Two more wins.
Cody Bellinger had a pair of doubles, and Joc Pederson hit a three-run homer, as the Los Angeles Dodgers evened the World Series at 2-2, after coming from behind to defeat the Houston Astros, 6-2, in Game 4 on Saturday night.
After his four-strikeout performance in Game 3 on Friday, Bellinger got off the mat and put the Dodgers on his back in the crucial Game 4 at Minute Maid Park.
"I felt good today. Made some adjustments pregame, and like I said, I hit every ball in BP today to the left side of the infield," said Bellinger following the win. "I've never done that before in my life. Usually I try to lift. I needed to make an adjustment, and saw some results today."
The soon-to-be announced N.L. Rookie of the Year broke a 1-1 tie in the top of the ninth with an RBI double to left-center that scored Corey Seager from second base.
"Yeah, sigh of relief," said Bellinger after struggling in the first three games of the series. "I hit it and I was just hoping that it faded into the wall, just so he didn't catch it. Luckily it did. I don't know what I did, I just had a super sigh of relief, that's for sure."
Bellinger became the ninth Dodger in franchise history to record two doubles in a World Series game and the first since Orel Hershiser did it in Game 2 of the 1988 Fall Classic.
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"For him to really keep that calmness about him says a lot about the makeup of the player," said Dodgers' manager Dave Roberts of Bellinger. "There's certain players that just have that innate ability to be in that spot, to want to be in that big spot. And Cody, you can see the heartbeat is really good."
At 22-years-old, Bellinger became the youngest player in World Series history to collect multiple doubles in a single game.
Three batters later, Austin Barnes drove home a vital insurance ran with a sac fly to right field that scored pinch-runner Charlie Culberson.
Two pitches later, Joc Pederson broke the game open with a three-run home run to right field and the Dodgers took a commanding 6-1 lead.
Before the bats came alive, it was an old fashioned pitcher's duel between Alex Wood and Charlie Morton.
In his second career postseason start, pitching for just the second time in 32 days, Wood had a no-hitter through 5 and 2/3 innings--the longest no-hit bid in Dodgers franchise history--before George Springer stepped into the box for the third time in the bottom of the sixth.
"Yeah, once I was heading into the 5th, I kind of thought about it a little bit," Wood said of his no-hit bid. "It's been a whirlwind of emotion for me. Kind of caught up to me between innings there. I believe in fate, and I believe everything happens for a reason. And a lot of things, my parents got engaged on this date almost 30 years ago. My best friend's eight-year anniversary of his accident, getting paralyzed, my fiancée's birthday today, I always truly believe in God's timing. And I'm just happy it went the way it did."
Five pitches later, the no-hitter was gone, the shutout was gone, and at the time it appeared that the Dodgers dreams of their first World Series title were dashed as Springer crushed a curveball into the Crawford Box in left field for the first run of the game.
"You can't really control -- none of us can really control that," Wood said of Springer's homer ending the no-hit bid. "And plus if we're going to hand the ball over, it's nice to hand it over to Brandon Morrow in that situation; he's been unbelievable."
Springer became the first Astro in franchise history to have multiple home runs in the World Series, and now has five hits in the Fall Classic, tied for the most in Houston history.
Thankfully, it didn't take the Dodgers too long to answer as Bellinger drove a double into the gap in left-center in the top half of the seventh.
Two batters later, Logan Forysthe brought home Bellinger with an RBI single to left field and the Dodgers had the equalizer.
Forsythe's single snapped a 1-for-17 streak with runners in scoring position in the World Series for the Dodgers.
Meanwhile, in his fourth postseason start, Charlie Morton was masterful, allowing just one run on three hits with no walks and seven strikeouts in 6 and 1/3 innings.
"Charlie had done his job," said Astros' manager A.J. Hinch. "He'd had a little trouble in the 6th, and then obviously was misfiring a little bit in the 7th. In these type of games when it doesn't work out, you obviously look the out at what could have been. Charlie hadn't pitched that deep into the games much of the season and done his job, that's what I was telling him."
It was the first time in World Series history that both starting pitchers allowed just four baserunners or less in a single game.
The game fell into the hands of the bullpens, a clear advantage for the Boys in Blue who sported the best bullpen in baseball all year long.
Brandon Morrow, Tony Watson, and Kenley Jansen combined to allow just one run over 3.1 innings, whereas the Astros bullpen imploded, allowing five runs in 2.2 innings of relief.
Morrow's appearance was his 11th this postseason, setting a new Dodgers franchise record.
Jansen surrendered a two-out home run to Alex Bregman in the bottom of the ninth, but by that point the outcome was no longer in doubt.
The victory guaranteed the Dodgers would return home to Los Angeles for at least a Game 6 on Tuesday night at Chavez Ravine as it's now a best-of-three series for the trophy.
The Astros lost for the first time at home this postseason, as they fell one win shy of setting a new MLB record at 8-0 at home in the playoffs.
In the last 112 editions of the Fall Classic, when a series is tied 2-2, the winner of Game 5 goes on to win the World Series 66 percent of the time, with the home team in Game 5 winning 59 percent of the time.
Up Next:
It will be an encore performance of aces in the pivotal Game 5 as Clayton Kershaw will head to the mound against Dallas Keuchel at 5:20PM PST.
