Hurricane Season

CHAPTER 1

Hottest Game in Town

DODGERS LEAD SERIES, 1–0

On October 24, 2017, opening day for the 113th World Series in Major League Baseball history, Los Angeles was hot enough to make a mockery of the old label “Fall Classic.” For LA’s first World Series in 29 seasons, it was desert-summer hot, Day of the Locust hot, so hot that Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson’s perennial sidekick on the old Tonight Show might have stumped his boss with the venerable setup question “How hot was it?”

How about this for an answer? So hot that egg-frying sidewalks were unnecessary; infield grass was skillet-hot enough, maybe even for eggs and bacon.

In palm-fringed and picturesque Dodger Stadium it was 103 degrees, the most blistering World Series game-time temperature in history. LA shattered the previous record, set in 2001 when the Arizona Diamondbacks welcomed the New York Yankees to Phoenix, where it was a comparably chilly 94 degrees. (The coldest in recent years was in Cleveland, when the Indians hosted the Florida Marlins in the ’97 Series. For Game 1, it was 35 degrees. And snowing.)

As fans seeking shade filtered in a couple of hours before game time, a pregame pitchman—just like on The Tonight Show—worked to whip up enthusiasm. A giant American flag rippled across the outfield. A sound system worthy of a Christina Aguilera concert extravaganza blasted out “Let’s Go Dodgers!” Later, the familiar faces of LA celebrities—Dustin Hoffman, Jerry Seinfeld, part-owner Magic Johnson, Jason Bateman, Lady Gaga—flashed across two jumbotrons. The celebs were on hand to watch their Dodgers claim their first World Series rings since 1988, when masterful Orel Hershiser dominated the powerful Oakland A’s and gimpy-legged Kirk Gibson hit an iconic home run. Nearly three decades was a long time.

Washington Post sportswriter Dave Sheinin observed that when “gospel singer Keith Williams Jr. belted out the national anthem, the sweat stain on the back of his suit jacket grew from the approximate shape of Vermont at ‘Oh say can you see’ to that of Idaho by ‘home of the brave.’”

For more than 54,000 sweltering fans in LA, most of them wearing Dodgers blue—with maybe a thousand orange-clad Astros fans in their midst—Sunset Boulevard traffic was more of a bother than the heat. They loved their Dodgers, winners of 104 games. They could stand the heat.

Nor did the temperature seem to bother Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw, a Dallas native accustomed to games played under a withering Texas sun. The tall Texan wore a heavy Dodger warm-up jacket as he loosened up in the outfield before the game.

“They’re from Houston, I’m from Texas; it’s going to be hot for everybody,” he had said the day before. “We’re all used to it. It will be fine.”

Kershaw, who at 29 was born the same year the Dodgers last won the World Series, was his generation’s Sandy Koufax, except bigger. At six feet four inches and 228 pounds, he overpowered hitters and had compiled a career record of 144–64, with a scintillating career ERA of .236. Every year he was a favorite to win the Cy Young Award and had done so three times. In 2017, he was 18–4, with an ERA of .231, despite missing several weeks with a back injury.

The Astros were well aware of the future Hall of Famer’s abilities; so was Dave Roberts, his manager.

“I think the fans get cheated on not getting the opportunity to see him in between starts,” Roberts told reporters. “Because… to be behind the scenes and to watch him work so diligently, with detail, every single day, that’s something that, for me, I marvel at.… I wouldn’t know what it’s like to be a superstar. But with what he does every single day, with working with a purpose, with everything he does, it makes sense.”

For all the individual honors he had won, this would be Kershaw’s first World Series appearance—and he would be facing the team with the best sticks in the majors. The Astros finished the regular season with the highest batting average, highest on-base percentage, and highest slugging percentage. They also struck out fewer times than any other team. And they were prepared. The Los Angeles Times reported that the Dodgers pre-Series scouting meetings stretched into the wee hours of several mornings.

“It’s the best lineup that we’ve seen all year,” Manager Roberts told reporters. “There’s so many ways they can beat you.”

The Astros, playing in only their second World Series in team history—the only team to represent two different leagues in their two appearances—had vanquished the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees (winners, by the way, of 27 world championships). They were young but unintimidated. Whether the heat would bother them was an open question. It gets searingly hot and humid in Houston, to be sure, but the Astros play under a retractable roof, in an air-conditioned building.

Astros leadoff hitter George Springer, unlike the traditional leadoff, is basically a cleanup hitter with the power to beat you with one swing. He represents a trend that caught on in 2016, when teams like the Cubs with Kyle Schwarber and the Indians with Carlos Santana started using their designated hitters to lead off. As Hunter Atkins of the Houston Chronicle pointed out, “These men are built like nightclub bouncers, not base stealers. They get paid millions to cross home plate, not reach first base.”

