Gamethread: Astros at Atlanta (World Series Game 5)

The Cheaters vs. Choppers series could be over tonight.

It was a spooky postseason for the White Sox, and it’s been a spooky World Series so far. So perhaps it’s appropriate that the 2021 baseball season could end on Halloween.

There’s been no offensive explosion in the Series, which has averaged just six runs per contest. But that has shrunk to nothing in Atlanta. Without the DH (and with decent hitter Zack Greinke starting Game 4), Houston has scored just one run per game. You don’t have to be devoted to analytics to know that a run a game isn’t going to win you any World Series.

So Houston must pray to the trashcan gods in the heavens and hope for an offensive breakout. Their only goal now it to get the Series back to Houston, where ... who knows? It’s a steep climb, and while a comeback from down 3-1 isn’t unprecedented (14 times in 90 series, 13% of the time), it ain’t likely, either.

Here are the lineups and pitchers:

Game time is 7 p.m. CT on Fox TV and ESPN radio.