LOS ANGELES _ Chris Taylor and Justin Turner, the co-MVPs from the National League Championship Series, put an early claim on the World Series prize.
Getting home runs from Taylor and Turner, and more brilliance from Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers beat the Astros, 3-1, in Game 1 on Tuesday night in front of 54,253 at Dodger Stadium. Game 2 is Wednesday night, with Dodgers left-hander Rich Hill facing Houston's Justin Verlander, the ALCS MVP.
Taylor homered off Dallas Keuchel on his first pitch of the game. Taylor walked in the sixth, then came home when Turner blasted a Keuchel cutter to left to make it 3-1.
Kershaw allowed one run and three hits in seven innings. He's 3-0 in this year's playoffs as he puts further into the rearview mirror the somewhat unfair "can't win in the postseason" tag. The three-time Cy Young Award winner and seven-time All-Star struck out 11, the fifth time he struck out 10 or more in postseason.
He made only one mistake, with a fastball to Alex Bregman leading off the fourth. The Houston third baseman slammed it to left field for a homer that made it 1-1. That seemed to jolt Kershaw, who struck out three straight and six of the next nine batters.
Brandon Morrow took over for Kershaw in the eighth and worked a perfect inning. Kenley Jansen, whose nasty cutter helped him save 41 games and post a 1.32 ERA, struck out one in a perfect ninth.
The Astros' offense, which mostly slumbered in the ALCS before waking up at home in Games 6 and 7 against the Yankees, had only three hits.
Keuchel shut down the Yankees in Game 1 of the ALCS but was blasted by them in Game 5, and he performed between those two extremes Tuesday night. The left-hander allowed three runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings. Keuchel, who has one Cy Young and two All-Star appearances on his resume, struck out three and walked one.
Kershaw came out hot, striking out leadoff man George Springer on four pitches, the final one a darting slider. Bregman and Jose Altuve, who had one of the Astros' hits, went down in the easy nine-pitch first inning.
Keuchel's first pitch, an 88-mph fastball, was crushed to left by Taylor an estimated 447 feet, the center fielder's third homer of the postseason. Two of those came in the NLCS, when Taylor went 6-for-19.
It was just the fourth leadoff homer in World Series history; the first since the Royals' Alcides Escobar did it with an inside-the-park shot against Matt Harvey of the Mets in 2015.
Keuchel retired the next three batters to end the 14-pitch inning.
Kike Hernandez, who homered three times in the Dodgers' Game 5 victory over the Cubs that moved them to the World Series, led off the second with a single. But Corey Seager, activated for the Series after having a back injury that left him off the roster for the NLCS, hit into the first of three double plays by the Dodgers, this one scored 5-6-3.
Austin Barnes made the Dodgers 3-for-3 in getting the leadoff man on when he started the third with a single. After Kershaw sacrificed him to second with a bunt, Taylor lined to Carlos Correa, who started an inning-ending double play.
Bregman led off the fourth and quickly stunned the crowd, taking a 1-and-1 Kershaw fastball to left for the tying homer. Bregman, at 23 years, 208 days, became the youngest AL player to homer in a World Series since Manny Ramirez, then 23 years, 148 days old, did it for the Indians in Game 4 in 1995.
Kershaw then got on his roll, retiring 12 of the final 13 batters he faced.
Keuchel got the first two batters of the sixth before walking Taylor. Up stepped Turner, who blasted a two-run homer to untie it and give him four homers this postseason. It also gave Turner, who went 6-for-18 with two homers in the NLCS, 26 career postseason RBIs, which tied him with Duke Snider for most in Dodgers history.
