Astros Win The World Series

It’s finally happened! A World Series in Texas! The Houston Astros have won the 2017 World Series, beating the Dodgers in a thrilling 7-game series. Winning their first ever World Championship was no simple task, and it took everything in the Astros to get the job done, but they did it. After so much let’s take a look back on how the Astros won the World Series.

Coming into this series the Astros were almost seen as underdogs to the Dodgers who won an MLB leading 104 games in the regular season, and who had cruised through the first two rounds of the postseason. Despite this however the Astros were no joke, and had renewed excitement after edging out the Yankees in 7-games in the ALCS. During the regular season the Houston area experienced great devastation from Hurricane Harvey with many people losing power, floods filling houses, and sadly several lives being lost due to the natural disaster. The Hurricanes effect even reached baseball when a series in Houston between the Astros and Rangers had to be moved to St. Petersburg Florida in an effort to keep the players and the fans safe, It was a very tough time in the entire country as people rallied around the people of Houston to support them in their time of need. The Astros stepped in by not only donating a large sum of money to relief efforts, but by also placing patches on their jerseys which say “Houston Strong” in an effort to show their support of their home city. The Astros even wore the patch during the World Series to show how far the city has gone to recover from the devastation.

Back on the diamond the Astros didn’t have an easy time with the Dodgers from the first batter of the fall classic for the Dodgers when Chris Taylor hit a leadoff home run against Astros righty Dallas Kechuel. The Astros went on to lose that game 3-1, and after being down 3-1 again in game 2 Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen came into the game to close the door on the Astros. Despite Jansen being arguably the best closer in the game, the Astros did something no one expected, they tied the game off Jansen. After knocking out the big righty, in the top of the 10th inning the Astros stuck for 2 runs on back to back solo home runs by the Astros middle infielders, Jose Altuve and then Carlos Correa. Although the Dodgers managed to tie the game in their half of the 10th the Astros didn’t give up putting another 2 runs on the board, eventually winning game 2 by a score of 7-6. After such an amazing win the scene was moved to Houston where although unlikely, they could have closed out the series. Although the Astros couldn’t sweep the Dodgers in 3 games in Texas the Astros had a very good time at home winning 2 of 3 games there. In game 3 the Astros came out ready against Dodgers starter Yu Darvish, as they scored 4 runs against him and knocked him out of the game after just 1 ⅔ innings. The Astros eventually won that game 5-3, putting them up in the series 2 games to 1. Game 4 went more of the Dodgers way as although the game was close until the 9th, rookie Cody Bellinger gave the Dodgers the lead late which led to a 6-2 Dodgers victory. Once again tied with the Dodgers 2 games to 2, the Astros looked to take a series lead back to LA, but to do it they’d have to beat Clayton Kershaw… but the Astros didn’t back down. Although the Dodgers scored 4 runs early off Dallas Keuchel, the Astros fought back to tie the game at 4. With the game tied the Dodgers began to threaten with 2 runners on and Cody Bellinger up. In this at bat against Astros righty Collin McHugh Bellinger went deep giving the Dodgers the lead back. The Astros weren’t even close to done however. Just as the Dodgers were able to score 3 runs in their half of the 5th inning, the Astros scored 3 runs on a Jose Altuve home run. After 4 innings of back and forth action the game was tied at 12 as the game was headed to the 10th inning. In that 10th inning the Astros were finally able to keep the Dodgers off the scoreboard, and with 2 runners on in their half of the 10th Alex Bregman delivered a walk-off single off of Kenley Jansen to win the game for Houston. Up 3 games to 2 headed back to LA the Astros looked to seal the deal without having to face elimination. Sadly for the ‘Stros they weren’t able to get the job done falling to the Dodgers 3-1 despite a solid start from Justin Verlander. Despite the loss though the Astros were ready for a game 7 against Yu Darvish and the Dodgers. The Astros managed turned the page on the loss very quickly into game 7 as they managed to score 2 runs in the first, aided by a Cody Bellinger fielding error. Up 2 early the Astros wouldn’t look back adding 3 runs in the 2nd inning and holding the Dodgers offense to nothing for 5 innings before the Dodgers scratched across a run in the 6th. After completing 2 solid innings out of the pen Charlie Morton came back out to face Chase Utley who he struck out. Then he faced Chris Taylor who grounded out to Jose Altuve for the second out. Finally Corey Seager met a similar fate to Taylor, grounded out to seal the deal for the Astros as they won their first ever World Series Title. The World Series MVP for the Astros, George Springer set a World Series record with 29 total bases throughout the series. Springer also hit 5 home runs throughout the fall classic including a homer in each of the last 4 World Series games.

After 3 straight years of over 100 losses, a long rebuilding process, and 55 years of believing, the Astros have finally won the World Series. After the excitement of a game 7 the Astros have put a nice bow on top of a historic season. Now as baseball fans we get to experience the excitement of the offseason and we get to do this all next year. Congratulations to the Houston Astros on their first World Championship.