World Series Game 2 live: Houston Astros batter Zack Wheeler to take early lead over Philadelphia Phillies | World Series

Phillies 0-3 Astros, top 3rd inning

Valdez is back out, facing Edmundo Sosa. Sosa takes a breaking pitch for a ball. 1-0. Then the next pitch is a called strike. 1-1. And a foul ball. 1-2. Sosa calls time. The next pitch is in the dirt. 2-2. Sosa fouls the next pitch away. 2-2. Another foul: Sosa is playing the “keep the at-bat alive” game. 2-2. Sosa swings and misses. The at-bat is officially dead.

Phillies 0-3 Astros, bottom 2nd inning

And Peña lines out to short to end the second inning. Much less drama that go around.

Phillies 0-3 Astros, bottom 2nd inning

Altuve, who started off the game with a bang, is already back up there and he just pops out this time around. Still, can’t blame him for keeping up with the aggressive swinging.

Phillies 0-3 Astros, bottom 2nd inning

Martin Maldonado is up next. He falls behind 0-2 and then 0-3. That’s a strikeout for the first out of the inning. McCormick is still on first.

Phillies 0-3 Astros, bottom 2nd inning

Wheeler is up again, hoping for a better second inning than his first. He faces Chas McCormick who works a full count. The batters are seeing him well. And he takes a walk. Yet another Astros baserunner.

Just posting this as proof that I didn’t hallucinate that particular bit of baseball wisdom. Nope, other people heard it too:

Phillies 0-3 Astros, top 2nd inning

Matt Vierling is up next. I believe he’s making his World Series hitting debut. He fouls off the first pitch he sees and then hits a chopper to the infield and that’ll do it for the Phillies in the second. See, that would have been worse for Houston had Bohm hit a home run. Instead, Philadelphia remains scoreless.

Phillies 0-3 Astros, top 2nd inning

We get a “walk is worse than a home run” commentary here which is… very bad commentary. A home run equals at least one run while a walk doesn’t necessarily mean that. However, it’s not great that Bohm is on first. Jean Segura is up next and he promptly strikes out looking on three pitches.

Phillies 0-3 Astros, top 2nd inning

Alec Bohm is up next. He takes a ball and then fouls off the next offering. 1-1. He takes another pitch outside. 2-1. He rips the next one foul and out of play. 2-2. And the next pitch is outside and so is the one after that and that will be a Bohm base-on-balls.

Phillies 0-3 Astros, top 2nd inning

Valdez is back out to pitch, working with a three-run cushion. He has to learn from Justin Verlander’s mistakes yesterday and keep focused. He seems focused here, putting Nick Castellanos into a 0-2 hole and getting him to strike out swinging.

Phillies 0-3 Astros, bottom 1st inning

Aledmys Díaz is up next and Wheeler falls behind him. 2-1. He fouls off a pitch, 2-2. Wheeler can finally end this nightmare inning by getting another strike here. And he does! He gets a swing and miss to finish up the first but his team is already down three runs.

Of course, as we saw yesterday, a lot can happen in a baseball game. Plenty of outs remain.

Run-scoring error! (Astros) Phillies 0-3 Astros

Phillies 0-2 Astros, bottom 1st inning

Kyle Tucker is up next, He takes a ball, he’s not first-pitch swinging it seems, He fouls off a pitch and then takes two more balls. 3-1 count. Tucker swings and hits a flyball out. On the play, Álvarez takes third base.

Phillies 0-2 Astros, bottom 1st inning

Alex Bregman grounds out to short. That’s the first out of the inning for Houston. Is Wheeler tipping his pitches?

Run-scoring double! (Astros) Phillies 0-2 Astros

Run-scoring double! (Astros) Phillies 0-1 Astros

Phillies 0-0 Astros, bottom 1st inning

Zack Wheeler is out to pitch for the Phillies. He will be first facing Jose Altuve, who has been in something of a slump. Oh that will cure that, he slams the first pitch he sees for a leadoff double!

I honestly lose all sense of time when covering baseball. Sometimes that’s the positive thing about this sport. Not so much when I’m on deadline.

Phillies 0-0 Astros, top 1st inning

Bryce Harper is up now. Valdez’s first pitch is a sinker called for a ball. 1-0. On the next pitch, he throws a pitch right around the same spot, but this time it’s in the strike zone. 1-1. On the next pitch, Harper grounds it foul for strike two. 1-2. Now the “strike rooting” cheers are properly loud as this is a chance for the Astros to get out of the inning. Harper flies out on the next pitch and that, indeed, will end our first half-inning.

Phillies 0-0 Astros, top 1st inning

Yesterday’s hero J.T. Realmuto takes a strike. 0-1. Then he swings away at another pitch. That’s strike two. 0-2. Realmuto fouls the next pitch off to stay alive. The next pitch is just outside. 1-2 and here come our first boos from the umpires in the stand. The next pitch is also a ball. 2-2. On the next pitch, Valdez throws a curve that Realmuto can’t connect with and that’s the first strikeout victim of the game.

Phillies 0-0 Astros, top 1st inning

Rhys Hoskins is up next. He takes a ball in the dirt and then a strike-looking. The next pitch, Hoskins fouls it off. Valdez is up 1-2 and we get the first “cheering for a strikeout” moment of the game but, since Minute Maid Park is still in the process of filling up, it’s rather muted. Hoskins takes a pitch outside, fouls a ball off and then takes ball three. Full count. The next pitch? That’s outside and Hoskins takes a walk. He will be Philadelphia’s first baserunner.

