Highlights from the Astros’ World Series Game 3 win over the Dodgers

The Astros struck early and often against Yu Darvish, crushing his pitches to the point it was worth wondering if he was tipping them again. While the Dodgers’ bullpen slowed all of that and held the Astros to one run the rest of the way, the lineup couldn’t muster enough offense to catch up: the Astros are now up 2-1, following their own strong bullpen performance, mostly by Brad Peacock.

We’ve got all the highlights for you in our live blog. As usual, if you want to read from the beginning, scroll down to the “1st inning” header and work your way back up.

The Dodgers are down 5-3 in the top of the ninth. They have Yasiel Puig, Chase Utley, and Yasmani Grandal due up, and if any of them reach, Joc Pederson will get a shot, too.

Brad Peacock is on the mound once more, with the Astros not wanting to go to Ken Giles to start the ninth. And maybe not even if they go to another arm, since Will Harris is the one warming up in the Astros’ bullpen.

Peacock gets Puig to strike out, and the Dodgers are down to their final two outs. You have to think AJ Hinch is just trying to keep Giles fresh for Game 4 and Game 5, and since Peacock is a starter who is relieving and can go deep into games like McCullers did in the ALCS, well, now’s the time to see if the Astros can get a W and a little bullpen bonus for the weekend.

Here is Chase Utley, who continues to get love from the announcers for all those homers he hit in the 2009 World Series. The Dodgers could use one right here, but they won’t get it: Utley grounds out to Peacock, and Los Angeles is down to their final out of Game 3.

John Smoltz has had a rough game announcing tonight, but I want to point out this bit he just shared: McCullers pounded curveballs his whole start, and basically once the Dodgers started getting used to them, they switched to someone who went fastball all the time. It might have kept the Dodgers’ potent lineup just off-balance enough to keep them from catching up.

The Dodgers are down to their final strike, as Grandal goes down 0-2 to Peacock in a hurry. The third pitch is a ball that sails up and out of the zone, so Grandal will get another chance. The fourth pitch just misses low and outside — the ump didn’t buy McCann’s frame job on it.

Grandal battles and keeps waiting for a pitch to crush, but the best he can muster is a fly ball to right. The Astros win Game 3, 5-3, and take a 2-1 lead in the World Series.

The Astros are sticking with Brad Peacock, and he rewards them by striking out Corey Seager to open the eighth. Turner follows with a pop out, and now here’s Cody Bellinger, trying not to strike out for the fourth time in Game 3.

Bellinger is having his best at-bat of the evening here, as he’s seven pitches in and has worked a full count against Peacock. This one ends in a K, too, as Bellinger swings and misses to end the eighth. The Dodgers are down to their final three outs, but the Astros get another shot to widen their lead before Los Angeles gets to those.

Considering Altuve and Correa have stranded nine runners between the two of them (and Springer six of his own), it’s kind of amazing the Astros have scored five runs in Game 3. They have, though!

Altuve doesn’t do anything to improve that situation in the eighth, striking out looking on a pitch that was maybe outside, but the “maybe” part of that means he should have been protecting the plate instead of staring.

Correa hits a ball right back up the middle as I typed the above, and he’s no longer the only Astros player who hasn’t been on base in Game 3. Gurriel can’t keep it going, and we’re on to the ninth, where the Dodgers are down to their last three chances.

The Dodgers have nine outs left, and are not using them very well. Yasmani Grandal flies out on the first pitch he saw. Joc Pederson struck out without seeing a ball. And now Andre Ethier is pinch-hitting for Hernandez.

Ethier gets stranded, though, so the Dodgers are now down to six outs, still down by two.

Yuli Gurriel opens up the bottom of the seventh with a double, and that brings on a pitching change. It’s Tony Cingrani in to face Josh Reddick, who now has a chorus of woos instead of boos behind him in Houston.

Reddick bunts, but it pops up, and Cody Bellinger makes a good play to snag it. One out, but there is still a runner in scoring position for Gattis. He’s intentionally walked, bringing Gonzalez up, and he pops into the second out of the inning.

