LOS ANGELES — Looks like the Astros can hit on the road, too.
Though they waited until the last possible moment to show it.
Looking mostly lost at the plate a second consecutive game, the Astros erupted late and beat up on a previously impenetrable Dodgers bullpen Wednesday night to come away with a roller-coaster ride of a 7-6 victory in Game 2 of the World Series that stunned the blue-towel waving crowd of 54,293 at Dodger Stadium.
And suddenly the Astros, who became the first team in history to hit three homers in extra innings of a postseason game, head home to Minute Maid Park, where they’re 6-0 this postseason compared with 2-6 on the road, having tied the best-of-seven series at one game apiece.
Game 3 is Friday night.
After Houston took a 5-3 lead with two runs in the top of the 10th, closer Ken Giles, working his second inning, allowed Yasiel Puig’s leadoff homer and a two-out, RBI single by Enrique Hernandez that tied it at 5.
But George Springer, whose struggles much of this postseason had manager A.J. Hinch being questioned about dropping him from the leadoff spot, hit a two-run homer off Brandon McCarthy in the 11th to make it 7-5.
Charlie Culberson’s two-out homer off Chris Devenski in the bottom half made it 7-6 and the infielder ran around the bases arms thrust in the air as if he’d tie it. He had not, and Puig struck out to end the wild 4 hour, 19-minute game.
In one of the oddities of the Series, the Dodgers had only five hits, four of them homers, compared with 14 for the Astros, who homered four times. The eight homers were the most in a World Series game.
With the Dodgers leading 3-2 in the ninth, Marwin Gonzalez tied it against Kenley Jansen with a leadoff homer to left-center on an 0-and-2 cutter, sucking much of the life from the crowd.
After Giles pitched a scoreless bottom of the ninth, Jose Altuve, presented with the AL Hank Aaron Award before the game, hit a leadoff homer off Josh Fields to make it 4-3. Carlos Correa followed with a blast of his own to make it 5-3, his ensuing bat flip rivaling that of Jose Bautista’s in Game 5 of the Rangers/Blue Jays 2015 ALDS.
Giles, erratic much of the season and postseason, lost the lead it in the bottom of the 10th. Puig started the inning with a long homer to left center to make it 5-4. Known to flip a bat or two, Puig gingerly laid the bat on the grass at his feet to begin his trot around the bases.
Giles struck out the next two batters but walked Logan Forsythe, bringing Hernandez to the plate. Forsythe went to second on a wild pitch. Hernandez, who homered three times in the Dodgers’ NLCS Game 5 clinching victory over the Cubs, then sliced a single to right, causing the crowd to lose it again.
Before Gonzalez’s homer sparked the long-ball barrage, the night had a deja vu feel to it.
One night after Justin Turner hit a sixth-inning, two-run homer to snap a 1-1 tie in Game 1, Corey Seager did the same, the latter’s an opposite-field poke off Justin Verlander that put the Dodgers ahead, 3-1.
But Jansen, brought on for a two-inning save after Alex Bregman’s leadoff double in the eighth, allowed a hit that made it 3-2, ending a streak of 28 straight scoreless innings by the Dodgers bullpen.
Jansen had 13 strikeouts and two hits allowed in his nine postseason innings coming in,
Verlander, 4-0 with a 1.46 ERA this postseason, which included two dominant performances against the Yankees in the ALCS, no-hit the Dodgers for 42/3 innings before hanging a 2-and-1 slider in the fifth that Joc Pederson destroyed to right for a homer that tied it at 1.
It stayed that way until the sixth. Chris Taylor walked and Seager hit a 1-and-2, 97-mph fastball to left, the two-run shot making it 3-1.
Verlander allowed three runs and two hits in six innings. The 34-year-old walked two and struck out five.
Left-hander Rich Hill started for the Dodgers and pitched well, allowing one run and three hits in four innings. He struck out seven and walked three.
