Updated Wednesday at 2:05 a.m. ET

The Washington Nationals avoided elimination by beating the Houston Astros 7-2 in Game 6 of the 2019 World Series, forcing a Game 7 in Houston on Wednesday.

But even a Series-defining Game 7 could have a tough time matching the tension and drama of Game 6 which featured a controversial call that appeared to kill — at least temporarily — a Washington rally.

Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg was the winning pitcher, lasting eight and a third innings, striking out seven while allowing only two runs on five hits.

Astros ace starter Justin Verlander was the losing pitcher. He pitched five innings, surrendering three runs on five hits and three walks, with three strikeouts. It was Verlander’s second loss of this series and he is 0-6 as a starting pitcher in seven career World Series games.

The Nationals drew first blood to open the game on a run-scoring single by third baseman Anthony Rendon — who delivered five RBIs before the night was out — after lead-off batter Trea Turner hit an infield single and advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt by right-fielder Adam Eaton.

But Houston struck back immediately in their half of the first inning with a sacrifice fly by second baseman José Altuve after a first-pitch double by center-fielder George Springer, who took third base on a wild pitch by the Nats’ Strasburg. One out later, third baseman Alex Bregman hit a solo homer that gave Houston a 2-1 lead.

But those would prove to be all the runs the Astros would score.

After cruising through the second inning, the Astros’ Verlander had to pitch out of jams in the third and fourth innings, stranding two Nationals runners in both frames.

Washington, which had scored only three runs in the previous three games they had lost at home, finally capitalized in the fifth inning. Eaton and left fielder Juan Soto each hit solo homers to take the lead 3-2.

Houston threatened in the bottom of the fifth inning after right-fielder Josh Reddick singled and Springer followed with his second double of the night. But that was all the Astros got off Strasburg, who retired the next two batters.

Astros reliever Brad Peacock opened the sixth inning in place of Verlander, who had thrown 93 pitches.

The seventh inning opened with a sequence of plays that will likely be talked about for a long time.

After a single by Nationals catcher Yan Gomes, the next batter, Turner, appeared to have beaten out a dribbler to the reliever Peacock who threw late to first base. The throw got past first baseman Yuli Gurriel as the runners advanced.

But Turner was called out for running inside the base path and interfering with Peacock’s throw. After a lengthy delay in which the umpires consulted league officials in New York, the call on the field was confirmed.

So instead of having runners at second and third with no outs, the Nationals had a runner at first with one out. But a batter later, the Nationals’ Rendon launched a two-run home run that extended their lead to 5-2.

Strasburg retired the Astros without incident in the seventh and eighth innings. He was pulled for reliever Sean Doolittle after retiring the first batter he faced in the ninth.

The 2019 World Series is the first postseason series across professional baseball, hockey and basketball in which the road team won the first six games.

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A Nepalese climber has summited the world’s 14 highest peaks in six months and six days, smashing the previous record by more than seven years.

Nirmal “Nims” Purja, who served in the British military before attempting the lofty feat, reached the top of Mount Shishapangma in China on Tuesday morning. The Himalayan summit is some 8,027 meters (26,335 feet) above sea level. It’s also the smallest of the 14 mountains on Earth that soar above 8,000 meters — a realm mountaineers refer to as the “death zone.”

“I am overwhelmed and incredibly proud to have completed this final summit and achieved my goal of climbing the world’s 14 tallest mountains in record time,” Purja said in a statement. “It has been a gruelling but humbling six months, and I hope to have proven that anything is possible with some determination, self-belief and positivity.”

The two most recent records for climbing the world’s tallest 14 peaks were held by Polish climber Jerzy Kukuczka, at 7 years, 11 months and 14 days, and South Korean climber Kim Chang-ho, who did it more than a month faster than Kukuczka.

A video from Purja’s trek up the final mountain illustrates some of the challenges the team faced earlier this week – what Purja termed a “pretty tough day.”

The climbers were blasted by wind and snow.

“We climbed for 15 hrs non stop in an extreme weather conditions with the wind speed of more than 75 km/hr. Spent more than 3 hrs finding the way/route on the glacier,” Purja said. On that same day, an avalanche also threatened the climbers, according to Purja.

“MISSION ACHIEVED!” he announced from the summit of Shishapangma on Tuesday morning.

Purja, who was born in a village in Nepal more than 2,000 meters above sea level, kicked off his journey in late April by reaching the peak of Nepal’s Annapurna. He dubbed the 14-peak goal “Project Possible.”

