WS 3: Texas 3, Diamondbacks 1

Texas   – 003 000 000 – 3  5  0
Arizona – 000 000 010 – 1  6  0

After back stiffness forced Texas starter Max Scherzer (3-2-0-2-1, 36) out of the game after three innings, Jon Gray (above) was unexpectedly rushed into action. He pitched three innings of impressive relief (3-1-0-0-3, 30), needing only 30 pitches to sail through the middle innings. Corey Seager again came through with a big blow, a two-run homer* that carried Texas to a 3-1 victory Monday evening in Game 3.

The Diamondbacks shot themselves in the foot in the second inning when Christian Walker, having begun the frame with a double to right-center, got a late jump from second base on Tommy Pham's hard single to right and then ran through his third base coach's stop sign and was an easy out at the plate. Not only that, but he was running on Texas right fielder Adolis García, who has thrown out more runners over the last three seasons (37) than any other outfielder in MLB. All in all, it was a magnificently bone-headed decision. In addition to those bone-headed Instead of runners at second and third with no outs, Arizona had a man at second and one out. Having blown a golden opportunity to get on the board first (teams scoring first are 30-9 in this postseason), The Diamondbacks did not get another runner to second base until the seventh inning.

García, Texas's hot-hitting right fielder (though he is 0-for-6, with two walks, since his Game 1-winning dong), left the game in the eighth inning with left side tightness after an awkward swing. His status for Game 4 is unknown.

Arizona scored in the eighth off Aroldis Chapman, and the potential tying run was at the plate with no outs, but Corbin Carroll struck out looking, frozen on a breaking ball down the middle, and Ketel Marte (who extended his record postseason hitting streak to 19 games with a single in the sixth) grounded into a double play. 

Against José Leclerc in the ninth, Gabriel Moreno grounded to third and Walker and Pham struck out.

Texas is now 9-0 on the road in this postseason.

*: Seager's homer had an exit velocity of 115 mph, which MLB International play-by-play man Dave Flemming touted as "one of the hardest hit balls in the history of the World Series . . . in the Statcast Era". Which began in 2015. So . . . 119 World Series have been played and that home run was "one of the hardest hit balls" in the last nine of those series. Not even the hardest hit ball in the most recent nine World Series, but one of the hardest hit.