It wasn’t as nail-bitingly exciting as the finale of the World Series last year, but I guess it seems kind of fitting that the deciding game of an otherwise insane World Series would end in such a mundane and anti-climactic manner, with the Astros jumping all over Yu Darvish in the first two innings, and then basically just holding on for two and a half hours, counting down 27 outs.
But in the end, the Houston Astros stand triumphant, winning their first ever World Series in franchise history, and I am pleased. Contrary to the belief that I’m solely happy because it validates a moon shot of a pre-season prediction and makes me feel like I actually know a thing or two about baseball and how to make an educated guess, there are lots of other reasons why the Astros winning is a good thing in my opinion.
I’m happy for Carlos Beltran, whom I felt was one of the missing pieces for a championship-caliber squad, and it’s nice to know that such a talented star throughout a long career will get his ring. I’m happy for Brian McCann, Evan Gattis and even Charlie Morton, as former Braves players who additionally filled out the Astros roster and contributed big-time performances throughout the playoffs with clutch hits and big innings; I always wanted McCann to be a Brave for his whole career, but such notions are pipe-dreams today, especially with a tightwad organization like the Braves. But I’ve always rooted for McCann, and I’m happy to see him reach the peak, even if it’s for someone else.
I’m happy for the organization, who went through The Process and actually hit pay dirt in the end; all the years of living in the basement of both the National League as well as the American League when they moved, netted them numerous high draft picks whom most have developed and matured into stars like Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman and the World Series MVP George Springer, who absolutely went nuts throughout the series. So many teams go through The Process, because there’s really no other alternative unless their organizations have massive payrolls, and so many fall short, because baseball is ultimately one gigantic crapshoot anyway. But the Astros stuck with it, and with nothing more than good development, and smart acquisitions like McCann and Beltran, the team ascended up the mountain as contenders, and come out on top as champions.
And I’m also happy for the city of Houston, which as we all know was hit pretty hard by Hurricane Harvey. And as years past have proven, fewer things spur local sports teams more than tragedy, and it’s difficult to bet against teams who are representing cities who have been hit hard by unfortunate circumstances. The New Orleans Saints played a large role in the recovery from Hurricane Katrina, and they ultimately won a Super Bowl not long afterward. The Boston Red Sox played a huge role in the recovery of the city after the bombings at the Boston Marathon, and they won the World Series that same year. I’m not saying that tragedies directly inspire greatness, but I’m pretty sure those in Houston who suffered the worst from Harvey certainly might not be wanting for a positive distraction that the Astros’ success can bring.
Game 7 was thankfully not as dramatic as I had anticipated a game 7 should be, but it also wasn’t without its own unique moments. Lance McCullers hitting four batters with wild pitches likely caused by his own jittery nerves. Kenley Jansen being forced to be used in the 7th inning, because the Dodgers were down and they simply needed to hold the Astros at bay. Andre Ethier, the elder statesman of the Dodgers, in what will likely be his last at-bat for the only franchise he’s ever known, delivering the hit that scored the team’s lone run, because all the highly-touted kids and youngsters who took his place couldn’t hit water if they jumped out a boat, failed time and time again to get a single hit that would have made the game into a completely different affair.
But fewer moments were more unique than the brief moment in the first inning where Yuli Gurriel came up to bat against Yu Darvish. Now I’ve said my piece about how both MLB and the Astros dropped the ball with Gurriel’s punishment for mocking Darvish and all Asians, but it was a touching moment that was pleasing to see, when Gurriel took a brief second to remove his helmet and tip his cap to Darvish, as a gesture of respect and apology. To me, right then and there, the conflict between the two is done and over with, but in natural dog-piling societal mannerisms, the crowd at Dodger Stadium refuse to let it go, and tried their best to boo him out of the stadium. Naturally, this had zero effect on Gurriel, and he and Darvish embarked on a pretty epic, 13-pitch at-bat that ultimately resulted in Gurriel flying out. Darvish may have shit the bed on the most important start of his career, but at least he can say he got the one out that absolutely needed to have been gotten for bigger reasons.
But other than this, the rest of the game was pretty anti-climactic. George Springer took the wind out of all of Dodger Stadium when he clobbered the home run that made the game 5-0 and kicked Darvish out of the game, setting forward the path to cobbling together pitchers to get any outs before the damage got worse.
That didn’t change the fact that the rest of the game was still stressful, since Lance McCullers didn’t seem capable of pitching like he had a 5-0 lead. But in a victory for the eggheads, Astros manager A.J. Hinch did a bang-up job of managing his maligned pitching staff and making the right moves to chew up the outs with barely any damage. It wasn’t easy, but once Charlie Morton settled down, he instilled a quiet confidence and the killer instinct from any Astros pitcher to take the rest of the team home.
In the end, I’m always happy when I’m proven to be right, but I’m definitely happy for the Astros for several other reasons as well. I didn’t think it would happen so soon after the epic Cubs/Indians series of 2016, but damn did the Astros and Dodgers give baseball fans a truly and literal record-breaking series in their own right.
