Houston, Atlanta maintain steady approach to Game 3

ATLANTA – It has become as much a part of October as leaves changing color – the knee-jerk reaction to a given game of the World Series.

The team that wins Game 1 of the Series has declared itself as the superior team, all but certain to finish things off in the days to come.

And then Game 2 arrives and, should the losing team from Game 1 win, the storyline turns to the inevitability of that team destined to take the title.

A two-games-to-none lead? Forget it. No need to even play out the rest of the series.

And on it goes until a winner emerges, the eventual champion crowned and uncrowned nearly on a daily basis.

"I think human nature is to overreact, personally," the always sage Dusty Baker, in his second year managing the Astros, said late Thursday afternoon at a chilly, rain-soaked Truist Park where Game 3 of the Series, which is tied at one game apiece, will be played Friday night (the weather forecast was slightly better for Friday). "It's sort of shortsighted and you just see the feeling that you have at the moment. Right now, what is it, best three-out-of-five now? We went from best four-out-of-seven, now it's best three-out-of-five. That's how you've got to look at it."

Baker’s club, which fell in a three-games-to-none hole to the Rays in the 2021 American League Championship Series before forcing a seventh game – which they lost – dropped Game 1 of the 2021 World Series, 6-2. They were outplayed, outpitched, out-hit and out-defensed in the ugly loss, which led to the predictable "upstart, can’t-be-stopped Atlanta seizes control of the World Series" narrative.

Just as predictably, for anyone following these things for even a modicum of time, the Astros rebounded with a 7-2 victory in Game 2 to tie the Series, the 2017 champions serenaded with praise and suddenly it was Houston taking "command" of things heading into Game 3.

"These guys don't worry," Baker said after Game 2. "They weren't worried about (Tuesday) night. I mean, some people in this room thought the series was over already after one game, but it's a seven-game series."

Baker, who is 72, and his opposite number in the Atlanta dugout, 66-year-old Brian Snitker, make up the oldest managerial age combination to ever face each other in a Series.

Snitker, like Baker, has been around the game just about his entire life. Not surprisingly, the former sees the "momentum" question similarly to the latter.

"Every game is such a separate entity," Snitker said Thursday. "I think it lasts a couple hours after a big win, but then it's kind of turn the page. I think that's really true – that momentum is as good as your next day starter pretty much."

Snitker sends rookie righty Ian Anderson (9-5 with a 3.58 ERA this season) to the mound against Astros rookie righthander Luis Garcia (11-8, 3.30).

"I think you just…you don't get tied up in that," Snitker continued. "When you play 162 games, if you get on those swings or whatever, you'll drive yourself crazy, and you've just got to kind of take it a day at a time. [Game 2] didn't go the way we wanted it to, [we] take a day off, and we've got a new day and a game to win tomorrow. So I think our guys do a really good job of compartmentalizing that and living in the present."

A present that will include, for the winner of Game 3, a 2-1 series lead that in some circles will be treated as if the championship for that club is a fait accompli, with both clubs understanding that won’t be close to being the case.

"You’ve got," Baker said with a shrug, "to win four."

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.