The Houston Astros will face the Washington Nationals in Game 3 of the World Series on Friday at Nationals Park. The game will be broadcast on FOX, and first pitch is scheduled for 8:07 p.m. Eastern time.
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If it wasn’t already obvious, the Houston Astros are in trouble. They trail the Washington Nationals, 2-0, in the best-of-seven World Series, having lost both games at home. According to MLB.com, teams that have gone up 2-0 in a best-of-seven postseason series have gone on to prevail in 71 of 84 instances.
The last team to come back from a 0-2 deficit was the Boston Red Sox against the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series, which they won in seven games after losing the first three. The Red Sox went on to claim the World Series title. The last example in the World Series: The 1996 Yankees, who dropped the first two games and then won four straight to win the crown.
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The Astros need Zack Greinke, a six-time All-Star and the 2009 A.L. Cy Young Award winner, more than ever. They landed him in a blockbuster July 31 trade to fortify their starting rotation with a World Series in mind. He is starting Game 3 and will be opposed by the Nationals’ Anibal Sanchez. While Greinke might be the better pitcher, Sanchez is no slouch; he had a 3.85 earned run average during the regular season and features an array of diving and darting pitches. He has allowed just one run in 12 2/3 innings this postseason. Greinke, on the hand, was torched for six runs in the first round by the Tampa Bay Rays and then allowed four runs in 10 1/3 innings against the Yankees.
Perhaps the biggest reason the Astros need Greinke: they have only three starters on their World Series roster. Jose Urquidy and Brad Peacock, who started the Astros’ bullpen game in the last round, have both started games in the regular season, but neither are of the same caliber of Nationals’ Game 4 starter: Patrick Corbin.
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It is Juan Soto’s birthday on Friday. He is the ripe age of 21 now — much younger than the rest of his team of “viejos.” Soto, the Nationals’ star left fielder, is hitting cleanup in Game 3; he leads all players in the World Series with three extra-base hits.
The Astros, on the other hand, had a notable decision to make about Yordan Alvarez, their power-hitting rookie outfielder. He was their main designated hitter during the regular season, but the third outfield spot alongside George Springer and Michael Brantley has been mainly manned this postseason by Kyle Tucker or Josh Reddick, both more capable defenders than Alvarez. Astros Manager A.J. Hinch did not put Alvarez in the lineup on Friday, but said he expected Alvarez to bat in Game 3. Hinch has said Alvarez would man Nationals Park’s large left field at some point.
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The Astros fired the assistant general manager Brandon Taubman on Thursday for his inappropriate comments last week. He yelled, “Thank God we got Osuna,” with an added expletive, at a group of female reporters in Houston’s clubhouse after the Astros clinched the A.L.C.S. Astros General Manager Jeff Luhnow addressed reporters for the first time about the scandal on Thursday. But questions still persisted about the team’s handling of the situation and its original statement that falsely labeled the article by Sports Illustrated reporter Stephanie Apstein, who first wrote about Taubman’s behavior, as “misleading and irresponsible” and a “fabrication.”