By Bryant Gomez
Five years after winning their first World Series, the Houston Astros were able to take home their second world series win. The Philadelphia Phillies made the Astros work for it though, only getting defeated by game 6. The Phillies are a tough team to beat this year, but they lost to Houston.
Even though the Astros have been a Major League Baseball team since 1962, they have only won a championship in 2017 – and now in 2022. This year, it appears that there is less controversy than last time. In 2017 there were accusations of cheating by the Astros because they used special cameras and other technology to steal opposing team signs. They received penalties but they were able to keep their championship pennant. General Managers, AJ Hinch and Jeff Luhnow received a one-year suspension, and were fired in 2020. What is more important to the success in this season is that the Astros forfeited their first and second round draft picks, and they received a fine of five million dollars, which is real money. So they should not have been in a strong position to win another championship in 2022, but they did.
They were able to pull off a record of 106 wins and 56 losses in the regular season, which was the best record in the American League this year. It was looking really good for the Astros to advance to the playoffs. Later in the season they would face the Seattle Mariners, but they were not a challenge, easily winning all three games. The pitcher played very well in those games, “Boy, our pitching staff did a heck of a job here,” said Astros Manager Dusty Baker. Even The Mariners pitcher congratulated them, “Theirs did a heck of a job, especially tonight on us, because it’s hard to hold somebody scoreless for that long on both sides. This is some team. These guys, they grind and grind and grind and sooner or later we broke through.”
On October 19, they faced the New York Yankees, which is a very popular team with some very known players. One of them being Aaron Judge, who had 62 home runs in a single season, breaking the record for most home runs in the American League. These two teams were very good, so people thought it would’ve been a close game, but they were wrong. The Astros had a surprising win, sweeping the Yankees off like if they were just a fly in their way. Defeating them all four games, and winning the ALDS (American League Division Series). Many were shocked with the results, especially die hard Yankees fans, but it was shown that despite all the hate they get, it does not stop their performance. Lance McCullers Jr., pitcher for the Astros said “When everything happened a few years ago, we knew the one thing that we could do is we could win and we could win and win a lot. I understand people are still not going to like us. They’re going to boo us, but at some point you have to respect what we’re doing.” So much for the Yankees.
After defeating the only obstacle in their way from advancing to the world series, they still needed to win in the World Series to earn their second championship. This time they would face the Phillies, in order to obtain the championship. Living on the east coast, many were rooting for the Phillies in this matchup. Most people in PHS were rooting for the Phillies, mostly becuase they are a local team, but also because they see the Astros as cheaters.
It looked like they would get their wish because, unfortunately for the Astros, they did not win the first game. Losing by one run, with a final score of six to five. The Phillies were one game closer to winning the championship. Game two came one day later, but this time the Astros took it. The Astros seemed to be more focused, so they were able to dial in the winning combination to beating the Phillies (this time without cheating). They won game two with a score of 2-5.
The Phillies seems to get back on track, winning game three. They shut the Astros out with a devastating score of 7-0. The Astros looked tired during this game, like they used all their energy on the previous game. Game four was another day away, but this time Astros would humiliate the Phillies with the score being 5-0, achieving a no hitter and tying up the series.
Game five was a tie-breaker and it was a close game with both teams being motivated to win and take the lead in the series. However, the Astros took it, winning by only one run, with a 3-2 final score. The Astros were one win closer to taking home the championship, it didn’t look so good for the Phillies. By November 5th, the game was a must win for the Phillies, being the game that would determine if the Astros won the World Series or there would be a final game number seven.
Halfway through the game, the score was still 0-0. In the sixth inning, the Phillies scored a solo home run, making the score 1-0. It looked like there would be a game seven but then the unthinkable happened, in the bottom of the sixth inning. Astros player Yordan Alvarez scored a three run Homer! The score was 1-3, in favor of the Houston Astros. They scored another run in the same inning, furthering their lead to 4-1, which was the final score of the game and the end of the Championship dreams for the Phillies.
“That’s what motivated them. The boos and the jeers that we got all over the country, it bothered these guys, but it also motivated them at the same time. And it wasn’t an us against the world thing. It was more of a ‘come together even closer’ type of thing,” said Dusty Baker, manager of the Houston Astros. The hate is what gave them motivation. One of the reasons the Astros won is because they have many great hitters in their team, many of them being Jose Altuve, Kyle Tucker, Alex Bregma, Yordan Alvarez and Jeremy Pena. All those people have done amazing plays, another reason is the pitching and rotation, the pitching was great, the pitchers struck out many batters including Phillies players Bryce Harper and Brandon Marsh.
Even though the Phillies lost they have a lot to be proud of this season. The Phillies played great this season and good during this series, but they were some moments where they messed up. In the last game, in the sixth inning when Yordan Alvarez appeared at bat and manager Rob Thompson decided to switch the pitchers, he believed the pitcher that replaced the other would strikeout Alvarez, which is why he did it. Rob thought he did a good substitution, but he did not. This was the hit that lost the Phillies the series. It was a clear mistake since after those innings no runs were made by the Astros. Hopefully the Phillies learned their mistakes and improve on them to better succeed. There is always next year, and they are in a strong position to be a tough team to beat again in 2023. Now we wait to see who will win next year, the Phillies, LA Dodgers, the Yankees, or maybe the Astros again? Well, guess we’ll need to wait for a year.
