The Dodgers were hot during Game 1, and not just because Chris Taylor hit the first pitch of the game for a home run, but due to the record setting heat – 103 degrees when the game started. Clayton Kershaw brought the heat as well, striking out eleven Astros across seven innings, surrendering just three hits, and walking none. An “easy” 3-1 victory for Los Angeles, but more games still needed to be played.

A combined total of eight home runs were hit during Game 2, a new single game World Series record. Houston took the lead early, Los Angeles tied, then took the lead back in the sixth. Houston nibbled in the eighth, tied it themselves in the ninth. Into the extra innings where two dingers were scored quickly in the tenth frame by the ‘Stros, game over. Right? Not to be outdone, the Dodgers scored two of their own, sending it into the eleventh. Two more runs by Houston, but back came LA with one of their own, the improbable seemed almost possible, but Chris Devenski struck out Yasiel Puig to even up this Fall Classic, one game a piece.

The Houston Astros were hot in Los Angeles, and after leaving the west coast to play some games in Texas, where the temperature was in the low sixties, they remained hot, banging out twelve hits in Game 3. Yu Darvish was removed after only 1.2 innings, surrendering four runs, early to Houston who cruised through and “easy” win of their own, a 5-3 victory in Minute Maid Park.

Alex Wood started Game 4 for the Dodgers and almost made front page news, keeping the Astros hitless through 5.2 innings. The eventual World Series Most Valuable Player, George Springer, saw the ball good enough to end the no-no, and gave Houston a 1-0 lead with his second homer of the Series. The Dodgers liked the cooler weather as well, tying the game an inning later then sealing their second win after a 5-run ninth.

A Game 5 summary in a single sentence- one of the greatest World Series games of all time. So great we imagine books might be written about this game. In World Series history, only the Toronto Blue Jays (Game 4, 1993 World Series) had been down by three runs in a game, come back, gone done three runs again, and come back, until the Astros duplicated that feat in this 13-12, extra inning, back and forth slugfest.

George Springer continued to add to the Almanac in Game 6, hitting his third home run of the Series, but Taylor found his swing again tying it in the sixth with a two-RBI double, a lead that somehow, after the game five insanity, was enought to make this a true Classic, a winner take all seven game series.

The Dodgers failed to score a run and left eight men on base through five innings in Game 7. Springer, you guessed it, homered again, his fifth of the Series, and doubled, and set records for total bases. Darvish lasted only 1.2 innings again, just the third pitcher in World Series history to start two games, and not least more than two innings in either.