With chaos around him, Strasburg sends Nats to Game 7 (updated)

HOUSTON - Chaos was consuming every corner of Minute Maid Park, Game 6 of the World Series having turned into one of the wildest, most entertaining, most infuriating contests the Fall Classic has ever experienced.

Alex Bregman and Juan Soto were trying to out-homer and out-celebrate each other. Adam Eaton and Anthony Rendon were getting in on the act as well, at least the home run part. Trea Turner was trying not to blow his stack after the latest (and probably most egregious) call to go against the Nationals in this series. And Davey Martinez finally did blow his stack, getting ejected several minutes after Turner was called out for interfering with a throw to first base in which the leadoff man simply ran directly at first base.

It was a scene unlike most you'll ever find in a ballpark, and it elevated this once sleepy World Series into a whole new category of greatness. But amid it all, as everyone else around him was losing his mind, one person stood tall and did what needed to be done to ensure this series reaches one final glorious game.

His name is Stephen Strasburg, and tonight he kept the Nationals' season alive and set the stage for what will be the most anticipated baseball game involving a major league team from Washington, D.C., since 1924.

With an 8 1/3-inning gem for the ages, Strasburg lifted the Nationals to a heart-stopping 7-2 victory over the Astros, and for the fourth time in his career pitched brilliantly to stave off elimination.

"Big pitchers in big moments do what Strasburg did today," Martinez said. "I told him after the game: 'That was tremendous. You picked us all up, and we're going to Game 7 because of your performance.' "

Home runs by Eaton, Soto and Rendon provided the necessary offense and allowed the chaos of the top of the seventh to become a footnote to this game. But more than anybody, Strasburg delivered when his team needed it most, and indeed now there will be a Game 7.

Yes, the entire season will come down to one winner-take-all showdown Wednesday night. Max Scherzer (who at one point tonight was loosening up in the bullpen in case a specific scenario arose in which he would have pitched) is going to start for the Nationals against Houston's Zack Greinke, a fitting matchup to conclude this crazy series.

"Everybody had the belief in me and the doctors that if I could get right, I could be ready for Game 7," said Scherzer, who was scratched from his scheduled Game 5 start but is ready to return after a cortisone shot relieved an irritated nerve in his neck. "Stras went out and had the game of his life. We all believed he could do that. We're just playing great team ball. And here we go."

Yes, here we go to wrap up one of the strangest yet more entertaining World Series in a long time. For the first time in 115 iterations of the Fall Classic, the road team has won the first six games. One more win away from home and the Nationals will walk away with Washington's first championship since the 1924 Senators defeated the New York Giants in a 12-inning Game 7 that saw Walter Johnson earn the victory in relief.

Strasburg's performance tonight would have earned the Big Train's approval. The veteran right-hander gave up two quick runs in the bottom of the first - possibly because he was tipping his pitches - but then never relented after that and was given an opportunity to take the mound for the bottom of the ninth with his team up five runs.

Strasburg would face only one batter, retiring Yuli Gurriel on a ground ball back up the middle. Bench coach Chip Hale walked to the mound and took the ball from him after 104 pitches and asked Sean Doolittle to record the final two outs.

"I didn't think I was going to pitch," Doolittle said. "Chip came out of the dugout and I was like: 'Well, maybe he's going to go check on him, because ... we got a five-run lead, he's absolutely earned the right to finish this.' Chip was pointing with his left hand, and I was like: 'Right. Fine. I'll go finish the game.' "

Which he did, retiring two of the three batters he faced to close out a victory that contained so many twists and turns and big moments by big players.

All of this came only two innings after the wildest and most controversial moment of a series that had already experienced too many of those. With the Nationals up 3-2 in the seventh and trying to mount a rally to tack on some insurance runs, Turner tapped a little roller in front of the plate. Reliever Brad Peacock picked up the ball and threw toward first base, but the ball veered to the right and struck Turner just as his foot struck the bag. First baseman Yuli Gurriel, reaching for the wide throw, had his glove knocked off in the process. The ball rolled away, and the Nationals thought they had runners on second and third.

But plate umpire Sam Holbrook ruled Turner out for interference, a call that left the Nationals dugout irate. And the sentiments of everyone who isn't rooting for the Astros only turned more irate as replays were shown and it became clear Turner was simply running straight toward first base and could not have done anything to avoid getting hit by the throw.

"I mean, what else do you do? I don't know," Turner said. "The batter's box is in fair territory. First base is in fair territory. I swung. I ran a straight line. I got hit with the ball. I'm out. I don't understand it. I could understand if I veered one way or the other. I didn't."

Martinez implored the umpires to grab the headsets and check with the replay official in New York, essentially asking for a rules check because the interference call itself it a judgment call and therefore cannot be changed via replay. After a delay that lasted an agonizing 4 minutes, 32 seconds, the original outcome of the play stood.

"He did run to the fair side of the 45-foot line (baserunning lane)," Joe Torre, Major League Baseball's chief baseball officer, said in a rare postgame press conference. "But really the violation was when he kept Gurriel from being able to catch the ball at first base. It's a judgment call on the umpire. Sam Holbrook made the call. It was the right call."

Martinez said he wanted to play the rest of the game under protest, though he admitted later he knew a protest cannot be lodged over a judgment call.

