2022 World Series: Ben Verlander’s takeaways from Astros’ Game 2 win

HOUSTON — The Astros were on a revenge tour Saturday, taking no prisoners and besting the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-2, in Game 2 of the 2022 World Series in front of a sold-out crowd in Houston.

A three-run opening frame coupled with Framber Valdez‘s nine strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings proved too much for the Phillies to overcome. Philly ace Zack Wheeler gave up five runs — and four extra-base hits — while only striking out three in five innings.

The Series is even at 1-1 ahead of Monday night’s Game 3 in Philadelphia.

Let’s get to a few takeaways from Houston’s victory:

1. We’ve got a series

You never want to go down 2-0 in those first two games, and Houston didn’t. Clearly these two teams are in for quite the fight. Philadelphia is 5-0 at home in the playoffs, and now the series shifts there. It might be a long shot to say they win three in a row, but if they keep up with this trend, the Phillies could win the World Series at home. It’s an incredible atmosphere we’re about to experience. The Phillies just want to split on the road, right? They did what they needed to do. But once they win that first one, it turns to, wait a second, the Phillies have their guy on the mound, their 1A. So this quickly went to, this series could be 2-0 heading to Philly. The Astros came out and made sure that didn’t happen tonight.

2. Astros aggressive early

They swung early and often. Four pitches into the game, the Astros had three doubles and two runs scored. So it seemed like they came out with a game plan against Wheeler: we’re not going to let this get deep into the count, we’re not trying to work his pitch count and get him out of the game early. Their thought process was, we’re going to try to get him out of the game early by knocking him around a bit. There’s a tactic to it. 

Jose Altuve swings early and often pretty much all the time; that’s pretty much his M.O. But if Altuve pops that first pitch of the game up or gets out, the next batter has to take a pitch, right? Every domino fell into place perfectly. Altuve winds up with that double. Next thing you know, the next batter Jeremy Peña is swinging first pitch. Next thing you know, the next batter Yordan Alvarez is swinging first pitch and then doubles on the second pitch. Everybody in front of each other did their job.

3. Framber Valdez dominates

He located, and his curveball was on point. Valdez needs to have that curveball on point because this Phillies team has a fantastic offense. But they do swing a lot. If you can get them swinging and missing, you’re going to have success. If Framber’s curveball is on, it’s diving out of the zone. And guess what? Framber Valdez’s curveball was on. He punched out nine guys, and five of them were on that curveball.

4. Top pitchers rocked

This is an interesting series because we almost have a 1-A and 1-B on each side of it, and of the four guys, three of them gave up five runs. These teams have two bona fide aces, you think this is going to be a great pitching performance all around, and that hasn’t turned out to be the case, three of the four times. This is the World Series, and as much as you can practice for it and be ready and say, I’m just going to go out and do the same thing, the emotions are far too different. It’s very difficult. We’ve seen three of these four pitchers not on their A-game. We know their stuff is great. So why haven’t they done well so far in the World Series? It might not be stuff. 

In the regular season and postseason, they have a unique ability to have something happen in the other direction and to move on to the next better and put it in the past. But when we’re in the World Series, things are just a little different. It’s not easy to just move on because when a runner gets to first base where you might think, I made a great pitch there. I gave up a not-super-hard-hit single to left field and that eats at you a little more in the World Series because you’re wondering, hey, could I be out of the inning? That stuff, when you thought you were going to be out of an inning, it’s really hard to move past that, and then you let more things get to you. Maybe that’s why we’re seeing these guys struggle early on in the World Series. 

5. Altuve is out of his slump

Altuve showed up in a big way. He’s been putting together better at-bats recently, and tonight we got the Altuve we’ve seen all year long — the Altuve who hit .300 in the regular season. Coming into the World Series, he had three hits in the postseason. He has four hits in the last two games and three here tonight. Unbelievable. That just goes to show what Altuve can do. He’s never out of it, and tonight he showed just that.

6. Astros stars shined

This is the first time in World Series history that a game has ever been started with three consecutive extra-base hits. What makes that even crazier is that it happened on four pitches. Talk about a punch to the face. That’s a big one if you’re Wheeler. That Astros’ lineup did great tonight. Their superstars were a bit quiet in Game 1, but they roared back tonight, and they did it early. That is where postseason experience comes into play, and it showed big-time in Game 2. 

Alex Bregman was so good tonight. That two-run home run in the fifth inning was massive for the team. The game was in control, if you want to say that, but the Astros were there Friday night and things got away from them quickly. That Bregman home run kind of put a little bit of an exclamation on it. This is why he was my prediction for MVP. Bregman steps up in the biggest moments continually. It is so impressive to watch him. He’s done it year in and year out, he has stepped up when it matters the most. He was dominant in round one, he was dominant in round two, and now he’s starting to show in the World Series, the biggest stage, just how dominant he is.    

7. Astros fans showed out

Baseball fans showed out tonight, and they have been showing out this entire series. In Game 1, it was the most in-stadium merchandise sales in the history of the World Series. That was topped in Game 2, and huge kudos go out to both the Astros and the Phillies fans. This stadium was rocking tonight.

Ben Verlander is an MLB Analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the “Flippin’ Bats” podcast. Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Verlander was an All-American at Old Dominion University before he joined his brother, Justin, in Detroit as a 14th-round pick of the Tigers in 2013. He spent five years in the Tigers organization. Follow him on Twitter at @BenVerlander.