Phillies 0-0 Astros, top 1st inning

Schwarber gets ahead of the count 2-1 after that first pitch strike. Make that 3-1 after another pitch outside. He swings at the next pitch and grounds out for the game’s first out.

First pitch!

I am absolutely confounded by this montage. Baseball is like painting, I guess? This has been more Jackson Pollock than Rembrandt if that’s true.

In any case, first pitch is on its way.

John Smoltz’s take: the Phillies would rather win tonight and go up 2-0. He’s going on a limb here.

National Anthem

It’s country band Little Big Town with “The Star Spangled Banner.” Hope they remember the lyrics, as yesterday’s singer had a bit of an issue with that.

It’s a solid rendition, 7/10. They don’t stretch out the final few words which is the key to any acceptable anthem performance.

Just in case that yesterday’s extra-inning theatrics would be enough to get MLB to stop using the “ghost runner” during the regular season after games are tied after nine innings… of course they’re not going to change it! This is Rob Manfred’s MLB.

Predictions

Well, here’s my dilemma: I had the Houston Astros in five before the start of the World Series. So, by my math, that means I have to root for Houston to win these next four games. I’ve kind of painted myself into a corner.

Still, it feels like Philadelphia was aiming for a split here so they won’t be devastated while the Astros pretty much can’t afford to go down 0-2. I’m expecting Houston to come out with all guns blazing. Maybe a 7-2 win.

Of course, I was wrong yesterday so don’t go making bets with my predictions in mind. Have a different prediction? Or the same? Feel free to send your thoughts and analysis here, either via email (to hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com) or Twitter (to @HunterFelt).

Email from “Another Dan” in Toronto on the talent of one Dan Shulman:

Hunter,

I take pictures for a living – occasionally at MLB games – but no one paints more vivid images of what’s happening on the diamond than ESPN Radio’s Dan Shulman. A sumptuous voice that fills every corner of a listener’s ‘theatre of the mind’.

Turn on the telecast, mute the sound and let Shulman’s exemplary play call almost make the cameras seem redundant.

I will add that it’s never a bad decision to mute John Smoltz.

Labeling Astros manager Dusty Baker as the “co-creator” of the high-five is a bit much from this soft-focus interview. It was actually late teammate Glenn Burke who deserves the lion’s share of the credit. Check the story out.

Listen, I am re-reading James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake” so my brain is now operating solely on unconscious puns. I shall try to be more conscious of this going forward. Nobody needs baseball play-by-play that is written entirely in neologisms.

Houston Astros starting lineup

1. Jose Altuve, 2B

2. Jeremy Peña, SS

3. Yordan Álvarez, DH

4. Alex Bregman, 3B

5. Kyle Tucker, RF

6. Yuli Gurriel, 1B

7. Aledmys Díaz, LF

8. Chas McCormick, CF

9. Martín Maldonado, C

Pitcher: Framber Valdez

Philadelphia Phillies starting lineup

1. Kyle Schwarber, LF

2. Rhys Hoskins, 1B

3. J.T. Realmuto, C

4. Bryce Harper, DH

5. Nick Castellanos, RF

6. Alec Bohm, 3B

7. Jean Segura, 2B

8. Matt Vierling, CF

9. Edmundo Sosa, SS

Pitcher: Zack Wheeler

Where to watch Game 2 of the World Series

As always, we’ll start with the most important detail: where to actually follow tonight’s World Series Game 2. It’s basically the same deal as Game 1.

In the US, it’s live on FOX and also listen on your local ESPN Radio affiliate or, barring that, ESPNradio.com. The start time, again, is 8:03 pm EST. In the UK, you can screen it on BT Sports starting at 1:03 BST and, online, through the BT Sports app. I’m sure there are other ways of going about it but these are the most above-the-board ways to find the game.

Preamble

Well, I can’t be the only one still not recovered from yesterday’s Game 1. The Houston Astros had an early 5-0 lead and Justin Verlander was pitching a gem. It looked like they were going to cruise to an easy Game 1 victory but the Philadelphia Phillies quickly tied it up and then we were treated to a bullpen dual until Philadelphia’s J.T. Realmuto untied the game in the 10^th inning with a solo home run that ended up being the game-winner. The Phillies won 6-5 and guaranteed themselves at least a split here in Minute Maid Park to start the series.

This is how the Phillies got this far. In every series this offseason, their opponents were supposed to easily win. Instead, Philadelphia has acted as the ultimate disrupter, winning games and, to this point, series because they simply don’t think about how big the odds stacked against them are.

Until yesterday, the Astros hadn’t even lost a game in the entire postseason. Now they find themselves having to deal with their first setback at the most inopportune time. So now it’s Houston on the ropes. The superior team on paper, the Astros still can’t afford to fall behind 0-2 in this World Series, especially with the series moving to Philadelphia for Game 3. The Phillies are putting co-ace Zack Wheeler on the mound while the Astros will start All-Star Framber Valdez. Maybe this will be the pitching duel that we didn’t get on Friday.

As always, we’ll be taking your thoughts and comments throughout today’s game. You can email us at hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com or tweet us at @HunterFelt and we’ll post them for all to see. It’s Game 2 of the 2022 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park. Again, we’re scheduled to start at 8:03 pm EST but we’ll be back blogging well before that.

Prelude