McCann comes to bat for some lefty-on-lefty action, and gets his third hit of Game 3 on an infield single. The bases are now loaded for George Springer, and there will be a new pitcher, again. Here’s Ross Stripling, who faced one batter in Game 2 and walked them.

Springer puts such a charge into a ball that he gives a little bat flip, and Stripling won’t even turn around to watch it. That swing was LOUD, but it also fell like, a foot short of being a grand slam, and was instead a deep fly ball out. A real deep fly ball out. It’s 5-3 after seven complete.

McCullers walks the leadoff batter, Seager, so there’s Brad Peacock up in the bullpen for the second time in this game. That brings up Justin Turner, who has just the one hit in this series so far.

The Dodgers need to capitalize here, because as said earlier, McCullers’ results look fine, but he isn’t pitching nearly as well as they suggest. And somehow, the Dodgers have only picked up the one run on him in spite of this.

Turner doubles for his second hit of the World Series, and that gives Bellinger two runners in scoring position. He looked awful in that plate appearance, and McCullers picks up his third strikeout and his first out here.

All three of McCullers’ strikeouts were to Bellinger, who is having a poor postseason after a strong debut campaign.

Brad Peacock gets the second out, but allows a run to score in the process. He’s staying in to face Chase Utley, who is old enough to be Peacock’s dad. The funny thing about using Utley as a pinch-hitter here is that he hasn’t been very good against right-handers, either, and as the broadcast notes, is in an 0-for-26 skid against them at the moment.

A run scores! But it’s not Utley’s doing, other than his decision to not swing at what ends up being a wild pitch that gets near the backstop. It’s 5-3, Astros, and all three runs were charged to McCullers.

The Astros might have five runs, but they’re into their bullpen, and that is a less positive place to be in for them than it is for the Dodgers. Brian McCann, George Springer, and Alex Bregman will be the ones to get the first crack at extending that lead, once again against Tony Watson.

Brandon Morrow is warming in the pen, and Chase Utley remains in the game at second base, replacing Forsythe.

Watson gets McCann to pop out, and his night is over. Morrow will be on the bump when Game 3 returns from commercial. Things do not start out well, with Springer hitting a grounder to Turner at third, who then sails a throw to first. Springer is safe.

Bregman follows it up with a walk, but Altuve can’t drive him or Springer in, and there are two outs. That leaves things up to Correa to make Morrow work and waste an appearance by a top Dodgers’ reliever by scoring.

Morrow shuts it all down with another strikeout, and the Dodgers keep the deficit at two after six.

The Dodgers will send Barnes, Pederson, and Hernandez to the plate in the fifth, with McCullers still on the mound. The broadcast mentions that McCullers has given up just the two hits in Game 3, but let’s not forget he walked three batters in a row, and that it took a ridiculous double play for him to get out of the trouble that could have caused.

Pederson gets a double because he immediately decided to go to second. Not to knock Puig for earlier too much, but that’s the difference here.

He gets moved over to third on an out, but it’s all for naught when George Springer makes a diving catch despite clearly giving it a misread when it initially came off the bat of Taylor.

Maeda is indeed still in to face the righties, and he gets Correa to ground out to Seager. Roberts isn’t going to wait for him to face Gurriel, though, as he brings in Tony Watson. That might have something to do with Gurriel’s reverse splits in his two years in the majors, or it might be because Maeda is at 42 pitches. Or a little bit of both!

Gurriel is out again, and on two pitches. Now Watson will face the left-handed Reddick, with the right-handed Gattis and switch-hitting Gonzalez due up after that.

Well it’s never good when your lefty reliever gives up a hit to a lefty, but that’s just what Watson did to Reddick, who now has his second knock of the game.

And now it’s 5-1, Houston, after a throw to first ends in a collision that gets Gattis over to second and the ball far enough away that Reddick scored. Gonzalez strikes out to end the inning, but it didn’t take long for Watson and the Dodgers to undo a little of what Maeda did for them. 5-1, Astros after five.

