Game 1 of the 2017 World Series is already in the books.

The original plan was to get a post up with results of my pre-play of the entire series.

Unfortunately, life had other plans for me. (That’s a crazy story for another day.)

So what I’ll do instead now is bring you the results of my re-play of game 1.

Like the real thing, it was a pitcher’s duel between Clayton Kershaw and Dallas Keuchel.

But in this game, it was Houston coming out the winner.

Justin Turner hit a solo homer in the bottom of the 4th to give L.A. a 1-0 lead early on.

In the top of the 5th, Keuchel got down a sacrifice bunt on a squeeze play to score Marwin Gonzalez from 3rd, tying the game up.

In the 8th, Brandon Morrow came on to relieve Kershaw.

After retiring the first two men, Morrow plunked George Springer. Springer moved up to 3rd on an Alex Bregman base hit, and then scored on a single by Jose Altuve, giving Houston a 2-1 lead.

That held up as the final score, but not without some drama as closer Ken Giles gave a hit and walked two men to load the bases before retiring Yasmani Grandal on a grounder to Carlos Correa, ending the game.

(Grandal replaced starting catcher Austin Barnes, who was ejected in the 5th inning after arguing a called strike three while at bat.)

Keuchel picked up the win, going 7 innings and allowing 1 run on 3 hits and 3 walks, striking out 5.

Kershaw struck out 8 in 7 innings of work, allowing 1 run on 4 hits and 0 walks.

At this point, I’ll go ahead and wait to see what kind of lineup L.A. puts together against the right-handed Verlander.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H R
Houston 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 – 2 7 0
Los Angeles 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 – 1 4 0

Win: Keuchel (1-0)
Save: Giles (1)
Loss: Morrow (0-1)

2B: none
3B: none
HR: Turner (1st)
RBI: Altuve (1), Keuchel (1), Turner (1)

The comparison of Kershaw’s performance is interesting!

 

IP H ER BB SO
Real 7.0 3 1 0 11
Simulated 7.0 4 1 0 8