



The Houston Astros rode an early offensive surge to a hard-fought 5-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 3 of the 2017 World Series. They walked away with a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, with two more games to come at home, where they haven’t lost a game in this postseason. Here are our takeaways from Game 3:

■ Home runs dominated the scoring in Games 1 and 2, but in Game 3 there was only one, a solo shot by Yulieski Gurriel. While Gurriel’s blast set the tone in a big inning, the real damage from Houston’s offense came after the homer thanks to a double, a walk, a pair of singles and a sacrifice fly.

■ As expected, Houston’s offense looked more comfortable at home, with guys like Josh Reddick, Brian McCann and Gurriel suddenly becoming contributors. Jose Altuve, though, has stayed in a slump despite his home run in Game 2 and is batting just 3 for 15 in the series. The Astros are 7-0 at home in the postseason, and can win a championship at home on Sunday if they can stretch that to 9-0.

■ Dave Roberts continues to empty his entire bench. Two days after he used all of his position players and his entire bullpen in a loss, he used five relievers and three pinch-hitters in Game 3. The heavy use of pinch-hitters was especially surprising since the game was played in an American League park, so pitchers weren’t hitting.

■ Any question of whether or not A.J. Hinch had lost confidence in his closer, Ken Giles, was answered when the reliever was not even warming up in the bullpen when Brad Peacock came out to finish the game despite having come into the game way back in the sixth inning. Giles is in a deep funk, and keeping him out for at least a game was likely necessary to help him shake off his recent blunders.