Astros nip Braves' no-hitter bid in 2-0 World Series Game 3 loss

Known to have one of the most prolific offenses in baseball, the Astros struggled to churn out a hit in their 2-0 World Series Game 3 loss to the Atlanta Braves.

Forty-eight hours removed from the scoring clinic they put on in Game 2, the Astros' bats fell silent to the raucous delight of a packed Truist Field in Atlanta.

According to MLB.com, Houston was rendered hitless by Braves rookie right-handed hurler Ian Anderson and the Braves arms arsenal until the eighth when pinch hitter Aledmys Diaz squeezed a single to quash the home team’s no-hitter bid.

Then, third baseman Alex Bregman, who has experienced woes at bat since the start of the Fall Classic, popped a leadoff single in the ninth.

Houston failed to create any momentum from its only two hits of the night.

Rookie right-handed pitcher Luis Garcia worked four innings on the mound, MLB.com reported, continuing the troubling theme of Astros starting pitchers being unable to last through at least the first six innings – a theme that emerged in the American League Championship Series against the Boston Red Sox.

Garcia, who would lose the duel between him and Anderson, surrendered an RBI double to Braves third baseman Austin Riley in the third.

Before his exit, Garcia survived a bases-loaded situation that would've cracked Game 3 wide open for the Braves.

It was the first time two rookie pitchers faced each other in a World Series game since 2006 when injured Astros starter Justin Verlander, then a member of the Detroit Tigers, and the St. Louis Cardinals’ Anthony Reyes went head-to-head in that Fall Classic’s opener.

Once maligned for their inability to muzzle opposing bats, the Astros' relievers again this postseason came to the rescue of an overwhelmed starter.

The Houston Chronicle reported that relievers Blake Taylor, Yimi Garcia, Brooks Raley, and Ryne Stanek were successful in preventing Atlanta from adding to a 1-0 lead until the eighth when Kendall Graveman, who came to Houston via a trade with the Seattle Mariners last summer to help the then-struggling bullpen, yielded a home run to Braves catcher Travis d'Arnaud.

For the second time in the postseason, the Astros are down two games to one.

Game 4 is tonight at 7:09 p.m.