Brandon Drury hit a go-ahead, two-run single during a five-run outburst in the fifth inning and the Padres San Diego defeated the Phillies 8-5 on Wednesday to tie the NLCS at one game apiece.
The Padres weren’t rattled when they fell behind 4-0 in the second inning after getting just one hit during a 2-0 loss in the series opener Tuesday.
Drury and Josh Bell hit back-to-back homers for the Padres, and Manny Machado went deep late.
The series shifts to Philadelphia for three games beginning tomorrow (Friday) night.
Justin Verlander struck out 11 in six strong innings and Yuli Gurriel, Chas McCormick and Jeremy Peña all homered to power the Houston Astros past the New York Yankees 4-2 in their AL Championship Series opener.
The game was tied 1-all in the sixth when Gurriel connected off reliever Clarke Schmidt on a solo shot to the seats in left field to put Houston on top. Two batters later, McCormick sent a sinker from Schmidt into right field to make it 3-1.
Verlander set a major league record with the eighth double-digit strikeout game of his postseason career and passed Clayton Kershaw (213) to become the all-time leader in strikeouts in the playoffs with 219.
New York whiffed 17 times in all to only two for the Astros — the largest difference ever in a postseason game.
ALCS Game 2 is tonight.
