MLS PLAYOFFS
Dynamo drop home opener 2-0, need huge effort in Seattle to advance
SportsMap Staff
Nov 22, 2017, 5:44 am
Mauro Manotas and the Dynamo were unable to get much going against Seattle. Michelle Watson
The Dynamo's hopes of reaching the MLS Cup took a serious blow Tuesday night when they lost to the Seattle Sounders 2-0 in the first leg of the two-part Western Conference Finals.
Seattle got goals from Gustav Svensson and former Dynamo Will Bruin, and Houston was forced to play with 10 men for most of the match after Jalil Anibaba picked up a red card. The Dynamo created some chances late but could not overcome fatigue to get a goal.
With the two road goals, Seattle is in prime shape to end the series next week and advance to the MLS Cup to face Toronto or Colombus. It will be a tall task for the Dynamo, who won one road game all season against D.C. United, one of the worst teams in the league. And Seattle has just one home loss all year, to Toronto FC, the team with the best record in the league.
The Dynamo and Sounders will play in Seattle on Thursday, Nov. 30, with Seattle holding a 2-0 aggregate lead, with two critical road goals.
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José Ramírez homered for a third straight game, Angel Martínez also went deep and the Cleveland Guardians got a 4-2 win over the Houston Astros on Wednesday night to complete a three-game sweep.
It’s the first time the Guardians, who entered the series on a 10-game skid, have won three in a row since a four-game winning streak from May 21-24.
Slade Cecconi (4-4) allowed five hits and two runs with a career-best nine strikeouts in 7-plus innings for the win. Paul Sewald pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save.
Martínez homered for a second straight at-bat with his shot to the Crawford Boxes with one out in the first inning. His grand slam with two outs in the 10th inning Tuesday night lifted Cleveland to a 10-6 win.
Four pitches after Martinez’s homer Wednesday, Ramírez also connected off Brandon Walter (1-2) to make it 2-0. Walter settled in after that, retiring the next 17 batters, with seven strikeouts before Bennett Sousa took over to start the seventh.
Ramírez and Carlos Santana hit consecutive singles with no outs in the inning before David Fry walked to load the bases. Johnathan Rodríguez then singled to score two and extend the lead to 4-0.
The Astros had managed just four singles when Taylor Trammell walked with no outs in the eighth and scored on a double by Mauricio Dubón that cut the lead to 4-1. There were two outs in the inning when Jose Altuve’s RBI double made it 4-2.
The AL West-leading Astros went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position to cap this disappointing series which came after they swept the Dodgers in Los Angeles over the weekend.
Key moment
Martínez and Ramírez had back-to-back homers in the first.
Key stat
Ramírez, who dropped out of next week’s All-Star game Wednesday to rehab a nagging Achilles injury, has four homers and seven RBIs this month.
Up next
LHP Logan Allen (5-7, 4.07 ERA) will start for Cleveland in the opener of a four-game series against the Chicago White Sox Thursday night. The Astros are off Thursday and haven’t announced their rotation for their weekend series against the Rangers.