ATLANTA — With one smooth swing of a Brave’s bat in the first inning, the Astros’ starting pitching struggled mightily on Halloween night in an elimination game against Atlanta in Game 5 of the World Series.
With 104 swings of arms in response, however, the Astros rebounded on the mound with an otherwise charmed season hanging in the balance. Five Astros relievers combined to shut down the Braves over the final 6⅓ innings of Houston’s 9-5 comeback win that shoved the series back to Houston for Game 6 on Tuesday night.
The entire town of Atlanta was rocking and getting ready to celebrate the Braves’ first World Series title since 1995 when Braves center fielder Adam Duvall stroked a grand slam in the first inning off Astros starter Framber Valdez, in abruptly lifting Atlanta to a 4-0 lead.
"I’d rather score (those go-ahead runs) in the seventh inning, when you don’t have so much time to cover,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “(But) that was exciting. We knew we had a long, long way to go in the game and that anything could happen. It would have been great if we could have kept adding on.
“We just weren’t able to do that.”
Valdez allowed all five of Atlanta’s runs over 2⅔ innings before giving way to Yimi Garcia, Jose Urquidy, Phil Maton, Ryne Stanek and Kendall Graveman. Urquidy, scheduled to start the then-potential Game 6 in Houston on Tuesday, wound up with the win courtesy of pitching a scoreless bottom of the fourth prior to the Astros scoring three runs in the top of the fifth to grab a 7-5 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
“It’s a nine-inning game, and they didn’t quit, they kept fighting,” Duvall said of the Astros. “We weren’t able to get it going again and keep the pressure on, and that’s hats off to their pitchers. They kept us where they needed to.”
Only Maton allowed more than one hit among the relievers, and that was two over two innings. Graveman matched Maton with two innings to close out the game and allowed a lone hit.
Maton also collected a team-high three strikeouts, while Graveman followed with two. Both hard-throwing righthanders were acquired before the trade deadline in the summer to bolster what had been a team weakness the first few months of the season — the bullpen.
“When you’re down 3-1 (in a series), you’ve just got to kind of pull out all the stops to your rotation,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said of mixing Urquidy among the relievers on Sunday. “If a guy is tired, it really doesn’t matter because your next step is home, and we weren’t ready to go home.
“All the guys gutted it out and gave us all they had, including Urquidy.”
Now with Monday off as the teams travel back to Houston, the Astros should be in decent shape for Game 6 in the bullpen, and Baker said he expects Luis Garcia to start Game 6 with the Astros once again facing elimination.
The Astros, who trail the Braves 3-2 in the series, will need victories in Game 6 on Tuesday and a potential Game 7 on Wednesday to win their first World Series title since 2017, and second in franchise history.
The Braves were trying to win the World Series at home with a third consecutive victory in Truist Park, but blew the early four-run lead and will now try and win a title in Houston.
“If we win the World Series, it doesn’t matter where it is,” Snitker said. “(But) I’d have loved to have done it in front of our fans. Hopefully, we can do it in the next couple of days.”
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Bullpen saves Astros again in Game 5 win - Houston Chronicle
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