Astros vs. Nationals: Game 5 Time, TV Info, Live Stream and More

The Houston Astros knotted the World Series at two games apiece thanks to an 8-1 win over the Washington Nationals in Nationals Park on Saturday.

The series is, in essence, a best-of-three matchup now, with Game 5 set for Sunday in Washington and Game 6 slated for Tuesday in Houston at Minute Maid Park. Game 7, if necessary, will occur in Houston on Wednesday.

Game 5 Information

Day and Time: Sunday at 8:07 p.m. ET

Place: Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.

First pitch: Washington-based restaurateur and humanitarian Jose Andres

TV: Fox

Live stream: Fox Sports Go

Pitching matchup: Houston Astros RHP Gerrit Cole vs. Washington Nationals RHP Max Scherzer

Series score: Houston Astros 2, Washington Nationals 2

Notes

A World Series victory almost seemed like a formality for the Washington Nationals after they took two in Houston to open the Fall Classic. That pair of victories included a dominant 12-3 Game 2 win in which the Nats scored nine runs over the seventh and eighth innings.

But the Nats' bats have gone cold at the wrong time, as the team has mustered just two runs over their past two games.

That leaves their pitching with a razor-thin margin with which to work. Nats starters Anibal Sanchez and Patrick Corbin each allowed four earned runs over Games 3 and 4, respectively, to put Washington in a hole into the later frames.

Now the series turns into a battle of aces yet again, with Houston's Gerrit Cole and Washington's Max Scherzer squaring off in Game 5 before Nats right-hander Stephen Strasburg and Astros right-hander Justin Verlander do the same in Game 6.

The pitching matchups feel like near-draws given the electric stuff the four men possess. Outside of the starting pitching, however, Houston has some edges.

One of them showed itself in Game 4 of the NLCS, when Tanner Rainey and Fernando Rodney combined to allow four earned runs in the seventh inning to turn a manageable 4-1 deficit into an 8-1 rout.

The Nats bullpen finished last in reliever ERA in MLB, but Washington has been able to circumvent that in the playoffs thanks to starters going deep, relievers Sean Doolittle and Daniel Hudson excelling, other starters moonlighting in the bullpen and the offense giving the pitching staff a good cushion on some days.

But the issues are exacerbated on nights like Game 4, when the Nats have to dig out of a sizable hole and are forced into multiple high-leverage situations. That happened in the seventh inning, with Alex Bregman at the dish and the bases loaded. He proceeded to take a Rodney offering into the left-field stands.

With Scherzer and Strasburg on the bump over the next two games, the Nats may be fortunate enough to build a bridge from first pitch to last featuring their starter and Hudson and/or Doolittle.

But if the bats can't come to life, then Washington may become the first team since the 1996 Atlanta Braves to win the first two Series games on the road before losing it all.

Still, this is a Nats team that was 19-31 through 50 games and somehow made the playoffs. This is also a team that was down 3-1 to the Milwaukee Brewers in the eighth inning of the NL Wild Card Game and won.

And this is also a Washington team that was down 3-1 in the eighth inning to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a winner-take-all Game 5 in the NLDS and won 7-3 in 10 innings.

The Nationals may have lost momentum and home-field advantage, but they have bounced back all year. The edge on paper goes to the Astros, but this series isn't a foregone conclusion.