HOUSTON — The World Series morphed into a video game Sunday night at Minute Maid Park.
It was a classic heavyweight battle, one haymaker after another.
The Astros showed from a baseball perspective what Houston Strong is all about, blasting five home runs as they slugged their way to a dream-like 13-12 victory in 10 innings over the Dodgers in Game 5 and a 3-2 lead in the Fall Classic.
The winning run came home on Alex Bregman’s two-out single to left off Kenley Jansen, scoring pinch-runner Derek Fisher, who came in for Brian McCann, from second base as the Astros raced out of their dugout to mob Bregman, perhaps the most confident Astro.
It happened 5 hours and 17 minutes after the first pitch. Incredible.
“We sent the home crowd away from Minute Maid for the season in pretty good fashion,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said.
The top five hitters for the Astros — George Springer, Bregman, Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and Yuli Gurriel — were 12-for-23 with four home runs and 12 RBIs.
Here is the mind of a hitter, what Bregman was thinking going to the plate in the 10th.
“Springer had a huge at-bat and walked right before me,” he said. “And I took one more swing on the on-deck circle, and I looked to Correa. Correa said, ‘It’s your time.’ And then I thought, what’s your approach going to be? I saw him last night and he threw me a slider and was fortunate enough to put a good swing on it and hit it out of the yard. I basically eliminated the slider, and I said, ‘I need to get a pitch that I can stay on top of because he’s a guy that throws high cutters, and a guy that gets a lot of fly-ball outs.’
“So I was looking for something down in the zone that I could stay on top of it. And Skip pinch-ran for McCann, put Fisher in. As soon as the ball left the bat, I knew Fisher would score. He’s probably the fastest guy in baseball.”
McCann’s solo home run in the eighth put the Astros ahead 12-9, but Yasiel Puig laced a two-run home run to left in the ninth and Chris Taylor lined a two-out, two-strike single to center to tie the score at 12.
The two teams have combined for 22 home runs in this World Series, the most home runs ever hit in a World Series.
NASA rocket blasts came from everywhere, and in the Space City seventh inning, with the Dodgers leading 8-7, a solo shot over the train tracks in left field by Springer against Brandon Morrow led off the inning to tie the game.
Then that MVP of a man Altuve put the Astros ahead with an RBI double. Altuve had crushed a three-run home run in the fifth.
After that, it was Correa’s turn to have some home-run fun. He lifted a two-run moonshot that snuck into the Crawford Boxes in left. Correa did his Carlton Fisk imitation, dancing down the first-base line and coaxing the ball into the stands.
Minute Maid Park was an explosion of sound from the 43,300 fans.
All that seventh-inning damage came against Morrow, who was pitching for the third straight day for the first time in his major league life and it showed. The Dodgers scored one run in the eighth and had some poor base running.
Astros ace Justin Verlander will pitch Game 6 Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium against lefty Rich Hill (8:20 p.m., FOX). Verlander can pitch the Astros to the franchise’s first World Series championship.
Will the bats stay this hot?
The Dodgers didn’t know what hit them on a night they started their ace, Clayton Kershaw. The Astros overcame deficits of 4-0, 7-4 and 8-7, and the Dodgers scored three in the ninth to tie.
Springer’s leadoff blast in that seventh inning came after he made a failed dive in center field on Cody Bellinger’s RBI triple. The ball got past him and went all the way to the wall as a run scored. Bellinger also had a three-run home run in the fifth.
Kershaw has made 19 postseason starts in his career and has not made it into the eighth inning once.
Gurriel homered in the fourth, the eighth home run Kershaw has surrendered this postseason. No pitcher ever has surrendered more home runs in the postseason.
This World Series is all about the long ball, but Bregman got the single that was needed to win the game.
“I knew he was going to do it,” Altuve said. “He likes those kind of situations. He’s calling for it. I knew he was ready to get the big hit. He did it. And I’m so happy for him because I love that guy.”
One more win and the Astros own baseball.