WHA'HAPPEN?:

We settled in at 7:21 local time, expecting a tense, classic World Series pitchers' duel between Dallas Keuchel and Clayton Kershaw.

We ended five hours and 17 minutes later after witnessing a game that was simultaneously an exhilarating baseball adventure and something Caligula invented. If you had a rooting interest in this game, you're not even reading this column because you're probably out of energy.

The Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 13-12 in a 10-inning slugfest of epic proportions as the Astros hit five home runs. They became just the fifth team in World Series history to rally from three separate deficits and just the second to rally from two three-run deficits -- and after all that, they still had to score the winning run off the best closer in baseball.

"Just when I thought I could describe Game 2 as my favorite game of all time, I think Game 5 exceeded that and more," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said after the game. "It's hard to put into words all the twists and turns in that game, the emotion, doing it at home, in front of our home crowd. Just exactly what you expect to come to the park with Keuchel and Kershaw pitching."

Did it really happen? Sweet mother of all that's pure and good, this insanity most definitely did happen, as the 43,000-something Astros fans in attendance at Minute Maid Park will tell their kids and their grandkids and their neighbors and the woman in line at the grocery store and the co-worker at the office they haven't talked to in two years. Games like this bring us together. The entire city of Houston will be talking baseball on Monday morning.

"I can't tell you how many times I've said this is the craziest game of my life," winning pitcher Joe Musgrove said about this postseason. "This was the craziest game of my life."

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