The Astros are going back to Houston with a chance to close out the World Series, but it wasn’t easy. The Phillies had two plays in the late innings where they appeared poised to turn the tide but ultimately fell 3–2, thanks to some clutch Houston defense.

The first was in the bottom of the eighth. Jean Segura’s RBI single had just cut the Houston lead to 3–2 and chased Rafael Montero from the game. Dusty Baker called on closer Ryan Pressly to attempt a five-out save. He struck out Brandon Marsh, bringing Kyle Schwarber to the plate with two outs and runners on first and third.

Schwarber smoked a grounder (98.7-mph exit velocity) right down the first base line. If it got past the infield, it would have at least tied the game. Maybe Segura would have come all the way around from first to take the lead. But an unlikely hero made a game-saving play for the Astros: Trey Mancini. He lunged to snare the ball and quickly stepped on first. The Phillies threat was over in a flash.

Mancini entered the game after usual first baseman Yuli Gurriel was injured in a rundown in the seventh inning. Mancini, who hasn’t had a hit in seven postseason games this year, struck out after pinch-hitting for Gurriel in the eighth. Redeeming himself with his glove in the bottom of the inning wasn’t exactly a likely outcome, as Stephanie Apstein writes:

[W]here he might once have taken out his frustration on the bat racks on Thursday, he instead tried to forget it as he took the field for the bottom of the eighth, playing first base for the first time since Oct. 5. He played only 31 games this year at first base, 10 of them with the Astros. He did not even take ground balls at the position in Philadelphia, so sure was he that he would not spend time there. But Baker and bench coach Joe Espada decided they trusted him there over their other bench option, Aledmys Díaz.

“Thank you for bearing with me,” Mancini told his teammates in the clubhouse later. “I wasn’t exactly expecting to do it with the glove, but I’m glad to come through in some way.”

Given the stakes, Mancini’s stop was the most important defensive play of the game. But what Houston center fielder Chas McCormick did in the ninth isn’t far behind. After Rhys Hoskins struck out to lead off the inning, J.T. Realmuto hit a long flyball deep to the gap in right center. Off the bat, it looked like a sure extra-base hit—maybe even a home run. But McCormick tracked it down and crashed against the wall to make a leaping catch for the second out of the inning.

If McCormick doesn’t make that catch, the Astros are looking at a runner on second (or maybe even third, with Realmuto’s elite speed) and one out with Bryce Harper coming to the plate. Instead, Harper was hit by a pitch to put the tying run on base with two outs before Nick Castellanos grounded to short to end the game.

Mancini and McCormick saved the game for Houston with two amazing plays when it mattered most. Those are the kind of plays that win championships, which the Astros will have two chances to do this weekend.

The best of Sports Illustrated

In today’s Daily Cover, Ben Pickman has the remarkable story of Passle Helminski, who was attacked while training for the 1993 New York City Marathon and will finally get to run the race Sunday:

By the time she finished [a training session] and returned to her gray Jeep in a school parking lot, it was getting dark. Helminski says a man suddenly appeared, surprising her. He assaulted her, striking her in the neck with his hand: a blow which caused a tear in her left carotid artery—one of the two vessels that supplies blood to a person’s neck, face and brain—and within 12 hours, a stroke.

Tom Verducci wrote about how much of a relief it was for Justin Verlander to finally win his first World Series game. … The Nets suspended Kyrie Irving shortly after this piece was published, but everything Michael Rosenberg wrote holds true. … Rohan Nadkarni examines why the Warriors’ “Two Timeline” experiment hasn’t gone well so far this season. … Here are our staff’s predictions for the men’s college basketball season. … These are the matchups, spreads and odds for SI Sportsbook’s Perfect 10 contest for Week 9.

Around the sports world

After the announcement of his suspension, Irving did later post a statement to Instagram apologizing, but I still want to hear it straight from his mouth. … Adam Silver will meet with Irving next week. … The Anti-Defamation League will no longer accept Irving’s $500,000 donation. … A former Spurs psychologist has sued the team and Joshua Primo for alleged sexual misconduct.. … Sixers star James Harden is likely to be sidelined for about a month. … Hall of Fame punter Ray Guy has died.