Springer is six feet three inches and 215, so he’s no Nellie Fox either, but the big-man trend worked for the Astros throughout the regular season. When Springer leads off with a home run, “there’s an energy boost in our dugout,” Hinch said. He hit 34 in all.

In LA against Kershaw he didn’t lead off with a home run; most hitters don’t. He fouled off the first pitch, a 94-mile-per-hour fastball. With his trademark hesitation windup from a relief pitcher’s set position—an unorthodox pitching motion that keeps the hitter off balance and allows Kershaw to hide the ball until the last possible moment before release—the Dodgers left-hander finished off the Astros’ young center fielder in four pitches, the third strike a devastating slider that veered downward toward Springer’s feet.

Alex Bregman, the Astros’ young third baseman, flied to left, and second baseman José Altuve grounded out to shortstop to end the top half of the inning. As the Astros went down 1-2-3, Kershaw threw just nine pitches, seven of them strikes.

Starting for the Astros was Dallas Keuchel, a dependable precision pitcher and the 2015 Cy Young Award winner. That was the year the bearded Oklahoman went 20–8 with three complete games and a 2.48 ERA. The left-hander led all American League pitchers in wins and was the starting AL pitcher in the 2015 All-Star Game. He pitched with shoulder pain throughout the ’16 season—“I sucked,” he said—and finished with a 9–12 record and a 4.55 ERA. In 2017, Keuchel rediscovered his form, going 14–5, with a .290 ERA—despite an undisclosed injury to his left foot the second half of the season.

Only three Dodgers had ever faced Keuchel. One was center fielder Chris Taylor. Keuchel retired him three times in 2014, two years before the Dodgers acquired Taylor from Seattle, before the outfielder revamped his swing and blossomed into a slugger.

The first pitch Keuchel threw to Taylor was as juicy as a rib eye at Wolfgang Puck’s CUT restaurant on Wilshire. An 88-mile-per-hour fastball straight down the middle was a rare Keuchel mistake, and Taylor took advantage. He smashed the pitch deep into the left field pavilion, an estimated 447 feet away. Suddenly, shockingly, the Dodgers were on the board.

Manager Roberts had told the Dodgers before the game to be sluggers, not just hitters. Get it into the air, he was saying, because the ball would carry farther in the searing heat. Taylor merely followed instructions. His blast was the fourth leadoff home run in the history of World Series opening games.

After that first unfortunate pitch, the Astros’ bearded ace went on to strike out third baseman Justin Turner on seven pitches, got rookie first baseman Cody Bellinger to ground out to second, and right fielder Yasiel Puig—the flamboyant and excitable fellow with the Dodger-blue mohawk haircut under his batting helmet—to ground out to short. Eleven Keuchel pitches and the inning was over. One of those 11 Keuchel would love to have had back.

Returning to the mound with an early lead, Kershaw started off the second by retiring shortstop Carlos Correa on a fly ball to center field. He caught Yuli Gurriel looking as a 94-mile-per-hour fastball streaked by and then got catcher Brian McCann to ground out to second baseman Logan Forsythe, who had shifted into shallow right field to play the odds against the pull hitter, batting from the left side. It was another easy inning for the Dodgers ace.

His Astros counterpart gave up a single to Kike Hernández to open the bottom half of the second, but got Corey Seager to ground into an easy double play to end the threat. Forsythe popped out to center.

After Kershaw started the third inning with another called strike three, this one to Marwin Gonzalez, the Astros got their first hit of the game. Josh Reddick, a former Dodger who went 0-for-22 in the postseason before his first hit in the American League Championship Series, smashed a hard grounder that darted just beyond Bellinger’s glove. But Kershaw stayed in control, striking out Keuchel on a futile effort to bunt and then Springer, up for the second time.

The leadoff hitter for the Dodgers got on base for the third consecutive inning, as Austin Barnes hit a grounder through the infield into shallow left for a single. Kershaw laid down a perfect bunt, sending Barnes to second and Taylor to the plate. The man who started the game with a home run on the first pitch hit a rope to shortstop Correa, who ended the inning by doubling Barnes off second.

In the top of the fourth, the Astros finally broke through. Bregman, a recent LSU star, hammered a Kershaw fastball over the left-center field fence, tying the game at one run a piece, and becoming the youngest American League player to hit a home run in the World Series since Manny Ramirez for Cleveland against Atlanta in 1995. Both were 23, but Ramirez was 60 days younger when he slapped a pitch out of the park.

Bregman, one of a few hitters in the Astros’ lineup who had never faced Kershaw, said the pitcher’s deceptive delivery, with its pause at the top and a strange stutter step—a way for his arm to catch up with his body—was nearly impossible to prepare for.

“Honestly, you can look at all the video you want. But until you get in the box against somebody, you don’t really know what their stuff looks like out of their hand,” Bregman told reporters. “You kind of had to sync up everything with that [pause]. Towards the end of game, I think we got a little more synced up.”