From Annapurna, Purja quickly climbed five of the world’s tallest mountains in May, including Everest. A photo he took on Everest showed a long line of climbers waiting to reach the summit, which quickly went viral.

The crowds in the photo highlighted concerns about a high death toll this year on Everest, where at least 11 climbers died. As Sushmita Pathak reported for NPR, “It prompted Nepal to revise rules on who gets to climb the world’s highest peak.”

Along with his background in Nepal and making long treks on a daily basis, Purja credits the training he received in the British military for helping him accomplish the rapid-turn-around climbs. He joined the Brigade of Gurkhas in 2003 and later joined the special forces unit of the U.K.’s Royal Navy.

“It is about the recovery between the mountains which will be my physical challenge; then it will be the mental challenge to move on to the next mountain,” he said before completing the climbs.

Purja said he shattered the record “with a rotating support team made up of exclusively Nepalese climbers.” He summited five peaks in Pakistan in July.

According to the BBC, last month “his challenge was held up while he waited for permission to climb the final mountain, Shishapangma, in the Tibetan autonomous region of China.” That permission came through earlier this month after Nepal’s government requested help from China, the broadcaster added.

According to Purja’s website, his personal achievement wasn’t the only record set by the team. Mingma David Sherpa, who accompanied Purja on nine of the climbs, also became the youngest person to summit all 14 of these peaks.

During the course of their climbs, Purja and his team members say they rescued at least three other mountaineers who were in trouble.

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In a surprise move, the NCAA says it intends to allow college athletes to earn compensation — but it says it’s only starting to work out the details of how that would take place. The organization’s board of governors said Tuesday that it had voted unanimously to permit student-athletes to benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness.

“We must embrace change to provide the best possible experience for college athletes,” said Michael Drake, the NCAA board chair who is also president of Ohio State University. In a statement, Drake stressed the need for “additional flexibility” in the NCAA’s approach.

Drake added, “This modernization for the future is a natural extension of the numerous steps NCAA members have taken in recent years to improve support for student-athletes, including full cost of attendance and guaranteed scholarships.”

The timeline for implementing the changes was not immediately clear in the NCAA’s statement.

The NCAA, the national governing body for collegiate athletics, said its decision followed input over the past few months from “current and former student-athletes, coaches, presidents, faculty and commissioners across all three divisions.”

Notably, the decision follows California’s adoption of a law that bans schools in the state from preventing student-athletes from accepting compensation from advertisers and allows them to hire agents. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the legislation late last month, calling it the “beginning of a national movement.”

Indeed, it did spark a trend. Politicians in Illinois, New York, Florida and other states have introduced bills allowing endorsement deals for college athletes. And days after the California bill was signed, national politicians signaled they would push for something similar in Congress.

Amid this groundswell of political support for paying college athletes, the NCAA has quickly eased its public resistance to the idea. After initially pushing back hard on California’s measure, the NCAA has recently been taking a more conciliatory tone, suggesting it would “move forward with ongoing efforts to make adjustments” to the organization’s practices.

The NCAA has reported annual revenues topping $1 billion, largely on the strength of TV rights and marketing fees connected with its most prominent sports and events, such as the highly lucrative Division 1 men’s basketball tournament.

And though the organization long argued that it was converting those revenues into scholarships and other opportunities for students, that line had lately attracted prominent skeptics — such as NFL cornerback Richard Sherman and NBA superstar LeBron James, who hosted Newsom’s signing ceremony on his sports programming company la st month.

“As a national governing body, the NCAA is uniquely positioned to modify its rules to ensure fairness and a level playing field for student-athletes,” organization President Mark Emmert said in a statement Tuesday. “The board’s action today creates a path to enhance opportunities for student-athletes while ensuring they compete against students and not professionals.”

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Vlatko Andonovski was officially unveiled Monday as the U.S. Women’s National Team’s new head coach. The Macedonian-born 43-year-old takes the job following a successful stint in charge of the National Women’s Soccer League team Reign FC, where he was named NWSL Coach of the Year in 2019.

At an official presentation in New York City, Andonovski was introduced by U.S. Soccer President Carlos Cordeiro and USWNT General Manager Kate Markgraf.

“It’s a huge honor and I’m very excited to get started with this group of players and staff as we work towards continued success for this program. All of the talented coaches and players that have come before have built a legendary tradition of excellence and I’m committed to working very hard to continue to move this program forward,” Andonovski said in a statement Monday.

