The World Series returns tonight for Game 2 between the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros. After Atlanta raced to a convincing win in Game 1, Houston is on its heels. We will be following along live.
The World Series returns tonight for Game 2 between the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros. After Atlanta raced to a convincing win in Game 1, Houston is on its heels. We will be following along live. By David Waldstein The Houston Astros have not played a game with the retractable roof open at Minute Maid Park since April. But Major League Baseball mandated that it be opened for Game 2 of the World Series on Wednesday. Dusty Baker, the Astros’ manager, said opening the roof could take away some of his team’s natural home-field advantage because his players were not used to the conditions. “There’s always going to be a predominant wind direction, which with the roof open will probably take away some of our home-field advantage,” he said, “because we don’t really probably know much more how the ball’s going to carry in a predominant wind any more than they do.” Then again, Houston has not won a World Series home game in their last five tries, losing four times to Washington in 2019 and Tuesday’s Game 1 to Atlanta. By Alan Blinder Atlanta had a big lead on Tuesday when Eddie Rosario — who else? — mastered one of Minute Maid Park’s outfield quirks. Yuli Gurriel swung on the first pitch he saw from Tyler Matzek and drove the ball high into left, where it hit just below the all-important yellow line (but still far higher than most outfield fences), bounced near the warning track and reached Rosario’s waiting glove. Rosario turned and fired to second, where Ozzie Albies tagged Gurriel to end the eighth inning. Eddie Rosario’s terrific October continues. #WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/Z6jFMQWgoo But with Game 2 — and possibly Games 6 and 7 — to be played in Houston, it’s entirely possible we will see more unusual plays in the outfield before this series is done. “I’d say it’s one of the trickiest outfields in the big leagues, just the way it bounces off the surfaces,” said Adam Duvall, who played center and right on Tuesday. With Minute Maid overflowing with strange things to hit — padding, brick, the outfield fence, safety fences, the scoreboard and a roof — Duvall said Atlanta’s outfielders had spent time ahead of the series practicing how to deal with their varied effects.
