HOUSTON ASTROS WIN FIRST WORLD SERIES SINCE INCEPTION IN 1962

Astros defeat Dodgers in seven games to win first world championship

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Story by Liz Alper

Photo:  George Springer's two-run blast in the second gave the Astros the five runs they needed to win the World Series.  He was also crowned World Series MVP.  Via @astros on Twitter

November 1, 2017 (Los Angeles) - In a whirlwind of a postseason, the Houston Astros have won the 2017 World Series in a seven-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Astros toppled the Red Sox and Yankees--two of the toughest teams in the AL East--to get to the Big Show, while the Dodgers overcame two of the toughest customers the National League had to offer:  the Diamondbacks and Cubs.

The teams traded games in the series, with the Astros winning the series 4-3.  The biggest game was game 5, which the Astros won in 10 innings on Alex Bregman's RBI single to give the Astros the 13-12 win.

Despite that excitement, the game for all the marbles was rather boring.  The Astros jumped out to an early lead with Bregman reaching second on an error that scored George Springer.  Jose Altuve hit a sac groundout and the Astros led 2-0 after one.

Lance McCullers Jr. hit another sac groundout to start the second and Springer followed that up with a two-run blast to give Houston a 5-0 lead.

Andre Ethier scored the only Dodgers run on an RBI single in the sixth, but the Astros emerged victorious to win their first-ever world championship title.

The win is not without controversy, however.  In game three, Houston's Yuli Gurriel made a racist gesture to Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish after hitting a home run off of him.  Once in the dugout, Gurriel used his fingers to narrow his eyes to imitiate typical Asian features (Darvish is Japanese.)  The gesture sparked outrage on social media and got even worse when Astros fans applauded Gurriel in game four.  Tonight,  Gurriel tipped his hat to Darvish as he stepped up to bat, an apology.  Darvish has said that Gurriel will learn from his mistakes, hopefully.  Gurriel was suspended for the first five games of 2018.

Grossmont High School graduate Joe Musgrove got his first World Series win.  Musgrove pitched (and won) that tumultuous game five.

With the controversy and the insane postseason behind us, we are once again in a baseball drought.  Hang in there; the Padres will be back to entertain us with rebuilding in February!