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ESPN staff
A series that’s featured huge home runs, incredible defense and one combined no-hitter could all come to an end Saturday night.
The Philadelphia Phillies travel to Texas to take on the Houston Astros in Game 6 of the 2022 World Series, on the heels of a Game 5 where Houston eked out a 3-2 win. The Astros will be without first basemen Yuli Gurriel for the remainder of the series after he suffered a knee injury during a rundown in the seventh inning of Thursday’s matchup. How much will Houston feel Gurriel’s absence tonight?
Here are the best moments from what could be the final game of the 2022 World Series.
Schwarber goes yard
GOOD JOB, KYLE pic.twitter.com/hqM8zFT8wj
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) November 6, 2022
Framber is dealing
Framber Valdez strikes out five batters in a row, but the fifth one was a break, as home-plate umpire Lance Barksdale — who normally has one of the tighter strike zones among umpires — rung up Nick Castellanos on a 3-2 fastball that was low and in, the 10th pitch of the at-bat. The on-field microphones picked up Castellanos saying some words that amounted to something like, “Dear Mr. Umpire, I do believe that pitch did not cross the plate.” Still, Valdez has been absolutely ridiculous, throwing curveball after curveball after curveball — oh, and then rearing back and throwing 97 mph. I’m not sure how the Phillies are going to score off him. — David Schoenfield
Look out!
You can feel the tension mounting as Zack Wheeler blows a 98-mph fastball past Jose Altuve with a runner on second to end the bottom of the third (leaving Altuve still without an RBI the entire postseason). Earlier in the inning, Wheeler nearly had his head taken off by Chas McCormick‘s shattered bat, which flew past him and ended up around second base. That’s a testament to the quality of Wheeler’s stuff so far and this game looks like it’s going to be a low-scoring pitcher’s duel. — Schoenfield
If you can dodge a bat, you can get the lead runner at 2nd. #WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/gdvwuh6dXi
— MLB (@MLB) November 6, 2022
Battle of nerves
Good news for the Phillies as Zack Wheeler came out throwing smoke in the first inning, hitting 98.9 mph and cruising through an easy seven-pitch inning. He did issue a 10-pitch walk to Kyle Tucker in the second but escaped with a double play. He’s also thrown 12 four-seam fastballs out of his 22 pitches, showing confidence in the pitch so far.
Meanwhile, the Phillies have drawn two walks off Framber Valdez, along with a hit batter and Alec Bohm‘s base hit — and Edmundo Sosa just missed a three-run homer as Yordan Alvarez caught his fly ball with his back to the wall in left-center. Valdez has thrown 32 pitches through two innings. Of course, running up his pitch count to get to the Houston bullpen isn’t necessarily the best thing, but at least the Phillies are putting some pressure on him. Look for them to continue to work that count and lay off that big curveball if Valdez continues to leave it out of the zone. — Schoenfield
Pregame notes
It will be interesting to see how Zack Wheeler goes after the Astros. In his Game 2 start, the Astros swung at his first five pitches, beginning the game with three straight extra-base hits. His fastball velocity was down about 2 mph in that start, so while he normally throws his four-seamer about 50 percent of the time, he only threw it 23 percent of the time, instead throwing more sinkers. This will be his sixth start of the postseason, and he’s thrown 30.1 high-stress innings, so we’ll see how much he has left in the tank. With that in mind, Phillies manager Rob Thomson said before the game that both Ranger Suarez and Aaron Nola would be available out of the bullpen. That could create some issues for who the Phillies start in Game 7 — but you have to get there first.
For the Phillies to beat Framber Valdez, it feels like Nick Castellanos needs to do something. Batting behind Bryce Harper, he’s hit just .197 in 16 postseason games without a home run and is 3-for-20 in the World Series with just one RBI. His struggles make it a lot easier for the Astros to pitch around Harper if necessary. Thomson said he considered changing the lineup but decided to stick with the same lineup the Phillies have used all postseason: Kyle Schwarber, Rhys Hoskins, J.T. Realmuto (who has 11 strikeouts in 22 plate appearances in the World Series), Harper and Castellanos in the top five spots.
Finally, Dusty Baker is one win away from his first World Series title as a manager. He was here with the Giants in 2002, but the Angels won the final two games, including a big rally in Game 6 when the Giants led 5-0. He’s ninth on the all-time wins list for managers. The eight ahead of him are all in the Hall of Fame — but they all also won at least one World Series. There will be a lot of people in the sport rooting for Baker and the Astros tonight. Keep in mind that Game 6 has produced some of the classic games in World Series history: 1975 (Carlton Fisk’s home run), 1986 (Mets win), 1991 (Kirby Puckett’s home run), 1993 (Joe Carter wins it), 2002 (Angels rally), 2011 (the David Freese game). Maybe we’ll get another one. — Schoenfield
Pregame fashion
All business. pic.twitter.com/AsahH1RTFm
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) November 5, 2022
Bryce always brings the 🔥 with his #WorldSeries fits. pic.twitter.com/BTufvHa91J
— MLB (@MLB) November 5, 2022
Tonight’s starters checking in. #WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/T30lZMcgpl
— MLB (@MLB) November 5, 2022
Jeremy Peña has been front and center all #postseason. #WorldSeries 🫶 pic.twitter.com/Lqc0eCinKk
— MLB (@MLB) November 5, 2022
We’re here to finish the job. pic.twitter.com/vDp5QEPFah
— Houston Astros (@astros) November 5, 2022