HOUSTON — Starting pitchers for the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros, right-handers Aaron Nola Y Justin Verlanderdidn’t make it past the fifth inning in Game 1 of the 2022 Major League Baseball World Series on Friday at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
Nola, the Phillies’ second-best pitcher (behind right-hander Zack Wheeler, the Game 2 starter), was penalized with six hits and five earned runs in 4 1/3 innings. Verlander, the heavy favorite for the AL Cy Young Award this season and a future Hall of Famer, was blasted with six hits and five earned runs in five innings.
Ironically, the last two starting pitchers to allow five or more runs in a major league opener were the Phillies and Astros: The Dominican left-hander Framber Valdezof the Astros, did it in game 5 of last year against the Atlanta Braves and the American left-hander Cliff Lee, of the Phillies, in game 5 of the 2009 series against the New York Yankees.
Fortunately for Nola and Verlander, by matching poor performances, they left without a decision at the start of the 118th edition of the tournament that faces the champions of the American and National leagues since 1903.
Nola transferred the Cuban outfielder Yordan Alvarez, but drew zero, with 18 pitches in the first inning. In the second, he was rocked by the outfielder’s home run. Kyle Tucker and singles by the Cuban initialist yuli gurrielthe gardener Chas McCormick and the Puerto Rican receiver Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hit, on the sixth pitch of the shift and on a 1-2 count, drove in the second run, before the Venezuelan second baseman Jose Altuve hit into a double play on Nola’s first pitch.
In the third, the right-hander doubled the Dominican shortstop Jeremy Penadominated Álvarez with a slow grounder by third baseman, bowled the third baseman alex bregman and then came the second home run of the night for Tucker, now a three-run producer, who made it 5-0 for the hosts.
After allowing nine hits and one run in 12 2/3 innings to the St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta in his first two outings, Nola has been hit with 13 hits and 11 returns in nine innings by the San Diego Padres and Astros in the past two. , in the postseason.
But the Phillies’ offense, the main reason they reached the World Series for the first time since 2009, scored three times against Verlander in the fourth and twice in the fifth to tie it 5-5 and silence most of the players. 42,903 that packed the Astros park.
Two-run doubles, each by third baseman Alec Bohn and catcher JT Realmuto, led Philadelphia’s rebellion in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively.
For the third time in his career, Verlander allowed five or more runs in a World Series opener. It happened to him in 2006 and 2012 as well. He now has eight starts without a win, the longest streak of all time, and is 0-6 with a 6.07 ERA in the World Series.
In three starts in Game 1 of the Fall Classic, Verlander is 0-2 with a 10.29 ERA.
In Game 2 of the Major League Finals, Wheeler will face Valdez on Saturday. After that, the series will move to Philadelphia for the next three games, beginning Monday.
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Nola and Verlander starters, massacred in Game 1 of the World Series