Kershaw then got Altuve and Correa on called strikes and paralyzed Gurriel on another unhittable slider. It was Kershaw’s eighth strikeout against the team with the least strikeouts in the majors.

As the San Gabriel Mountains disappeared in the fading light of day and the temperature dropped below triple digits (a balmy 99), the game settled into a classic pitchers’ duel, not surprising given the fact that two of the game’s best were dueling. In the bottom of the fourth, Keuchel, working with his usual quiet efficiency, got Turner on a pop-up to first, Bellinger on a ground ball to first, and Puig on a ground ball to short.

In the fifth, Kershaw threw another perfect inning: McCann hit a ground ball into the shift, third baseman Turner handled a trick bounce on a grounder from Gonzalez, and Reddick watched a 95-mile-per-hour fastball streak by for strike three.

On to the sixth, the game still tied. Keuchel became Kershaw’s 10th strikeout victim and Springer number 11, flailing at a changeup that was nearly in the dirt. Bregman ground out to short to end the inning. Kershaw headed to the dugout as the first Dodger pitcher to have double-digit strikeouts in a World Series game since Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax had 10 in Game 7 of the 1965 Series.

In the bottom of the sixth, Keuchel needed one pitch to get the first out, retiring Barnes on a grounder to short. Kershaw also grounded out to short. Pitching carefully to Taylor, Keuchel walked him on five pitches, which brought up Turner.

Keuchel served up three fastballs, all low in the strike zone. When a fourth 87-mile-per-hour fastball came toward the plate higher in the zone, up toward the third baseman’s messy, red beard, Turner drove it 371 feet into the left field stands for a two-out, two-run home run and a 3–1 Dodgers lead. Dodgers fans, often more laid-back than most, were on their feet and loud.

“I didn’t know if it was going to be a home run or not,” Turner said after the game. “I knew I backspun it pretty good. I knew I hit it really high. And I knew it was about 98 degrees. So when it’s that hot here, the ball does travel a lot better.… If it’s 10 degrees cooler, that’s probably a routine fly to left field.”

“That one was a tough one to swallow,” Keuchel said afterward.

Suddenly the Dodgers could breathe easier, knowing that a two-run lead with Kershaw on the mound and a superb bullpen to finish up was often more than enough. Keuchel ended the sixth by striking out Bellinger, but as Houston Chronicle columnist Brian T. Smith wrote afterward, “You knew that it was basically over.”

With their heroes down two, anxious Astros fans were happy to see Altuve lead off the seventh. The American League batting champ came through with a ground-ball single to left. It was now or never for the Core Four—Springer, Altuve, Correa, and Bregman—to break out, as they had so many times during the regular season.

Alas, not this time. Correa ground into a force-out that erased Altuve at second. Correa was forced out at second on a Gurriel ground ball, and Brian McCann flied out to center field for the third out. The innings were dwindling down.

Kershaw, who needed just 83 pitches to make it through seven innings, was done for the night. He gave up three hits, one earned run, and recorded 11 strikeouts, his only mistake Bregman’s solo home run. He became the first pitcher all season to strike out 11 Astros in a start.

In the top of the eighth, the Dodgers turned to their bullpen, a reliable bunch of arms all year for Manager Roberts. The Astros sent up three hitters, and Dodger relievers sent them all back to the dugout. In the bottom of the inning, Astros relievers got the same results.

“The Astros won Game 4 of the American League division series in Boston, but since then they lost three road games at Yankee Stadium and are three outs from losing here at Dodger Stadium,” reporter David Waldstein noted on the New York Times blog between innings. “Obviously, they can’t win the World Series if they don’t win at least one game on the road.”

With the Dodgers three outs away from victory, Kenley Jansen, the most effective closer in the National League, came on for the ninth. He got things started by catching Springer looking at a 92-mile-per-hour cutter in the upper part of the strike zone for strike three. The Astros slugger tossed his unused bat in frustration.

Bregman, who got Houston’s only run with his solo homer, flied out to center. Jansen closed things out by retiring Altuve on a fly ball to right.

It was over. The team that had never won a World Series game still was winless. They played it close but it wasn’t enough. They faced a nagging statistic: historically, the team that wins Game 1 of a best-of-seven, postseason series at home has gone on to win the series 67.3 percent of the time.

And while Keuchel pitched well, the Astros’ bats were anemic. Springer struck out four times and looked bad doing it. The Astros Core Four went for a combined 2 of 15. As for everyone else in the lineup, they accounted for a single hit.

Of course, the Dodgers’ Kid K had something to do with that. Kershaw finished as the first pitcher in World Series history to get 10 or more strikeouts while allowing no walks and three or fewer hits. His 78 game score, a comprehensive measure of the quality of a pitcher’s start, was close to one of the greatest World Series starts ever.

Afterward, Manager Hinch was matter-of-fact about the game. “They had two big swings, we had one,” he told reporters. “They had a walk right before one of their big swings, and it’s 3–1. It’s no more complicated than that.”