Three Up, Three Down: 2017 World Series shaping up to be a battle of the ages

Welcome to this week's edition of Three Up, Three Down — your weekly catch-up of the three best highlights (and lowlights) from around the league. We're here for all of the cheers and the jeers, because it's baseball. You can't have a winner without someone losing along the way.

Up: Game 2 of the World Series was an instant classic

If you're like me, one of the ways in which you bear with baseball's seemingly endless offseason is to watch classic games, whether it's on MLB's official YouTube channel or on the MLB Network when they bring in former players to talk with Bob Costas about classic games from the past. I'm saying that to suggest that you shouldn't be shocked if they have a Houston Astro and a Los Angeles Dodger show up to talk with a studio host at MLB Network about the amazing Game 2 of this year's World Series.

The game was already an exciting continuation of a good Game 1, but the end of the game is a prime example of why baseball is such a cool sport. Things hit a fever pitch in the ninth inning, which is when the two teams combined for six home runs. Four of those dingers were hit by the Astros in their furious efforts to tie the series up before returning to Houston. What made this special is that Houston absolutely needed all of those homers in order to win the game, and George Springer's 11th inning dinger was the one that put Houston ahead for good and turned this game into an instant classic. 

Down: George Springer's golden sombrero

It sure is a good thing that the Astros finally found a way to score a decent amount of runs on the road, because it had been looking very rough for them away from Minute Maid Park. They had found it tough to push runs over while playing on the road, and Game 1 was pretty frustrating for them. Granted, it's extremely difficult to score against Clayton Kershaw, but poor George Springer got it the worst in Game 1.

Houston struck out 12 times in Game 1, with 11 of those coming from the arm of Kershaw. Of those 12 strikeouts as a team for the Astros, four of those went on George Springer's record. There were plenty of players on that field who were experiencing their first-ever World Series game, and for Gerge Springer it's very likely that the star outfielder would love to forget his first World Series outing as it resulted in a golden sombrero. However, considering what happened in Game 2, it's clear that Springer has a very short memory.

Up: Game 1 ended in the blink of an eye

While George Springer was trying his best to forget about Game 1 of the World Series, there's a decent chance that the Commissioner's office was jubilant with the fact that the game only took 2 hours and 28 minutes. Yes, that means that this game was actually shorter in length than "Blade Runner 2049."

The last time a World Series game went by this quickly was back in the 1992 World Series, which is when the eventual champions in the form of the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves 2-1 in a brisk two hours and 21 minutes. The pace of the game was incredible, but that's what tends to happen when you pair the likes of Dallas Keuchel and Clayton Kershaw on the mound. With that being said, it may be a very long time until we see a World Series game go by as quickly as this game did.  

Down: Please respect the 2005 Chicago White Sox

For the second year in a row, it seems as if people are actively trying to forget that the city of Chicago has two baseball teams and the Chicago baseball team not named the Cubs actually won a World Series in 2005 to break an extremely long drought. Indeed, the White Sox won it all in a sweep of the Astros, but it sure seems like the only people who want to remember it are the fans who reside on the South Side of Chicago. 

They may be the Worldwide Leader in Sports, but ESPN may not be too popular with the black-clad White Sox fans who are proud of their team for finally bringing home a title after going for so long without one. Hopefully this latest gaffe can help fans remember what was an entertaining and special baseball team. If not, then we'll probably be back here in this spot next year talking about how a sports network once again forgot that the White Sox did win the World Series in 2005.  

Up: Clayton Kershaw puts his playoff narrative to bed

For some reason, Clayton Kershaw had developed a reputation for being a playoff choker. This is despite the fact that the Dodgers ace had also carved out a rep for being the game's best pitcher in the regular season. It's tough to shake the label of choker until you actually start winning, and now Clayton Kershaw is starting to knock out some of those rumors with his recent playoff performances.

His pitching performance in Game 5 of the NLCS wasn't exactly overwhelming, but it helped put the nail in the Cubs' coffin in order to vault the Dodgers back into the World Series for the first time since 1988. Once he got to the World Series, all he did was strike out 11 guys on an extremely high-powered offense. If you're betting on Kershaw to "revert back" to being a choker, then I'd suggest you place your bets on something else because we're seeing vintage Clayton Kershaw in this postseason. 

Down: Three playoff managers have lost their jobs

One  of the oddest things about the regular season was the fact that no manager was fired. It was a bit unusual to see a season come and go without seeing someone get canned from their position in the dugout, but it was also nice because it's still a bummer to see a manager lose their job. With that being said, the teams who made the playoffs have apparently decided that simply making the playoffs isn't good enough.

Eight teams made the playoffs, but when the Yankees chose to part ways with Joe Girardi, that made it nearly half of the playoff field who decided that their managerial position was untenable. Girardi joined Red Sox manager John Farrell and Nationals manager Dusty Baker on the firing line. You could definitely argue that this is a message from these clubs that just making the playoffs isn't good enough, but you could also argue that these teams are putting lot at risk here when it comes to their managerial situations. Either way, it's a stunning turn of events and it'll be real interesting to see who the Yankees and Nationals choose to be their dugout manager form here on out.