McCullers. Loves. That. Curve. Three of the four pitches to Cody Bellinger are curves, and the rookie strikes out on one that he swung well over. Yasiel Puig gets a single that gets past third base, realizes far too late he would have had a chance at second base, and takes off for the base. The problem is that by the time he ran to second, there was almost no way he was going to be safe, and he wasn’t. Two down.

It was a wide turn.

A fly out to Reddick later, and McCullers is able to put the sketchy third inning further behind him.

Maeda stays in the game to face the left-handed McCann, possibly because the next five batters are all right-handed. McCann pokes a ball into shallow left for a single, but Springer then strikes out on four pitches, and Bregman follows up with his own whiff.

Altuve grounds out, and Maeda is likely finished with Tony Watson warming and the righty at 38 pitches. Remember: there are games on Saturday and Sunday night, too, and the Dodgers can’t use every pitch Maeda has to give in the first game.

Then again, Correa and Gurriel are also right-handed and are due up, so Maeda might have a couple more batters left before his night is through.

McCullers had to wait around for quite awhile, but he probably just spent that time imagining all of the curveballs he was going to throw.

Too soon, Jeff.

Joc Pederson is the DH for the Dodgers, and he draws a nine-pitch walk. That brings up Kiké Hernandez, who is batting .412/.500/1.000 this postseason. McCullers walks Hernandez on four pitches, and suddenly, he looks awful, too. See, Dodgers? I said it was still early.

Taylor works a 3-2 count and then gets the third walk of the inning for the Dodgers by holding off on a breaking ball up and in. The bases are now loaded, there are no outs, and Houston already has their less-effective-than-the-Dodgers’ bullpen warming.

Also, Corey Seager is now up. He’s good at baseball.

Wow! There’s a grounder grabbed by Gurriel, thrown to Correa at second for the first out, and then back to first where McCullers covered for the second. It was real, real close, though, because McCullers’ foot barely touched the bag. Dave Roberts thought about challenging but decided not to, so McCullers’ foot got enough of it.

A run scores on the play, so it’s now 4-1, but there is now just the one baserunner and Houston has two outs rather than none. One more groundout gets McCullers out of a situation that could have been — and probably should have been — much, much worse. It’s 4-1, Astros.

Yuli Gurriel leads off the bottom of the second, but the right-hander is no trouble for Maeda, who remains in the game after relieving Darvish in the second.

Gattis draws another walk, bringing up Gonzalez with one on and two outs. Maeda’s not working particularly hard here, but he went from an easy inning to one with 18 pitches, and it’s a 3-2 count to Gonzalez.

Maeda gets out of it with a grounder, and he’s thrown 22 pitches. Will the Dodgers have another reliever in next inning, or is Maeda the one who will have to give them some length tonight?

Lance McCullers gets his first strikeout of the game, and you will be shocked, he used three curves to do it. Puig then grounds out on a fastball, just to remind you that McCullers has one of those.

Logan Forsythe picks up a two-out single, which should be terrifying for the Astros given how pitching has worked this postseason for lots of the teams. Catcher Austin Barnes will try to do something about the inning being extended.

Logan Forsythe steals second on what ends up being a 3-2 pitch to Barnes, but whatever, we already got our free tacos. The rest of these steals are meaningless.*

*as far as their ability to get free tacos for America is concerned

The steal ends up not mattering for non-taco purposes, too, as Barnes grounds out to end the second for the Dodgers’ lineup.

Yuli Gurriel just murdered a baseball. I don’t know what Statcast is going to say but probably that the ball went 500 mph off of the bat. It’s 1-0, Astros. Josh Reddick follows it up with a double, his first extra-base hit of the postseason. If his bat is there to help again like it was in the ALDS, that’s bad news for the Dodgers.

Evan Gattis is starting now that the DH is an option for the Astros again. Remember, the bearded muscled guy who bats righty is Gattis, the bearded muscled guy who bats lefty is Brian McCann.

