MLB Roundup 10/28: Astros take a 3-2 lead

Astros win third straight

We’re back on our normal schedule, and we’ve missed the entire World Series up to this point. I suspect if you’re interested in the World Series you’ve been able to keep up with the progress on your own, so I won’t waste anyone’s time recapping everything that happened over the last week-plus. All I will say is that Washington took the first two games on the road in a shocking start to this series and headed back home with a commanding lead in the series. Now, we head back to Houston with the tables completely turned. The Astros have now won three straight games on the road, with the latest coming on Sunday night. This one was supposed to pit Max Scherzer against Gerrit Cole in a pivotal Game Five, but the former was scratched before the game as he was dealing with some extreme back spasms. I say extreme because anyone who knows anything about Scherzer knows he would not recuse himself from a World Series game unless it was extreme. So, Joe Ross took the mound for Washington and the game went about how you expected. Houston jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second, doubled that in the fourth, and after the Nationals cut the deficit to three in the seventh the Astros got three more in the final two frames to put this one away. They now head back to Texas with the home team still having not won a game in this series. Houston can finish this off on Tuesday with a victory.

Sox Spin: This isn’t really about the Red Sox, right? I think most (all?) of us are rooting for the Nationals, both because the Astros have become a Red Sox rival and also because of the entire Brandon Taubman situation. So, in that sense this result is kind of a bummer. The series is obviously far from over and the Nationals have defied odds at times all season, but it’s not looking good. Beyond that, it’s just about waiting for this series to end so a tense offseason in Boston can really get started.

Angels hire Mickey Callaway

This news is actually a little bit older, but we got a few more details on Sunday so we’ll count it. Former Mets manager and Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway has joined Joe Maddon’s staff out in Los Angeles to become the Angels new pitching coach. Callaway has a strong reputation in this role despite appearing to be in over his head a bit in his latest stop in New York. With Cleveland, he was in charge of the pitching staff when guys like Trevor Bauer and Carlos Carrasco became stars and helped develop Trevor Bauer to the point right before his breakout. Callaway now has a new challenge on his hands with an Angels team that has long been desperate for productive and healthy pitching. He will get a healthy Shohei Ohtani back in the rotation for 2020, though.

Sox Spin: Clearly, this one does affect the Red Sox as they are themselves looking for a new pitching coach. When I outlined some potential candidates for the job, Callaway was the first name I thought of. To be fair, there hasn’t been any indication that the Red Sox had actually considered Callaway as a real candidate. In fact, they seem to be looking at more outside-the-box candidates instead of retreads. Still, this takes one of the biggest names off the board as Boston continues their search.