Cuban Yordan Álvarez leads Astros' third victory over Nationals

October 28, 2019

Gerrit Cole's gem of a performance, home runs by Yordan Álvarez, Carlos Correa and George Springer, guided the Houston Astros to a 7-1 victory over the Nationals to complete a three-game sweep in Washington, in the fifth game of the World Series, on Sunday before 43,910 fans.

With this triumph, the Astros go up 3-2 and the series moves to Houston's Minute Maid Park for the next two games, the seventh if necessary.

With his three hits in an equal number of at-bats, the native of Las Tunas has accumulated six in eleven times at bat for an average of .545 in the World Series. While the Spirituan Gurriel does so for .318, with four RBIs.

Álvarez's home run came off at a speed of 106.4 miles per hour with a distance of 405 feet from home plate. With his hit, he became the youngest Cuban player to hit a home run in a postseason game, at 22 years and 122 days old, surpassing the previous record that belonged to Jorge Soler who did it with the Chicago Cubs in 2015, at 23 years and 227 days old.

Houston opened the scoring in the second inning off right-hander starter Joe Ross with a single by Gurriel and a line home run through center field by Álvarez.

In the fourth, the Astros added two more with a rocket by Álvarez to right field and a grand slam to left field by Carlos Correa.

On the Houston mound, right-hander Gerrit Cole worked airtight for seven complete innings where they scored only one run in the bottom of the seventh by a solo home run by Dominican Juan Soto through center field that made the score 4-1.

As in baseball defense saves games. It is worth highlighting what happened in the sixth inning with one out on the board, when Gurriel made a spectacular play on a ball hit down the right line that would have been a double or triple, diving headfirst to catch the ball and then running to first base making another hand dive to touch the base with the ball in his glove before the runner did.

The night before, Yuli had made another similar play on a hit by Trea Turner, but the one he made on Sunday was superior to the one on Saturday.

Already with 110 pitches thrown, Cole was not going to pitch in the eighth and a three-run lead seemed small. The Astros needed more runs.

And so it happened in the eighth with Daniel Hudson pitching when Springer hit a double, advanced to second on a hit by José Altuve and Michael Brandley received a walk. In this situation, after Alex Bregman failed on a short fly to right field with runners on third and first, Gurriel took charge of driving in the important fifth run with a single to center to put the game at 5-1.

Houston was not satisfied with a four-run lead and in the ninth added two more with a single by Martín Maldonado and a home run by Springer.

The eighth inning for the Astros was thrown by Joe Smith who held the line and the ninth was handled by Ryan Pressley dominating the three batters he faced to seal the victory.

The winning pitcher was Gerrit Cole who in seven complete innings allowed three hits, one run, gave two walks and struck out eight batters. The loss was suffered by Joe Ross who in five innings accepted four runs, gave two walks and struck out one.

Among the Latino players, for Houston the Cuban Yordan Álvarez 3-for-3 with a home run, two RBIs and two runs scored, Yuli Gurriel 4-for-2 with one RBI and one run scored; Puerto Ricans Carlos Correa 4-for-1 with a home run, two RBIs and one run scored, Martín Maldonado 3-for-1 and one run scored; Venezuelan José Altuve 5-for-1. For Washington, Dominicans Juan Soto 4-for-2 with a home run and one RBI, Víctor Robles 3-for-0; Venezuelans Gerardo Parra and Asdrúbal Cabrera 1-for-0. Brazilian Yan Gomes 3-for-1.

The series moves to Houston's Minute Maid Park for the sixth and seventh games (the latter if necessary). The Astros only need one victory and if they get it they would become the third team in history since the 2-3-2 format began to win a World Series after losing the first two games. While the Nationals are forced to win both games on the road.

On Tuesday starting at 8:07 p.m., stellar pitchers Justin Verlander for the Astros and Stephen Strasburg for the Nationals will take the mound.