Gattis draws a walk while I’m staring at his bat, realizing that it looks very tiny in his massive hands. We give Aaron Judge all the praise for being huge, but Gattis is 6-foot-4, 270 pounds. The Astros’ DH isn’t the biggest boy, but he’s still damn big.

Now here’s Marwin Gonzalez with no outs and two on.

Gonzalez tried a surprise drag bunt, but he didn’t get the pitch he needed to make it work.

While the drag bunt was a neat idea, Gonzalez swings when he has two strikes, and it pays off: he just crushed a ball to left center, and it hit the wall. That scores Josh Reddick, but Evan Gattis only gets to second since he can’t make his way back to the base as easily as Reddick would have had it been caught. It’s first and second with no outs for McCann.

McCann delivers with a hit that scores Gattis and moves Marwin Gonzalez to third. It’s 3-0 Astros, and there still isn’t an out. There is worse news, Dodgers’ fans: George Springer is up now.

Darvish can’t seem to locate well, and the Dodgers seem to know this isn’t just some bad luck. Kenta Maeda is now up in the Los Angeles bullpen, as Darvish is already at 45 pitches, most of them high-stress.

Darvish gets his first out of the inning on a liner that was smoked right to Logan Forsythe at second. The problem is that Alex Bregman is up and Jose Altuve is after him, and there are still two on.

There are now two outs, but Gonzalez also scores when Chris Taylor lets loose an awful throw following a liner to center. 4-0, Astros.

Hey remember when Yu Darvish was tipping his pitches and he got devastated and then supposedly that issue was fixed? I bring this up because everything hit off of him this inning has been crushed, including the double Altuve just hit.

That’s it for Darvish, and here comes Maeda to face the right-handed Correa with two runners in scoring position.

It’s far too early to give up on Game 3 — it’s the second inning, and the Dodgers are very capable of scoring four runs in a hurry. However, they might want to consider going to someone with some length after Maeda finishes up, if for no other reason than that this is the first of three games without a day off, and the Dodgers don’t want to give up the advantage they have in their bullpen over Houston by burning through arms.

Maeda gets a fly ball to end the inning and the threat, and it’s 4-0 Astros after two.

An important Lance McCullers tweet from 2015, which remains relevant for tonight’s Game 3 start:

He’s not wrong, is the thing.

McCullers will begin this game facing off against Chris Taylor, Corey Seager, and Justin Turner. Things don’t get different in the lineup until later on, thanks to the addition of a DH. The core of this Dodgers’ lineup is the usual array of frightening.

Wow it must be embarrassing that like all of the McCullers-based portions of the pre-show were about how many curveballs he throws and then his first five pitches were fastballs. Also he induced a pop out from Taylor, so the fastball plan worked!

More seriously, though, McCullers probably isn’t popping 20-plus curves in a row against the Dodgers: that worked against the Yankees, who were continually looking fastball, and by the time they realized a fastball wasn’t coming it was too late to do anything about it.

Altuve knocked a ball down in shallow right, recovered, threw to first, and managed to beat Seager there with said throw. Two down, nifty play.

Well now it’s embarrassing that I said he’d throw fewer curves tonight and then he rattled off six of them on his next seven pitches. The good news is that everyone is embarrassed, especially the Dodgers, who go down 1-2-3 to begin Game 3.

After a cold ALCS, George Springer’s bat seems to be heating up. He enters Game 3 batting .333/.400/.778, and then leads off the bottom of the first with a double, his third extra-base hit of the Fall Classic already. Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve will follow — Bregman isn’t moving back down in the lineup just because a righty is on the mound.

Bregman fails to drive in Springer or even move him to third, grounding out to third instead. Altuve at least moves Springer over with a fly ball, but he’s not very happy about it. This Astros’ lineup just keeps going, though, so here’s Carlos Correa, who has four homers this postseason.

Darvish gets Correa, too, so he manages to pitch around that leadoff double. It’s 0-0 after one.