"I wanted them to go look at the replay," the second-year manager said. "Go look and just give me a rules check, that's all. They came back and, honestly, that was it. I dropped it. Done. They went and checked. They spent a few minutes. I've done it before knowing that you can't do anything about it. And then things escalated."

That's one way to put it. First, though, Rendon came to the rescue. The Houston native broke the hearts of his hometown with a two-run homer to left off reliever Will Harris, the first runs Harris had allowed this postseason, and now the Nationals led 5-2.

"You can't let any outside elements get into the game," Rendon said. "No matter if it's the crowd. You've got 40,000 people cheering against you. Or whether it's the weather. Or if we're in D.C. and it's 40 degrees. Whatever it might be."

"No one is going to feel sorry for you. They're going to expect you to go out there and just perform as best as you can, and they're going to expect the best out of you. Because I feel like people put professional athletes on a pedestal, where they say: 'Oh, who cares? They're making millions of dollars. They're playing a game for a living, so it's easy. They should go out there and be successful every day.' We try to just keep our head down and keep playing."

Rendon, by the way, would also add a two-run double in the top of the ninth to provide even more cushion and complete a performance in which he reached base four times and drove in five runs. He's only the eighth player in World Series history to do that, with Albert Pujols the most recent in 2011.

When the inning ended, Martinez burst out of the dugout and berated Holbrook and crew chief Gary Cederstrom (who was behind the plate for some controversial calls in Game 3). Martinez got his money's worth, but he also got ejected in the process, leaving Hale to manage the rest of the game but leaving his players fired up.

"When you see a guy like that fighting for you, it makes you want to play (harder) and hit more," Soto said. "Because you know you have a guy like that having your back, you feel really proud of that. You have to give it your 100 percent after that."

It's not every night that a crowd gathers with a chance to witness a championship-clinching victory, so the anticipation in the air was plenty evident tonight as 43,384 packed their way into Minute Maid Park. They roared during the lineup introduction, they roared when Hakeem Olajuwon threw a ceremonial first pitch (a slider in the dirt) to old Rockets teammate Clyde Drexler. And they roared when Justin Verlander took the mound seeking his first career World Series win in six tries.

And then three batters in, the top of the Nationals lineup silenced them all with a much-needed first-inning rally.

Turner led the game off with a chopper down the third base line, and though Jim Wolf initially ruled him out following a stellar barehanded play by Bregman, instant replay quickly corrected the mistake to allow Turner to remain on first base. Eaton stepped up, and you know what happened next: He bunted Turner over to second. Question the strategy all you like, but Eaton and the Nats aren't about to change now.

Besides, this time it worked. With the Astros infield shifted, Rendon showed excellent bat control and poked a slider down-and-away from Verlander through the empty right side of the infield for the Nationals' first run-scoring hit with a runner in scoring position since Game 2 here six nights ago.

It took only four pitches from Strasburg for the Astros to tie the game back up and get the crowd right back into it. George Springer ambushed his first pitch fastball and ripped a double off the left field wall, then took third on a curveball in the dirt. And when Jose Altuve lofted a high fly ball to left, Springer easily scored the tying run.

Two batters later, Bregman drove in the go-ahead run with a towering blast off Strasburg, one that prompted the big-personality third baseman to carry his bat all the way around first base and drop it in fair territory. Suffice it to say, the Nationals took note, though Bregman would apologize after the game.

"I let my emotions get the best of me," he told reporters in the Astros clubhouse. "I'm sorry for doing that."

Things settled down for a while after that, with Strasburg and Verlander posting zeros in the second, third and fourth innings. And in Strasburg's case, the turnaround may have been attributable to his realization that he was tipping his pitches in the bottom of the first. At the advice of pitching coach Paul Menhart, he began fanning his glove before gripping each pitch the rest of the way, not wanting to give the Astros reason to think they knew what was coming.

"That's something that over the years (I'm) a little bit more paranoid about," Strasburg said. "So sometimes you do it, sometimes you don't. And I just decided to switch it up a little bit, and it seemed to work to my advantage."

The Nationals, meanwhile, seemed to be getting good pitches to hit and were just missing. It felt like they'd deliver against Verlander at some point.

And deliver they did with two mighty swings in the top of the fifth. Eaton, denied the opportunity to bunt with nobody on base for a change, instead decided to club his second home run of the series, knotting the game back up.

And two batters later, Soto somehow managed to turn on a high-and-tight 96 mph fastball and launch it 413 feet into the second deck in right field. The 21-year-old, upon hitting his fifth homer in 16 postseason games, then decided it was time for a little payback. He, too, carried his bat almost all the way to first base, finally handing off to Tim Bogar before rounding the bag, a not-so-subtle response to Bregman's earlier display. (Martinez afterward said he would speak to Soto about confining his celebrations to the dugout.)

"It feels really good," said Soto, whose five postseason home runs are the most by any player under 22. "I just try to enjoy every homer. It feels really good when you hit a homer in the World Series. All the crowd, they're crazy, all the stuff, it feels really good."

Thus set in motion a chaotic second half to this instant classic, one that saw everybody's temperature rise, some to extreme levels.

Through it all, though, one participant maintained his poise: Strasburg. And because of his ability to block out everything going on around him and just do his job as well as he's ever done it, the Nationals' improbable season will live for one more remarkable day.

"He definitely did his job tonight," Doolittle said. "He doesn't have anything to prove to anybody. He doesn't have anything to prove to us. ... We're in great shape tomorrow because of what he did tonight."