little closer. Maybe that was the plan all along. Pitchers are crafty that way. The Phillies have five outs left.

Astros 3-1 Phillies, bottom 8th inning

Rafael Montero is out to try to prevent the Phillies from putting together another comeback after seeing what they did in Game 1. He falls behind Castellanos 2-0 but gets him to first swing at a strike and then take one. 2-2. Castellanos looks at a ball. 3-2. He fouls the next pitch off. Still 3-2. That one is inside and that’s a leadoff walk issued by Montero.

There is good sports news for Philadelphia. The Eagles are now 8-0 for the first time in franchise history after defeating the Texans 29-17.

Astros 3-1 Phillies, top 8th inning

Peña is on third after the long flyout. Trey Mancini at the plate, where he works a full count and while he does so, Bregman steals second. So, both runners are in scoring position but it doesn’t matter as Mancini swings and misses to end the inning. Still, the Astros have tacked on a run and time is running out for the Phillies to answer.

Astros 3-1 Phillies, top 8th inning

Tucker is up next, he fouls off the first ball he sees and then hits a ball into the outfield that Castellanos runs down, somewhat surprisingly considering his regular season defensive struggles. Two out. Trey Mancini is pinch-hitting for Gurriel, who got banged up during the rundown.

Astros 3-1 Phillies, top 8th inning

Robertson gets ahead of Bregman 1-2. Really key for the Phillies to keep this a two-run deficit. Bregman fouls the next pitch out of play into the stands. Robertson’s next pitch is also in the dirt. 2-2. As is the next. 3-2. The next pitch is borderline, but Robertson is not going to get the call there. It’s a walk to Bregman.

RBI (Astros) Astros 3-1 Phillies

Astros 3-1 Phillies, top 8th inning

Álvarez hits one foul and just out of play. 0-1. Robertson’s next pitch bounces and only a good effort from Realmuto keeps Altuve from scoring on that. 1-1. The next pitch is also outside. 1-1.

Then Álvarez hits a ground ball to first and that’s the only play to make. Álvarez scores, Peña makes it to second.

We have a pitching change! It’s the venerable Dave Robertson coming on with the Phillies in a massive pickle.

This isn’t quite a white flag but it will be a minor miracle if the Phillies are able to keep the Astros from scoring in yet another runner-on-third with no-outs situation.

Astros 2-1 Phillies, top 8th inning

Peña hits a base hit and Altuve, who was off on the pitch, makes third base easily. With that successful hit-and-run, the Astros have runners on the corners with nobody out.

Astros 2-1 Phillies, top 8th inning

Dominguez is out again to start the eighth inning, trying to keep this at a one-run deficit. Note: both teams have an off-day tomorrow for travel and the season will last, at most, two more games. We’re in “all hands on deck” territory.

Dominguez falls behind 0-3 on Altuve, who eventually walks on a 3-2 pitch.

Astros 2-1 Phillies, bottom 7th inning

Harper is here to try to salvage the seventh for Philadelphia. He fouls off Abreu’s first fastball. 0-1. On 0-1, he fouls off another. That one’s 100 mph, so the fact that other human beings can even connect on pitches like that will forever boggle my mind.

The next pitch? Slider outside. 1-2. Harper successfully checks his swing (or at least the umpires determine that he does) on the next ball. 2-2. Then, Harper pops up to end the inning. That was a 1-2-3 inning for Abreu and the Phillies have just six more outs to play with.

Astros 2-1 Phillies, bottom 7th inning

Abreu gets Realmuto to strike out swinging on three pitches. That feels like a first for the game.

Astros 2-1 Phillies, bottom 7th inning

Abreu is back out to at least start pitching in the bottom of the seventh. He’ll be facing Hoskins, who falls behind 1-2. This has been a strike-heavy game in general and both bullpens have been stellar.

Hoskins then fouls off a few pitches to stay alive. Also a lot of foul balls this game. That’s what happens when you have strike-throwing pitchers and patient, crafty hitters. Except Hoskins strikes out looking right as I type that.

Seventh Inning Stretch

That “Xanadu” guy used to be one heck of a dancer!

Astros 2-1 Phillies, top 7th inning

Dominquez is one out away from getting out of this inning without allowing a run to score, which would be impressive. He gets ahead of Maldonado 0-2. That’s a start. The next pitch is a ball and Maldonado can only foul away the next pitch.

On the fifth pitch of the at-bat, he grounds out to short and somehow this is still a 2-1 game.

Astros 2-1 Phillies, top 7th inning

Still, there’s a runner on third with less than two outs. This is going to be tricky for the Phillies.

Or maybe not. McCormick hits into a fielder’s choice and the Phillies are able to tag Gurriel out in the midst of a rundown. McCormick takes second on the play, but it’s now two outs in the inning.

Astros 2-1 Phillies, top 7th inning

And in a 1-2 count against Hensley, Dominquez uncorks a wild pitch that allows Gurriel to make it to third base. Luckily for the pitcher, he gets Hensley to ground out to shortstop and Gurriel just can’t score from third.

Astros 2-1 Phillies, top 7th inning

If the Phillies don’t pull off the comeback, that Schwarber at-bat might loom large. As it is, Seranthony Dominguez will be pitching for Philadelphia and Gurriel is scheduled to lead things off for the Astros.

Dominguez gets ahead of Gurriel 1-2 but Gurriel hits a flyball that just drops into the outfield for a leadoff double.

Astros 2-1 Phillies, bottom 6th inning

Kyle Schwarber is up with two runners on, but he grounds out to second on the second pitch he sees to end the inning. Justin Verlander exhales. To the seventh inning!

Astros 2-1 Phillies, bottom 6th inning

Bryan Abreu is up to face Brandon Marsh and immediately hits him with a pitch. Not what you want to see if you’re Houston.

Meanwhile in football, it’s the fourth quarter in Houston and the Eagles have a 27-17 lead over the Texans.

It’s a pretty safe bet that their game will be over well before ours.

Astros 2-1 Phillies, bottom 6th inning

Segura is up. One on, one out. He fouls off Neris’s first pitch. 0-1. Neris’s next pitch is quite outside. 1-1. Segura fouls off a pitch in the dirt. Probably should have held off on that swing. 1-2. On the next pitch, Neris gets him to strike out for the inning’s second out.

And that will do it for Neris, here’s Houston manager Dusty Baker out to relieve the reliever.

Astros 2-1 Phillies, bottom 6th inning

Can Stott get hot? He takes a first-pitch ball and then flies out to Tucker in the outfield after a bit of miscommunication. That’s the first out of the inning.

Astros 2-1 Phillies, bottom 6th inning

Hector Neris is up for the Astros, meaning at the very least Verlander won’t get tagged with a loss here. He gets ahead of Bohm 1-2. Bohm takes a pitch high. At 2-2, he hits a leadoff single. That’s just what the Phillies need here, down just a single run.

I want to thank this Chevy ad featuring the Fleetwood Mac song “Everywhere” for cheering me up every few innings.

If you were wondering why that last inning took so long, there was apparently a fan who ran on the field and I missed it because they never show them during the TV broadcast proper.

I didn’t even notice because, let’s be real, sometimes baseball games are just slow for no reason whatsoever.