Andonovski has big shoes to fill. He replaces Jill Ellis, the most successful coach in USWNT history, who won 106 games and lost only seven. In her five-year tenure as head coach, she won two back-to-back World Cups.

He’ll also be the first man since 2014 to coach the women’s team. Five other men have taken up the mantle of USWNT head coach since the team’s formation in 1985, including Tony DiCicco, whom Ellis surpassed in becoming the winningest coach.

At the club level, Andonovski coached FC Kansas City to two NWSL titles between 2013 and 2017. He left Kansas City in 2018 to coach Washington-based Reign FC, where he led the team to two consecutive playoff appearances. Throughout his career, Andonovski has coached USWNT mainstays such as Megan Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn.

U.S. Soccer officials said that his domestic experience and managerial style made him the perfect candidate for the job.

“We identified the qualities we thought were most important for this unique position, we talked to quite a few people in the women’s soccer community domestically and around the world, and in the end, Vlatko was the best fit with his experience with elite players, how he sees the game, how he coaches the game and manages players, and his overall personality and ability to take on a job of this magnitude,” said Markgraf.

United States players will first play under Andonovski in November, when the USWNT plays international friendlies against Sweden and Costa Rica. In January, Andonovski will be tasked with qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. If they qualify, Andonovski will have the chance to coach the team to an Olympic Gold Medal, the only major tournament Ellis did not win.

Fans began wildly speculating who would take over the USWNT when Ellis announced she would step down from his position as head coach in late July. Andonovski was reportedly on the shortlist of potential successors, something fans grew excited about.

Earlier this year, the USWNT played its way to its fourth ever World Cup title, when they beat Netherlands in the final 2-0.

Paolo Zialcita is an intern on NPR’s News Desk.

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Two horses were euthanized this past weekend following injuries at Santa Anita Park, bringing the number of horses to die at the famed Southern California track to 36 in the calendar year.

On Sunday, a two-year-old filly named Bye Bye Beautiful was euthanized after sustaining a severe injury during a race. The death followed a training incident on Friday, when G Q Covergirl, a six-year-old mare, was euthanized following an injury to both of her front legs.

The deaths come just days before Santa Anita Park will host the 2019 Breeders’ Cup World Championships. Critics had called for those races to be moved from the racetrack — an initiative that didn’t come to fruition.

Outgoing Breeders’ Cup Ltd. CEO Craig Fravel said in a recent interview that the prestigious race chose not to change venues because “when people are trying to do the right thing, you need to stick with them.”

After this year’s Breeders’ Cup, Fravel will move on to oversee racing operations for Santa Anita Park’s owner, the Stronach Group.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has called on law enforcement to investigate the dead horses’ trainers.

“Santa Anita has taken extraordinary measures to protect horses, but it can’t criminally investigate trainers and veterinarians for the deaths of Bye Bye Beautiful and the other horses,” said PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “Law enforcement must do this. PETA again calls on the district attorney’s office to release its findings of its investigation into the deaths of the horses immediately and hold those responsible accountable.”

The track in Los Angeles County suspended racing for much of March — when horse deaths had reached nearly two dozen — as it worked to learn what was behind the high death toll.

The racetrack reopened in late March, after the park announced several changes, including limiting the use of pain or anti-inflammatory medications for horses and increasing the time required for horses to be on-site prior to a race. The track also has a new drainage system meant to make it safer.

But more horses have died since the park reopened for its autumn meet. Advocates for the abolition of horse racing have used these incidents as an example of poor living conditions that racing horses endure. Patrick Battuello, the founder of Horseracing Wrongs, told NPR that no amount of measures taken by Santa Anita Park will prevent deaths.

“With all of this talk about safety measures and welfare improvements and this hypervigilance that the industry has been displaying since they were exposed back in the spring, they still can’t stop the killings,” Battuello said.

An online petition calling for Santa Anita Park to shut down has garnered nearly 130,000 signatures.

Rick Baedeker, executive director of the California Horse Racing Board, spoke to NPR in March, expressing concern at the spike in deaths.

“We have had short periods of time where there have been numerous losses and the alarm bells have gone off, but nothing like this,” Baedeker said.

Both the CHRB and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office have undertaken investigations into fatalities at Santa Anita Park. The CHRB’s findings are set to be published in December.

Paolo Zialcita is an intern on NPR’s News Desk.

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