Yasiel Puig homered and drove in another as the Los Angeles Dodgers rallied to beat World Series champions the Chicago Cubs 5-2 to open their MLB playoff series.
The Dodgers, sent packing by the Cubs in last year’s National League Championship Series, took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series with Game 2 set for yesterday at Dodger Stadium.
The winner of the series will play either the Houston Astros or the New York Yankees in the World Series.
Photo: AP
The Dodgers received a pre-game blow when a back injury to Corey Seager forced the All-Star shortstop off the roster.
However, they managed fine without him, with homers from Puig and Chris Taylor.
Puig homered to lead off the bottom of the seventh, sending the Dodger Stadium crowd in to a frenzy.
“He loves the big stage and his only focus is helping us continue to win baseball games,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the mercurial Cuban. “So right now he’s playing at a high level, and not only the fans, but his teammates are feeding off of it.”
Charlie Culberson followed with a double and after Taylor singled, raced home on a single from Justin Turner.
Culberson was ruled out at home plate, but that call was overturned on review, with officials saying that Contreras violated the home plate collision rule by illegally blocking his path to the plate.
Incensed Cubs manager Joe Maddon burst from the dugout to argue and was promptly ejected.
Maddon said that Wilson had no choice but to move toward the baseline to catch the ball.
“His technique was absolutely 100 percent perfect,” Maddon said. “I could not disagree more with the interpretation of that.”
ASTROS VS YANKEES
AFP, LOS ANGELES
Carlos Correa on Saturday homered and delivered a walk-off double for the Astros in a 2-1 win over the Yankees in the American League Championship Series.
The Astros second straight home victory gave them a 2-0 lead over the Yankees in the best-of-seven matchup.
Correa’s ninth-inning effort ensured the Astros capitalized on a stellar performance from starting pitcher Justin Verlander.
Correa smacked a three-ball, two-strike fastball from Aroldis Chapman into the right center-field gap to score Jose Altuve from first base.
Altuve raced around the bases, scoring when Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge made his relay throw toward the middle of the infield and catcher Gary Sanchez could not grab the subsequent throw to home.
Verlander worked nine innings, allowing one run on five hits with one walk and 13 strikeouts.
He threw 124 pitches — 93 of them for strikes — and held off the Yankees to give the Astros a chance to rally.
“He was exceptional in every way,” Astros manager AJ Hinch said of Verlander. “He put us on his back today with his pitching.”
Both teams put runs on the board in odd ways.
In the fourth inning, Correa turned a 159.33kph fastball from Luis Severino for a home run to right.
The ball barely eluded Judge and a young fan in the first row of seats deflected it into the stands.
“I love that kid,” Hinch said, “I want to leave that kid tickets.”
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