ASTROS IN SEVENTH HEAVEN AFTER WINNING WORLD SERIES
Houston denies Dodgers Hollywood finish in claiming first title, writes Rob Longley.
Turns out the deciding game of one of the most compelling World Series in recent memory was over before it even started.
It was over, essentially, when Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts named Yu Darvish his Game 7 starter.
And it was certainly over when Roberts didn’t get the hook out quick enough to stop Darvish from all but drowning his team’s chances and turn the game over to one of the best there is, Clayton Kershaw.
Just as he was in Game 3, Darvish was garbage, allowing the Houston Astros to jump out to a big, early and ultimately insurmountable lead in a 5-1 victory.
An offence as deep as the one fielded all season by the American League champions wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to feast on the Darvish offerings.
And the Astros, a team that has been in major-league baseball for 55 seasons, seized the opportunity to capture their first World Series title in franchise history.
As compelling as the series was from start to (almost) finish, the more complete team finally won it, even if the drama was sucked out of the accomplishment by an opposing pitcher ripe for destruction.
Led by the history-making tworun home run by centre-fielder George Springer in the second inning, the Astros ran Darvish from the game after 1 2/3 innings. That’s exactly how long he lasted in Game 3, earning a spot in dubious Dodgers lore with a series ERA of 21.60.
It was Springer’s fourth homer in as many games and fifth of the World Series, joining Reggie Jackson (1977) and Chase Utley (2009) as the only others to do so.
Kershaw? Well, he came in and allowed two hits in four innings of shutout relief. Should he have started? Would it have made a difference? We’ll never know, but allowing Darvish to remain on the mound as the series was slipping away made little sense.
The Astros were better managed, more productive in clutch at-bats, and far cleaner defensively and on the basepaths.
It didn’t take long for the visitors and Game 7 underdogs to dull the off-the-charts anticipation for a classic ending to the best-of-seven. Houston was on the board just two batters in and had a 5-0 lead by the time Darvish was done.
Springer was influential on the first run as well, doubling to lead off, then scoring the game’s first run. Even though it was a series ripe with comebacks, no team in World Series history has rebounded from a five-run deficit in a Game 7.
It’s easy to second-guess Roberts in hindsight for not starting Kershaw, though surely he had his reasons. By the time the Astros scored two quick runs and it was clear he was going to get beat up, there were no excuses for not pulling Darvish, however.
As opportunistic as the Astros were, the Dodgers were the opposite, going 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position over the first five innings. They were unable to take advantage of a dodgy outing from Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr., who lasted only 2 1/3 innings.
In that out-of-control stretch, McCullers set a World Series and post-season record for hitting four batters. He also allowed seven of the first 12 Los Angeles batters to reach base. The Dodgers had leadoff runners aboard in four of the first six innings, finally getting a run across in the sixth.
That it was the least compelling of the seven games won’t matter to the Astros, who also had to go the distance against the New York Yankees in the ALCS. Houston manager A.J. Hinch left nothing to chance as he worked deep into his bullpen to keep the Dodgers’ bats quiet.
With 101 wins in the regular season, they surrendered homefield advantage to the Dodgers, who had three more. But an Astros offence that led the major leagues in runs wasn’t going to be denied, even if it was their first Game 7 in franchise history.
Fitting that it was all wrapped up in a Hollywood ending.