Houston Astros take the World Series
October has come and gone, and Major League Baseball playoffs have come to an end. Fans witnessed a record breaking postseason and an eventful seven game world series to cap off a jam-packed year of baseball that will not be forgotten.
Both the National League Champions, the Dodgers, and the American League Champions, the Astros, had not won their respective leagues for some time. The Astros’ only other appearance in a World Series was in 2005, where they were swept in four games. As for the Dodgers, it had been three decades since their last pennant in 1988.
Minute Maid Park and Dodger Stadium were nearly sold out in every game of the series and fans on both side were willing to pay an average of $1800 for just one ticket.
The Dodgers won the first game 3-1 in a pitching duel, with Clayton Kershaw beating out Dallas Keuchel for the win. All runs driven in were from home runs, which was a common theme in this World Series, breaking the 1952 record for most ever hit in a single world series. Home runs from Chris Taylor and Justin Turner put the Dodgers in the lead and won them game one.
Game two was the longest World Series game ever recorded up until that point at four hours and 19 minutes. In all, there were 14 different pitchers in the game, showing that the era of pitching complete games was coming to an end. The Astros won the second game in 11 innings with a dominant performance by George Springer, and carried their momentum forward to win game three as well.
The Dodgers were able to come back and win the game four with a 6-2 win to give them confidence going into their last game in Houston. By game five, bullpens on both sides were tired out due to their overuse in the first four games, resulting in the highest scoring game in World Series history. The Astros won the game with a 13-12 walkoff by Alex Bregman in the bottom of the tenth inning.
The Series came back to Los Angeles for games six and seven with the Astros leading the Series 3-2. The Dodgers were confident in Rich Hill, who had a strong postseason, to get them the win, which they acquired by beating Houston 3-1 in a pitching duel between Hill and Justin Verlander.
Finally, in the seventh game of the World Series, the Astros took the title of World Series Champions with yet another outstanding performance by George Springer who hit a homerun and a double accounting for half of their runs.
Going into the 2017 season, Houston had never come close to being champions. However, with the pickups up Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander, the Astros were able to clinch the title for the first time in franchise history and gave their fans a season that will stay with them for a long time to come.
