Ron Griffitts
Contributing Columnist
In October 2017, the Houston Astros (101-61) appearing in their second World Series ever and first since they joined the American League in 2013, with manager A. J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow faced the Los Angeles Dodgers (104-58) appearing in their 19th World Series and led by manager Dave Roberts and general manger Farhan Zaidi.
The Astros were led by Jose Altuve (24 HR, 81 RBI, .346 BA, 112 RBI, 32 SB, 204 H), Carlos Correa (24 HR, 84 RBI, .315 BA), Alex Bregman (19 HR, 71 RBI) and George Springer (34 HR, 85 RBI, 112 RBI).
Their pitching staff was headed by Charlie Morton 14-7, Dallas Keuchel 14-5, 2.90 ERA, Brad Peacock 13-2 and Ken Giles in the bullpen with 34 saves and a 2.30 ERA.
The Dodgers were led on offense by catcher Yasmain Grandal (22 HR), Corey Seager (22 HR, .295 BA, 85 RS), Cody Bellinger (39 HR, 97 RBI, 87 RS), Justin Turner (21 HR, .322 BA), Chris Taylor (21 HR, 85 RS, 17 SB) and Yasiel Puig (28 HR, 74 RBI, 15 SB).
Clayton Kershaw 18-4, 2.31 ERA, Alex Wood 16-3, 2.72 ERA, Rich Hill 12-8, and Kenta Maeda 13-6 were the starters and Kenley Jansen was in the bullpen with 41 saves and a 1.32 ERA.
Game one was in Dodger Stadium in LA with Clayton Kershaw opposing Dallas Keuchel in a game in which all the runs were scored on home runs. Chris Taylor had a solo round tripper and Justin Turner had one with one on which proved to be the winning runs as the Dodgers won game one, 3-1, behind seven innings of three hit baseball by Clayton Kershaw.
Alex Bregman added a solo home run for the Astros.
Game two was a game in which the Dodgers were in a position to win as helped by home runs by Joc Pederson and Corey Seager. They led 3-2 going into the ninth inning, but the Astros bats came alive and a Marwin Gonzalez solo home run off of Kenley Jansen in the top of the ninth tied the game.
Los Angeles didn’t score in their bottom of the inning but in the top of the tenth Jose Altuve and Carlos Corea both contributed solo home runs. LA responded with two runs of their own, one on a home run by Yasiel Puig, and the game goes to the eleventh inning.
In the top of the inning, George Springer homered with one aboard to make the score 7-5 and the Dodgers’ Charlie Culbertson made it interesting as he answered with a solo home but the Astros won that key game 7-6 and tie up the series at one game each.
For game three, the teams moved to Minute Maid Park in Houston where the Astros, seizing on the momentum of the extra inning win, scored four runs in the second inning which was enough on their way to a 5-3 win. They took a 2-1 lead in the series.
Game four was tied 1-1 after eight innings until the Dodgers broke the game open with five runs in the top of the ninth, keyed by a Cody Bellinger RBI double and a three run home run by Joc Pederson. The Dodgers tied the series at two games each.
Game five was a key game in two ways for Houston as they got to Clayton Kershaw for six runs in four and two thirds innings and also won their second extra inning game of the series. Behind 12-9 going into the ninth inning LA tied the game up with the help of a Yasiel Puig two run homer but Alex Bregman singled in Derek Fisher with the winning run in the bottom of the tenth and the Astros lead three games to two.
Playing at home, the Dodgers evened the series at three games each. They used five pitchers to hold the Astros to one run with Joc Pederson adding a home run as the Dodgers win 3-1.
In game seven it was all Astros as they jumped on LA starter Yu Darvish for five runs in the first two innings and with the help of a George Springer home run went on to a 5-1 win in the game and the World Series, which was their first ever.
George Springer got the series MVP. The Dodgers were back in the fall classic in 2018 and for the Astros they returned in 2019.
Statistics for this article were from baseball-reference.com.
