HOUSTON — Dusty Baker knows his team.
After dropping Game 1 of the World Series to Atlanta on Tuesday at Minute Maid Park, the Houston manager said he had no doubt his team would bounce back.
And after taking a lead in the first inning and scoring four in the second, the Astros went on to a 7-2 victory on Wednesday to even the series at 1-1 heading into Game 3 on Friday in Atlanta.
“This team is excellent at forgetting yesterday if you have negative events like we did [Tuesday],’’ Baker said following Game 1. “They know they can play, and they know they’re going to rebound.’’
A leadoff double by Jose Altuve and a sacrifice fly by Alex Bregman gave Houston an early lead, and they used four consecutive one-out singles off left-hander Max Fried to help them score four runs in the second.
Starter Jose Urquidy was solid for Houston and Altuve iced the game with a home run in the seventh.
“Nothing is easy in baseball, especially [in the] playoffs,” Altuve said. “But when you’ve been in situations before, you know how to handle it. So I know that my team is capable [of winning] three in a row.”
“Like I said [Tuesday], these guys don’t worry,’’ Baker said. “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.’’
The Braves had a chance to take an early lead for a second consecutive night, but stranded a pair of runners.
Urquidy struck out Eddie Rosario and Freddie Freeman to start the game, but Ozzie Albies reached on a dribbler down the third-base line that stayed fair and Austin Riley followed with a single to right.
Jorge Soler, whose leadoff homer gave the Braves the lead for good on Tuesday, whiffed to end the threat.
Altuve opened the bottom of the inning with a double down the left-field line. Michael Brantley followed with a shot to left-center that was tracked down by Adam Duvall, but Altuve was able to advance to third.
Bregman, who has struggled for most of the second half and postseason, put the Astros ahead with a sacrifice fly to center.
Ex-Met Travis d’Arnaud tied the game with a two-out solo shot to left in the second.
A one-out hit by Kyle Tucker in the bottom of the inning was followed by a Yuli Gurriel single through the left side of the infield vacated by the shift.
“He did a really good job of seeing where we were positioned and staying inside of it and being able to beat it,’’ Fried said. “Sometimes you’ve just got to tip your hat.”
With runners on the corners, Jose Siri put the Astros up again with an infield hit to second. Martin Maldonado singled to left to drive in Gurriel.
Rosario threw to third to try to get Siri, but no one was covering the base and the throw went to the backstop, which allowed Siri — in the game because Baker liked his energy — to score on the throwing error to make it 4-1.
A two-out single by Brantley added another run, as the Astros took a four-run lead.
Urquidy went on to retire seven straight following Dansby Swanson’s single in the second, as d’Arnaud led off the fifth with a single.
He moved to second on a wild pitch and to third on a Rosario groundout. Freeman’s two-out hit knocked d’Arnaud in to cut Atlanta’s deficit to three runs.
Fried also settled in — retiring 10 in a row — but it was too late.
Houston got a combined four shutout innings in relief from Cristian Javier, Phil Maton, Ryan Pressly and Kendall Graveman.
“I would say it was a must win [Wednesday],’’ Altuve said. “We didn’t want to go to Atlanta down by two. So we left everything we had in there tonight.’’