Houston shut down the Washington offense for a second straight night, this time behind rookie Jose Urquidy’s five scoreless innings, and the Astros evened the World Series at two games apiece with an 8-1 win Saturday night at Nats Park.
The unheralded Urquidy put in easily the best performance by a Houston starter in this World Series, giving up two hits and striking out four, and only needing 67 pitches to get through his five innings, in outdueling Nats starter Patrick Corbin.
Corbin gave up two runs in a rocky 25-pitch first, giving up RBI singles to Alex Bregman and Yuli Gurriel.
Robinson Chirinos added a two-run homer off Corbin in the fourth that made it 4-0 Houston.
Washington closed to 4-1 in the sixth on an RBI groundout by Juan Soto, but Howie Kendrick struck out with two on and two out to end that threat.
Then, the Nationals bullpen, the team’s Achilles heel all season, imploded in the seventh.
Tanner Rainey walked Kyle Tucker and George Springer, then was relieved by Fernando Rodney after getting Jose Altuve to fly out to right.
Rodney allowed a Michael Brantly single that loaded the bases, ahead of a Bregman 392-foot bomb to left, a grand slam that made it 8-1.
The Nats threatened in the bottom half of the inning, but, story of the night, Trea Turner, hitting with two on and two out, hit a sharp grounder to first that Gurriel, essentially playing at normal positioning for a second baseman, snagged with a diving stop, robbing Turner of extra bases, then beating Turner to the bag for the third out.
Washington also got two on with one out in the eighth, but Kendrick struck out, and Zimmerman flew out to right to end that threat.
Tough night for the Nats, who have lost two straight at home after coming back to DC with a 2-0 series lead.
Story by Chris Graham
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