Advertisement

Dodgers level series with Brewers, Astros strike quickly

Justin Turner hits the game-winning home run in the Los Angeles Dodgers' 4-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in game two of the 2018 National League Championship Series

Justin Turner's two-run homer in the eighth inning lifted the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 4-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers Saturday that knotted their Major League Baseball playoff series at one game each. Turner's blast off Brewers relief pitcher Jeremy Jeffress gave the Dodgers the lead for the first time in front of a crowd of 43,900 at Miller Park in Milwaukee. Turner rebounded from an zero-for-five showing in game one on Friday that included four strikeouts, producing his first home run of this post-season. "You just shrug it off," Turner said. "Obviously I wasn't feeling good about myself last night and wasn't happy with the results, but today was a new day and another chance to go out and win a ballgame." In the other game, Josh Reddick belted a lead-off homer to spark a four-run ninth inning as the defending champion Houston Astros clobbered the Boston Red Sox 7-2 in the opening game of the AL series. Once Los Angeles were ahead, relief pitchers Pedro Baez, Caleb Ferguson, Kenta Maeda and Kenley Jansen combined to get the last six outs and preserve the win. Jansen pitched the ninth for his second save of the playoffs, retiring Milwaukee’s National League Most Valuable Player candidate Christian Yelich on a broken bat ground out to end the game with a runner on second base. The Dodgers now head home to Los Angeles to host games three, four and five of the best-of-seven National League Championship Series with renewed confidence. After hanging on for a 6-5 victory over the Dodgers on Friday, Milwaukee seized a 3-0 lead in game two with the help of home runs from Orlando Arcia and Travis Shaw. The Dodgers loaded the bases with none out in the seventh inning and gained two runs with a base hit by Cody Bellinger and a walk to catcher Austin Barnes. Although they left three on base in the seventh, the Dodgers would take the lead in the next when Chris Taylor reached first base on a single and Turner seized upon a split-fingered fastball from Jeffress, sending it 388 feet. "I was just trying to elevate, get something in the air," Turner said. "As soon as I hit it, it felt good. I knew it was a homer, and it's cool to run around the bases and see all your teammates going crazy, jumping up and down waiting for you." - Correa snaps tie - In Boston, Carlos Correa hit a single into left field to break a sixth-inning tie and give Houston their fifth straight playoff victory. "I was looking for a fastball and it was up in the zone. I put a pretty good swing on it and it got us ahead," said Correa. Game two of the best-of-seven series is Sunday, with Boston left-hander David Price trying to end his postseason skid against Astros righty Gerrit Cole. Yuri Gurriel broke the game open with a three-run homer just after Reddick hit his solo blast earlier in the ninth. Astros did a good job of playing Fenway Park's distinct layout as outfielder Marwin Gonzalez caught a ball that caromed off the green monster wall to limit Xander Bogaerts to a single, and Gurriel sliced his homer to down the right field line just beyond the Pesky Pole. Red Sox rookie manager Alex Cora was ejected from the game in the fifth inning for arguing with the home plate umpire James Hoye. "I was arguing strikes and he threw me out. I had to do it. Sometimes you got to defend your players," Cora said.