By: Marvin Azrak

Houston, we no longer have a problem. Since 2017, the year the Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers for Houston’s first World Series crown but were later forced to admit to using technology and banging on trash cans to steal and relay signs, they’ve been the villains of baseball.

Whenever they went on the road, they received venomous cheers from opposing fans. They had ruined the integrity of baseball, and the franchise’s lone title was looked upon as a tainted one.

However, rather than wallow in their sorrow, Houston took it as motivation to prove they were legal champions.

They reached the ALCS In the five years that followed and advanced to the fall classic three times. Yet they fell short each year, and the stink remained imprinted on their franchise. But on Saturday night, it was banished for good.

Houston fans were allowed to celebrate a legitimate championship after watching their heroes rally to beat the Phillies 4-1 in game six at Minute Maid Park to complete the 5-6(10), 5-2, 0-7, 5-0(No-Hitter), 3-2, 4-1 World Series triumph.

Houston entered the contest having seized the momentum of the series historically. After the Phillies rallied from a 5-0 deficit against Justin Verlander to take game one and blasted Lance McCullers for a record five homers in game three, the Astros counterpunched with four pitchers, Cristian Javier(6 innings), Bryan Abreu(1), Rafael Montero(1) and Ryan Pressly(1), combining for the second ever World Series no-hitter in game four, and then won game five with dazzling defense down the stretch. But despite the series shifting back to Texas, nobody was getting ahead of themselves because they knew all too well the failures of the recent past. In 2019,

Houston lost to the Washington Nationals in seven games, blowing game six and seven leads in Houston. Last year they lost to the Atlanta Braves, as the home fans were once again forced to watch the jubilant visitors celebrate on their home turf. In between, the Astros lost the American League Championship Series to the Red Sox in 2018, culminating at Minute Maid Park in game five, and the Tampa Bay Rays after seven hard-fought games in 2020.

Game 6 started with more exquisite defense, and both pitchers Zack Wheeler of the Phillies and Framber Valdez for Houston traded goose eggs for most of the contest. In the top of the sixth, the Astros blinked first as Kyle Schwarber muscled up for his sixth postseason bomb and gave Philly the 1-0 lead. But In the bottom half, catcher Martin Maldonado was hit by a pitch, and eventual World Series MVP Jermy Peña singled, knocking Wheeler out of the game, as Philadelphia was ushering a lefty in Jose Alvarado to face the lefty-swinging Yordan Alvarez.

It seemed like a good move on paper, but given that the Astros slugger had been in this situation not too long ago, walking off Robbie Ray and the Seattle Mariners with a three-run bomb in game one of the ALDS that kickstarted the series sweep, it was risky. Sure enough, Yordan made them pay. He crushed a ball that traveled 450FT into the center field batter’s eye for a mammoth go-ahead bomb.

Houston fans went into a frenzy, and although Alvarez wasn’t on the 2017 team, it was as if his swing had lifted years of frustration, despair, and heartache for the franchise and its fans. Later in the inning, a Christian Vasquez RBI knock pushed the lead to 4-1 before Hector Neris, Bryan Abreu, and Ryan Pressly finished off the Phillies for good.

The victory provided special joy and perhaps some vindication, as well, for manager Dusty Baker, who had never won a World Series despite leading a record five teams to the playoffs. At 73, Baker became the oldest manager to win a World Series.

The Astros hired him after firing A.J. Hinch, the manager of the 2017 team who was blamed for not putting a halt to the cheating operation and was suspended from baseball before joining the Detroit Tigers as a manager in 2019. With an impeccable reputation and a calm demeanor, Baker not only steadied the team but was able not to let the past affect him, no matter how hard the media tried. Up top, James Click, who replaced Jeff Luhnow in 2017, soaked it all in.

The Phillies were the last team to qualify for the postseason at 87-75 and wouldn’t have made it if not for MLB increasing the number of playoff invitations to six per league. Yet, they rolled into the World Series by sweeping the NL-central champion St Louis Cardinals, dethroning the Atlanta Braves in four in the NLDS, and ousting the upstart San Diego Padres. The latter had previously knocked off the 111-win Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS in five games.

They began the season at 22-29, fired manager Joe Girardi, appointed Rob Thomson as interim skipper, and went off. Thanks mainly to Bryce Harper’s heroics, they reached the fall classic for the first time in nearly a dozen years and even led the Astros by two games to one after Game 3. After being drubbed, Houston, who hadn’t faced much adversity all year, was suddenly in peril. Aside from the Los Angeles Angels pacing the AL West through the first month of the season before dropping off and Seattle momentarily nipping at their heels in the summer for the prestigious division title, not much had gotten in their way of winning 106 games, and coasting to baseball’s biggest stage with sweeps over the Mariners and New York Yankees.

All the more impressive was that, within those games, the Astros rarely trailed. They rallied from a 7-3 deficit in the eighth and stunned the M’s in round one after Alvarez’s heroics before he repeated the go-ahead feat in the seventh inning of game two to give Houston a commanding 2-0 series lead. The Astros never trailed again in the series. Still, it did endure an 18-inning marathon at Seattle in game three, which was won 1-0 on a Pena bomb to the left, enough for Luis Garcia to twirl a scoreless bottom frame completing 12 scoreless innings from the bullpen to clinch the series sweep.

The Astros didn’t slow down in the ALCS, never trailing until the first inning of game four, and by that point, they already led the series 3-0. Houston would come back and win that game too, riding their perfect postseason to the World Series, before falling behind 2-1 to Philadelphia, suddenly two losses away from being turned aside by the NL East for a tied straight time.

But starting Wednesday in Philadelphia, the Astros fought back on the strength of their pitching, including Verlander, as the presumptive Cy Young award winner and future Hall of Famer went five innings of one-run ball in game five for his first career World Series win in nine tries.

As dominant as they were, though, they needed luck and got it late on Thursday night. Clinging to a 3-2 lead in the eighth, Baker called upon Pressly for a five-out save. Philadelphia smelled blood, as Jean Segura had just driven in their second run with a one-out RBI single, sending Bryson Scott to third. However, he wouldn’t get any further as Pressly struck out Brandon Marsh before exhaling. Schwarber’s line drive went right into the first base webbing of trade-deadline acquisition Trey Mancini, who’d just entered the playing field in place of Yuli Gurriel to make plays like that.

In the ninth, JT Realmuto gave one a ride, but it was snatched out of the air by Chas McCormick in right field for the second out. After a pitch hit Harper, Pressly induced a Nick Castellanos groundout to send Houston home with a series lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

All in all, the Astros cruised to an 11-2 postseason record and established themselves as one of the best teams of this era. Fans may never wholly forgive them for their actions in 2017, but now at least Houston has one other one to hang their hat on legitimately.