10 more amazing facts from epic Game 2

Astros, Dodgers provide historic World Series thriller

October 27th, 2017

Game 2 of the World Series was one of the most amazing games in MLB history. The Dodgers and Astros clashed at Dodger Stadium and produced an instant classic.
There were rallies galore and huge home runs from both sides. One of the game's elite closers blew a lead for the first time in his postseason career and superstar players had key hits. And in the end, the Astros emerged with a 7-6, 11-inning win, their first World Series win in franchise history, evening the Fall Classic at 1-1.
Gear up for the World Series:Astros | Dodgers
With so much drama and history made all at once, you might have missed out on some of the most interesting facts and figures. MLB.com covered many of them right here. But before these two teams play again in Game 3 tonight in Houston, here are 10 more amazing things you might have missed from Game 2.
Include - Html: :: World Series presented by YouTube TV: Schedule and coverage ::
1. We have to start with the homers. The Astros and Dodgers combined for eight, a new World Series single-game record. Six came in the ninth inning or later and five came in extra innings, also a Series record. However, that wasn't just a World Series record -- those five extra-inning homers were the most in a game in MLB history, regular season or postseason.
2. And, wow, those home runs. 's game-tying shot off Dodgers closer in the ninth was just the 10th game-tying, ninth-inning homer in World Series history. Houston's and 's back-to-back homers in the 10th made them the first teammates to go back-to-back in extras of a World Series game. And when put the Astros ahead for good with his two-run homer in the 11th, it was just the sixth time a player homered that late in a game in the Fall Classic.
3. As Jayson Stark noted on Thursday, the Astros' series of homers made them the only team in postseason history to homer in the ninth, 10th and 11th innings of a game. Not only that, but no team had done that in the regular season, either, going back at least 109 seasons.
4. The Dodgers were going deep, too. They also homered in the 10th and 11th innings, before the Astros finally closed out their thrilling win. According to research done by Dave Smith of Retrosheet, that makes Los Angeles the only club to homer in multiple extra innings of a playoff game and lose. It has happened just five times in the regular season, dating back to 1909.
5. Game 2 showed what baseball's brightest young stars can do. Shortstops and Correa each hit big home runs, and both have yet to turn 24. Seager was 23 years, 181 days old on Wednesday, and Correa was 23 years, 33 days old, marking just the third time in World Series history that two players under age 24 homered in the same game. They're in Hall of Fame company. The other pairs were Hank Aaron and Tony Kubek in Game 3 of the 1957 Series between the Braves and Yankees, and Joe Medwick and Hank Greenberg in Game 1 of the '34 Series between the Cardinals and Tigers.
6. One more reason why this World Series is incredible so far: The sheer number of players contributing. The eight home runs in Game 2 came from eight different players. That tied the Major League record for a postseason game (also the Cubs and Cardinals in Game 3 of the 2015 National League Division Series). In the World Series, the previous highest number of players to homer in a game was six, done four times -- most recently in the epic Game 6 of the 2011 Fall Classic between the Rangers and Cardinals.

In fact, all 11 home runs hit in the 2017 World Series have come from different players. Through just two games, that's already within two of the record for an entire Series -- 13 in 1953, when the Yankees beat the Dodgers.
7. The Dodgers tied a World Series record for the number of pitchers to appear in a single game. Nine Dodgers hurlers pitched in Game 2, a mark reached just one other time in Series history -- the White Sox in Game 3 of the 2005 Fall Classic, also against the Astros, on Oct. 25, exactly 12 years before this game.
8. No one could have seen Gonzalez's game-tying home run off Jansen coming. Jansen had never blown a postseason save, and Gonzalez's homer came on an 0-2 count against Jansen's signature cutter. Before Game 2, Jansen had thrown 632 cutters in 0-2 counts in his career, including the postseason. Only two -- 0.3 percent -- had been hit for home runs -- against Melvin Upton Jr. and in 2016. Those were also the only previous 0-2 homers Jansen had allowed.

Jansen left his cutter to Gonzalez over the middle of the plate, a rarity in itself. Of Jansen's 632 previous 0-2 cutters, only 50 (7.9 percent) were in the center section of the strike zone. But the pitch is so good, that's rarely mattered. Only one of Jansen's middle-middle 0-2 cutters -- the one to Upton -- went for a homer.
9. With everything that happened in the ninth inning and beyond, it's easy to forget started the game for the Astros, after he had won all four of his previous starts this postseason. But in Game 2, Verlander would have lost if not for Gonzalez's heroics, despite only allowing two hits in six innings (both were home runs).

Only five starting pitchers in World Series history have lost a game in which they threw at least five innings and allowed two or fewer hits. Verlander would have become the sixth -- and the first since the Yankees' Whitey Ford against the Dodgers in 1963.
10. There was also almost one other strange historical quirk in Game 2. Had Jansen closed out the game, the pitcher in line for the win was Tony Watson, who threw one pitch, inducing a double play to end the top of the sixth before Seager hit his go-ahead homer in the bottom of the inning.
Watson would have been the first pitcher to win a World Series game despite only throwing one pitch. Instead, the record for fewest pitches remains with Blue Moon Odom, who threw four pitches and got the win for the A's in Game 5 of the 1974 Series against the Dodgers.