Astros win Game 3 vs. Nationals, cut World Series deficit in half
The first World Series game in D.C. since 1933 didn't go the way of the home team.
The Houston Astros have won their first game of the 2019 Fall Classic, beating the Washington Nationals 4-1 at Nationals Park in Game 3 on Friday and cutting the home team's lead in the World Series down to 2-1.
"It kind of re-establishes us in this series," Astros manager AJ Hinch said, according to MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince. "When they come into our ballpark and beat Gerrit (Cole) and Justin (Verlander), that's a big punch. They threw a big punch at the beginning of this series.
"Now we've got enough experience and enough feel about how series go that we knew - we win today, get a little mojo back on our side, get a little bit of momentum, start to swing the bats a little bit better, we're not afraid of playing in any venue. The fans here were incredible and just alive, like you would expect in the World Series. And our players thrive on that, too."
This marks the first time the road team has won the first three games of a World Series since 1996, when the Atlanta Braves took the first two games at Yankee Stadium before the New York Yankees took the next three at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. The Yankees wound up winning the series in six games.
Houston's win breaks an eight-game postseason winning streak for the Nationals, which dated back to the NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Josh James earned the win after being the first reliever to come out of the bullpen following Zack Greinke's 4 2/3-inning effort. James struck out Ryan Zimmerman - the only batter the right-hander faced - to end the fifth inning, while Greinke allowed one run on seven hits and three walks while striking out six.
Anibal Sanchez took the loss, allowing four runs on 10 hits and one walk over 5 1/3 innings, striking out four.
The contest, in front of a sellout crowd of 43,867, wound up lasting four hours and three minutes, making it the first time a World Series game that featured five or fewer runs lasted longer than four hours without going to extras, according to Baseball Reference. It's also now the first World Series to feature two nine-inning games that lasted longer than four hours.
Following the contest, Astros manager AJ Hinch said that Jose Urquidy would start Saturday's Game 4, opposite Nationals left-hander Patrick Corbin. This will mark Urquidy's first postseason start of his young career. The 24-year-old has allowed one run on six hits and two walks over 4 2/3 innings in the playoffs this year while striking out eight in two relief appearances.