Houston Astros' George Springer (right) celebrates with Yuli Gurriel in Washington DC on Sunday. Photo: VCG

 
A masterful pitching performance from Houston ace Gerrit Cole sparked the ­Astros to a 7-1 victory over the Washington Nationals on Sunday, lifting them to the brink of their second World Series title in three seasons.

Yordan Alvarez, Carlos Correa and George Springer each smacked two-run homers as the Astros seized a 3-2 lead in Major League Baseball's best-of-seven final.

"If we win in front of our fans, it's going to be so special," Correa said. "I think I'll black out for the first time in my life."

Cole struck out nine and surrendered only one run on three hits over seven innings as the Nationals dropped a third straight home game, having batted only .175 in the span.

But after dropping the first two games of the series at home, the Astros are far from overconfident.

"These next 27 outs we're going to have to get to wrap this thing up are going to be the hardest we've had to get all year," Cole said.

Game 6 is set for Tuesday in Houston, where a seventh game would be played Wednesday if necessary.

"We've got a lot of fight in us left. I know we do," Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. "We're going to fight. We're going to finish this thing."

The Astros can secure a second title in three seasons Tuesday when Justin Verlander takes the mound against Washington's Stephen Strasburg.

The Nationals must win twice in ­Texas, as they did in the first two games of the series, to capture the first title in the franchise's 50-year history and the first for Washington since 1924.

"It has been pretty even this series. They are a game up with two games left. Let's worry about Tuesday," Martinez said. "I like our chances."

The Astros could become only the third team in World Series history to lose the first two games at home and win the title, the first since the 1996 New York Yankees.

In sweeping three games at Washington, where the World Series hadn't been played since 1933, the Astros outscored the Nationals by a combined 19-3 after falling twice by a combined 17-7 in Houston.

Cole allowed five runs on eight hits over seven innings in a game-one loss but mystified Nationals batters Sunday, throwing 71 of his 110 pitches for strikes with only Juan Soto's solo homer in the seventh spoiling a shutout effort.

US President Donald Trump received a chorus of boos from the crowd of 43,910 when his image appeared on the stadium videoscreen just after the third inning.