HOUSTON -- The Astros topped the Dodgers 5-3 in Game 3 of the World Series (box score) on Friday night for a multitude of reasons -- Brad Peacock's hitless and high-volume relief effort and Houston's five extra-base hits among them. Also prominent? The stellar Houston fielding on this night. Consider the many times those gloves came up big in what was, lest we forget, a two-run affair ... 

The Altuve play in first

Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager laid into a 102-mph grounder, which Jose Altuve, playing in the grass in short right field, was able to knock and down and make the peg to first just in time ... 

That's a great example of what can happen if you manage to keep the ball in front of you on the right side of the infield. The very next inning, Altuve would successfully handle a 112-mph grounder (!) off the bat of Yasiel Puig.

Oh, and speaking of 112-mph grounders, Alex Bregman retired Austin Barnes on one of those to end the second inning.

That double play

Given the how close this game would wind up being, this was a huge play. In the third, McCullers walked the bases loaded with no outs. In such situations, teams average 2.27 runs per inning. The Astros, though, made this happen …

That's a 3-6-1 double play that just nipped Corey Seager. As well, the ball left Seager's bat at just 76 mph, and slower balls of course make for difficult DPs. One Justin Turner ground-out later, as shown above after the DP, and the Astros escaped having allowed only one run for the frame.

Throwing out Puig

With one out, Puig pulled one down the line that Bregam just missed snaring. Instead, Bregman's glove tipped the ball away. Puig busted down to first but didn't realize for a moment that the ball made it past Bregman. An instant too late, Puig made for second. However, Carlos Correa hustled the ball down and fired it to Altuve at second, who made a diving tag on Puig before he could reach the bag ... 

(Note: The video caption says it's Marwin Gonzalez making the throw, but it's actually Correa.) Instead of one out and a runner in scoring position, the 6-4 putout with great effort on both ends made it two outs and nobody on for Logan Forsythe.

Speaking of which, Josh Reddick made a solid play to get to Forsythe's humpback liner and end the inning.

The Springer catch

In the first inning, Springer ranged deep into the right-center gap to run down Justin Turner's 402-foot sharply hit fly ball, but that wasn't his best catch of the night. We move to the top of the fifth. Joc Pederson is on third with two outs, and playoff colossus Chris Taylor is that the plate. Taylor hit a 280-foot liner that Springer had to break in and to his right out. He laid out and …

… caught it. Pederson of course scores if it drops, and even though Marwin Gonzalez was moving to back up Springer, Taylor might have wound up on third if it got passed them both. That would've brough up Seager. Instead, Seager came up next inning and walked ahead of a double by Turner.

Really, the only Houston hiccup came in that inning, when Brian McCann let a Brad Peacock slider skip off the plate and between his legs, allowing Turner to score and cut the lead to 5-3. It was ruled a wild pitch, but McCann should've been able to keep it in front of him. Otherwise, the Houston defense was stellar in Game 3.

That's especially the case in comparison to a Dodger defense that suffered multiple miscues on the night. With two outs in the fifth, reliever Tony Watson made a throwing error on an Evan Gattis grounder that allowed Reddick to dash home all the way from first base. Then in the bottom of the sixth, Turner on a routine ground ball from Springer threw wide of the bag at first. The Dodgers escaped damage that time.

In terms of Defensive Efficiency, which is the percentage of balls in play that a defense converts into outs, the Dodgers during the regular season led all of baseball. The Astros, meantime, ranked just 24th. On Friday night, though, that particular script was flipped in a big way. It's no exaggeration to say the Astros prevailed in Game 3 -- and the Dodgers lost Game 3 -- in large part because of fielding.