Astros Earn History, Capture 1st Ever World Series Title

ASTROS 5 - DODGERS 1
HOU Wins World Series 4-3

Well, Sports Illustrated got it right three years ago. The 2017 Houston Astros are indeed Wold Champions.

The incredible Astros squad that captured the imagination of the country with their gritty style of play during the early stages of this Fall Classic, earned their place  in history with a dominant 5-1 win over the Dodgers in Game 7. A series with so many highs and lows, and plenty of offense in between, it was fitting that Game 7 went back to the games roots, pitching.

It was the clever managing of Astros skipper A.J. Hinch, combined with a solid effort out of the Astros pen that delivered the first ever baseball world title to the city of Houston, a city that just eleven weeks ago was devastated by Hurricane Harvey.

Coming into Game 7, the Astros had a team ERA over 4.5 in the postseason. While Justin Verlander had been brilliant all month, the same couldn't be said for the rest of the Astros pitching staff, particularly the bullpen, but that all changed on Wednesday.

Right from the get-go, the Astros made it clear they would not be denied their place among baseball's greatest teams. George Springer, who had been at the forefront of the Astros rebuild four years ago, got the game started with a hard double down the left field line on the third pitch of the game by Yu Darvish. Springer would later score when Darvish was late to first base on a grounder by Alex Bregman to put Houston on top 1-0.

With momentum on their side, Bregman caught everyone by surprise when he stole third base; he would eventually score on Jose Altuve's soft grounder to the right side to make it 2-0.

Houston was not done playing small ball in the seventh game of a series where they dominated with the long ball.  A lead-off walk to Brian McCann and a double by Marwin Gonzalez was soon followed by a RBI groundout by pitcher Lance McCullers to make it 3-0. Finally, Springer reminded the Dodgers why he is the World Series MVP when he smoked a Darvish fastball into the bleachers in left-center field to make it 5-0.

Springer, who was 2-for-5 in Game 7, absolutely owned the Dodgers in the World Series. He hit .379 with an OPS of 1.471 in the seven game series. Five of his six post-season home runs and seven of his nine post-season RBIs came in this series against the Dodgers. Springer earned the Chevy truck.

Meanwhile, Game 7 starter Lance McCullers really didn't have good stuff. He wasn't giving up any runs, but hit four batters in two-and-a-third innings of work. With a 5-run lead in the third inning, Hinch wasn't going to fool around and wait for McCullers to get on track, not now in the final game of the season with everything on the line.

Hinch went right to the pen and brought out his best reliever, Bradley Peacock, who proceeded to jam Yasil Puig on a fly out to center, and struck out Joc Pederson swinging on a wicked curve ball to get out of danger in the third.

A series that had once been a display of two teams out-muscling each other with home runs, had now turned into a chess match between Hinch and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. Hinch knew that Roberts was going to use Clayton Kershaw in this game, and predictably the Dodgers ace came in to settle things down in the third inning, giving Roberts and LA four shutout innings of work. But Hinch was the one who gambled correctly each time.

Peacock gave the Astros two shutout innings, before Hinch gave the ball to Francisco Lirano in a tight jam in the bottom of the fifth against Cody Bellinger. After Liriano got Bellinger on a ground out, Hinch went back to his pen and brought out Chris Devenski, who was able to retire Puig on a hard liner to first.

Fastforward to the bottom of the sixth, and Hinch rolled the dice again, bringing out Charlie Morton who hadn't pitched since Game 4 in Houston. Most would think that Hinch would use Morton for only an inning or two before going to Dallas Kuechle and Justin Verlander to close it out. But, no, Hinch trusted his guy, even inspite of the fact that Morton gave up a RBI single to Andre Either in the sixth inning. And Morton rewarded his manager's confidence. He would retire the Dodgers in order in each of the final three innings of this ballgame, becoming more and more dominant with each pitch. The ninth inning alone, Morton needed only nine pitches. The final out he got on just one pitch.

The Astros poured out of the dugout onto the field to join in the celebration. 55 years in the making for the city of Houston, and for the Astros front office, it was five years in the making since the club's move to the American League West. It was worth the wait and all the losing, because now, anybody who talks about the Astros will refer to them as World Champions. And with so many young guys under control, they might be there for a while.