Baseball: Houston Astros win World Series

HOUSTON – For five years, wherever the Houston Astros travelled, they felt the fury behind the booing and jeers from opposing fans, and withstood charges that their 2017 World Series championship was tainted by allegations of cheating.

Amid the outcry, the Astros never went away. They kept striving to legitimise their success, reaching the post-season each subsequent year while advancing to the World Series three times since. But as close as they came in that period, they never managed to prove unequivocally that, yes, they could win a title without illegally stealing opponents’ signs. Now they can.

Playing at home, where the scandal is rarely highlighted, the Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 in Game 6 on Saturday to win the best-of-seven World Series 4-2, rewarding their loyal fans with an unimpeachable championship to pair with their tarnished title in 2017.

That was the year Houston beat the Los Angeles Dodgers for the Major League Baseball side’s first World Series crown. But they were later forced to admit to using technology and banging on rubbish bins to steal and relay signs. In the wake of the scandal, they were shunned by the baseball world, with fans in opposing stadiums demonstrating their outrage by booing and flashing signs that vilified them as cheats.

Winning in 2022 does not change history, but it helps isolate the cheating scandal as a one-time event, not a crutch on which Houston rested their only title.

“It goes away forever,” John Smoltz, a Hall of Fame pitcher working as a pundit for Fox, said after Game 5. “To win this one would be the greatest relief in the world.”

Houston’s fans found instant relief in the sixth inning when Yordan Alvarez, the Astros’ powerful left-fielder, hit a three-run blast to centre field that wiped away a one-run deficit. The fans, who were growing anxious, exploded as the ball sailed through the air and Astros players poured out of the dugout and danced in foul territory to celebrate with them.

“Amazing,” Alvarez said through a translator when asked about the moments after his home run. “When I was rounding second base, I felt the whole stadium moving.”

The Astros added another run in the inning when Alex Bregman walked and scored on a single by Christian Vazquez. Houston’s talented bullpen, one of the keys to the team’s success, shut the Phillies down for the remaining three innings, leading to the ultimate celebration on the field.

There was more joy when their rookie shortstop Jeremy Pena was named the World Series’ Most Valuable Player. The 25-year-old Dominican became the third rookie to be named World Series MVP, joining the Florida Marlins’ Livan Hernandez in 1997 and Larry Sherry with the 1959 Los Angeles Dodgers.

He also became the first rookie position player to be honoured.

The victory provided special joy and perhaps some vindication, as well, for Dusty Baker, the Astros’ manager who had never won a World Series, despite leading five teams to the play-offs, a record. At 73, he became the oldest manager to win a World Series.

The Astros hired Baker after firing A.J. Hinch, the manager of the 2017 team, for not putting a halt to the cheating operation. With an impeccable reputation and affable persona, Baker not only stabilised the team, but was able to deflect some of the ire aimed at the organisation.

Now, as two-time champions, the Astros also avoided the fate of other excellent teams who made repeated visits to the World Series but managed to win only one championship.

Smoltz’s Braves won the series in 1995, which helped soothe the pain from losses in four other Fall Classics. He said it was like having an enormous weight lifted off their shoulders, and said the same held for the Astros because of the circumstances surrounding their only other title.

“You’ve got to give them their due,” Smoltz said. “The only way you make up for something that is a big, huge cloud over you, is to show them that you can win without it.”

In 2019, the Astros lost to the Washington Nationals in seven games. Last year, they lost to the Braves, both times in Houston, as the home fans were forced to watch the jubilant visitors celebrate on their turf. In between, Houston lost the American League Championship Series (ALCS) to the Boston Red Sox in 2018 and the Tampa Bay Rays in 2020.

They had five straight trips to the ALCS since 2017, but no untainted title to show for it.

“We put ourselves in that situation,” Lance McCullers Jr, an Astros pitcher, said before the World Series. “All we can do is keep winning.”

They have done that by reaching baseball’s semi-final stage in each of the past six years and three of the past four World Series. In 2022, they won their first seven post-season games before dropping Game 1 and Game 3 of the World Series.

But from last Wednesday in Philadelphia, they fought back, when four of their pitchers combined to throw a no-hitter, only the second in World Series history, and then won a tight Game 5 as pitcher Justin Verlander won his first World Series game in nine starts, with the help of some superb defence.

Game 6 started with more excellent defence and both pitchers carried shutouts through the first five innings, with Zack Wheeler, the Phillies starter and former New York Met, throwing with power and precision, limiting Houston to two singles and a walk in those frames.

Framber Valdez matched his efficiency for Houston, but Kyle Schwarber led off the sixth with a home run. It was the Phillies’ third time through the batting order, but Valdez got the next three batters to get out of the inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, Wheeler hit a batter and gave up a one-out single before he was replaced by Jose Alvarado, who grooved a sinker and Alvarez destroyed it.

“I don’t think the booing will stop,” McCullers said. “It’s like Reggie Jackson said, ‘They don’t boo nobodies’.”

After winning their second World Series in six years and showing they could do it without stealing signs and banging on rubbish bins, the Astros are true somebodies. NYTIMES, REUTERS