Alvarez blasts Astros, Baker to World Series title vs. Phils
Yordan Alvarez hit a moon shot that sent Space City into a frenzy, and the Houston Astros to their second World Series title late Saturday in Houston.
While the stain on Houston’s first championship might never completely fade, Alvarez’s majestic three-run homer helped fashion a fresh crown for the Astros — and the first for Dusty Baker as manager — in a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6.
“What happened before, it doesn’t ever pass over completely,” said Baker, the veteran manager hired by the Astros in the wake of their sign-stealing scandal. “But we have turned the page and hopefully we’ll continue this run.”
Alvarez blasted a ball over the 40-foot batter’s eye in center field during the sixth inning immediately after Phillies starter Zack Wheeler was pulled with a 1-0 lead.
As Alvarez’s 450-foot shot sailed, Astros starter Framber Valdez jumped and wildly screamed in the dugout while the crowd of 42,958 went crazy waving orange rally towels.
“When I was rounding second base, I felt the whole stadium moving,” Alvarez said through a translator.
The 73-year-old Baker finally got his first title in his 25th season as a manager. He’s spent the past three with the Astros after they hired him to help the team regain credibility after their trash can banging scheme cost manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow their jobs, and made Houston baseball’s most-reviled team.
“I wasn’t here in 2017, but it’s definitely a weight off of everybody’s shoulders. Ain’t nobody can say (anything) now,” said closer Ryan Pressly, who finished the Series with another scoreless inning.
Baker, who won a World Series as a player with the Los Angeles Dodgers and had been to the Fall Classic twice before as a skipper, is the oldest championship manager in any of the four major North American sports. The win came 20 years after a near-miss, when he came within five outs of taking the title while guiding the San Francisco Giants.
“What’s next? I said if I win one, I want to win two,” Baker said afterward.
Houston’s coaching and training staffs circled around Baker after Nick Castellanos flied out to end it, jumping up and down, and chanting “Dusty! Dusty! Dusty!” in the dugout before they joined the players on the field.
Astros rookie shortstop Jeremy Peña was the World Series MVP after getting another key hit, a single to set up Alvarez’s homer.
The 25-year-old star born in the Dominican Republic also won a Gold Glove award and AL Championship Series MVP — Peña is the first hitter to win those three awards in a career, and he did it all in his first season, per OptaSTATS.
A year after watching the Atlanta Braves clinch the World Series title at Minute Maid Park, Justin Verlander and the Astros went 11-2 in the postseason and became the first team to seal the championship at home since the 2013 Boston Red Sox.
Houston won an American League-best 106 games and reached its fourth World Series during a span in which it made it to the AL Championship Series six seasons in a row.
The Phillies finished the regular season 65-46 under Thomson, their 87 wins good for the sixth and final spot in the NL playoffs, on the way to their first World Series since 2009.
FREE AGENCY
Aaron Judge, Edwin Díaz, Trea Turner, Dansby Swanson and Xander Bogaerts were among 131 players who became free agents on Sunday as baseball’s business season began just hours after the final out of the World Series.
Justin Verlander, Jacob deGrom and Carlos Rodón are set to join them in the next few days, among 56 players whose contracts have options that must be decided within five days of the World Series’ end. All three pitchers are expected to decline player options, as is shortstop Carlos Correa and first baseman Anthony Rizzo.
Clayton Kershaw, Willson Contreras, Brandon Nimmo, Kenley Janson, Nathan Eovaldi and Josh Bell and Andrew Benintendi also went free Sunday, Players can start negotiating economic terms on Friday. Judge rejected a contract offer from the New York Yankees in April that would have paid $213.5 million from 202329. He set an AL record with 62 homers, finished tied for the major league lead with 131 RBIs and was second in the AL with a .311 batting average.
Teams have until Thursday to make $19.65 million qualifying offers to their former players who became free agents.