The top five...

… things I saw last night:

5. What Adam Wainwright was doing while watching the World Series.

4. This innovative triple-option play by Coastal Carolina.

3. The pizza box tower Rice fans built during their game against UTEP.

2. The final moments of the Magic’s win over the Warriors.

1. The two goals the Devils scored seven seconds apart to beat the Oilers.

SIQ

The Diamondbacks won their first World Series on this date in 2001, defeating the Yankees in seven games. Who won the World Series MVP award? (I’m not going to make this a multiple choice, but I will say to spend an extra second thinking about it.)

Yesterday’s SIQ: On Nov. 3, 2013, two months after Peyton Manning accomplished the feat, which quarterback became the seventh player in NFL history to pass for a record seven touchdowns in a game?

Philip Rivers
Matthew Stafford
Tony Romo
Nick Foles

Answer: Nick Foles. Drew Brees also threw for seven touchdowns in a game in 2015, bringing the total to eight players who have accomplished the feat.

But before Manning and Foles lit up the scoreboard in 2013, it had been more than four decades since the last player to throw seven for TDs (Vikings QB Joe Kapp against the Colts on Sept. 28, 1969). But during that span, there were 23 six-passing-TD games, including four alone in ’69. Daryle Lamonica had two six-TD games that year. And in a 51–42 shootout between the Saints and Cardinals on Nov. 2 of that year, New Orleans QB Billy Kilmer and St. Louis QB Charley Johnson each threw for six scores. The Saints game on Nov. 1, 2015, was another shootout. Eli Manning joined the short list of players with six passing TDs in a game, and Brees joined the even shorter list of guys with seven in a game, as the Saints beat the Giants 52–49.

From the Vault: Nov. 4, 2013

Some SI readers this week in 2013 saw a cover commemorating the Red Sox’ World Series victory over the Cardinals. Others saw the one above, trumpeting the arrival of Oregon (and, to a lesser extent, Stanford) as a challenger to the SEC’s dominance over college football.

Austin Murphy’s cover story was pegged to the Oregon-Stanford game scheduled for Nov. 7 in Palo Alto. The Ducks entered the game ranked No. 2 in the AP poll; the Cardinal, sixth. It was Stanford that, thanks to a 17–14 overtime win over Oregon in Eugene, had kept the Ducks out of the BCS title game the year before, and Oregon’s national title hopes hinged on the Stanford game again in 2013.

But Murphy’s story is more about how these two schools had built national-championship-caliber programs in a part of the country that had, in recent years, been more of a college football afterthought. With lots of money, of course.

The Ducks have won 12 games in each of the past three seasons; the Cardinal, 12, 11 and 12. The Ducks have been to four straight BCS bowls; the Cardinal, three. Both teams’ ascent to the college football aristocracy has come (relatively) recently—spurred largely by a couple of sugar daddies. Call it the Nouveau Riche Bowl. John Arrillaga (net worth: $1.8 billion), who played basketball at Stanford in the 1950s and developed much of the real estate that is now Silicon Valley, has given at least $251 million to his alma mater, where six buildings bear his name. Nike shogun Phil Knight (net worth: $16.3 billion) has kept his name off the architecture in Eugene, but he’s been even more generous, bestowing at least $300 million.

Murphy goes on to explain how, in the 1990s, Knight helped fund an indoor practice facility, so the Ducks didn’t have to train under Oregon’s winter downpours late in the season. Arrillaga, meanwhile, helped buy homes near the Stanford campus for assistant coaches who were previously commuting up to 90 minutes to work, because they couldn’t afford Silicon Valley real estate.

Investments like those made Stanford and Oregon contenders on a national stage, but the Cardinal got in the Ducks’ way again in 2013. They ran all over Oregon (274 rushing yards) in a 26–20 win that dashed the Ducks’ title hopes again.

While Stanford has fallen off in recent years, what Murphy wrote about Oregon building the foundation for a winning program remains valid. The Ducks are ranked eighth in the nation this year.

Check out more of SI’s archives and historic images at vault.si.com.

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