Houston Strong

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of this year's World Series came three years ago, when the Sports Illustrated issue at left was published. In an astounding feat of prescience, the magazine looked in the crystal ball and saw the then struggling Astros, coming off historically bad seasons, as rebuilding it an intelligent way. To cap it off, it had George Springer on the cover, who was the Series MVP. Bravo, SI! I'd like to say right now that I predict the Milwaukee Brewers to win the Series in 2020.

This was a fun World Series, full of home runs (the most ever) and strikeouts (Cody Bellinger will have a long winter--he struck out 17 times, a record) and two games with dizzying lead changes. I saw Game 2, in which the Astros bats erupted in late innings to crack the once invincible Dodgers bullpen. I did not see much of Game 5, which is the one that will go down in history. I saw the first few innings, and the Dodgers were leading 4-0 when I left to go see The King and I. I was checking my ESPN app often, to note that the Astros tied it, then went three runs down, then tie it and go ahead, then the Dodgers tied and went ahead by three, and finally the Astros won it 13-12. I got in the car in the parking lot just in time to hear the winning run score over the radio.

What was most appealing about the Series was the young Houston players. Springer broke or tied a few records: most total bases, first to hit home runs in four straight games, tied Reggie Jackson and Chase Utley with five homers in a Series, tied Lenny Dykstra with four home runs in the lead off spot, most extra-base hits in a Series, eight. I don't watch a ton of baseball during the regular season (maybe when I retire I'll get a baseball package and just vegetate on the sofa), so a lot of players were fairly new to me. I knew about Jose Altuve, he always hits my Tigers (and just about everyone else, too) and could fairly be called the best player in the game, pound for pound. But also Alex Bregman, Carlos Correia, Yuli Durriel (despite his boneheaded gesture to Yu Darvish), and Charlie Morton, who is not a youngster but came back from a variety of injuries and pitched a great Game 4 and then mopped up Game 7. I thought Astros' manager A.J. Hinch might bring in Justin Verlander, who had never earned a ring, to pitch the ninth, but brains overcame heart.

As with most of the World Series these days, the game is a chess match by the managers using their bullpens. Every time a pitching change is made it makes dominoes fall for the rest of the series. Dodgers' manager Dave Roberts was roundly criticized for pulling Rich Hill early in game three, because he had gone through the lineup twice (!?). This necessitated the use of his bullpen and got them tired by Game 5, when they seemed to be pitching batting practice. The Astros bullpen was even worse, so bad that Hinch basically just used starters as his relievers down the stretch--Brad Peacock, Lance McCullers Jr, and Morton turned out to be damn good relievers.

Perhaps the lingering question will be if Roberts should have started Clayton Kershaw in Game 7 instead of Yu Darvish, who becomes the first pitcher since 1960 to pitch two Series game and not last two innings in either of them. Roberts stuck to Darvish and paid for it, as his hurler faced ten batters and allowed half of them to score. Kershaw came in and threw four shutout innings.  But one of the greatest changes in baseball since I was a little kid is the routine starting pitchers have. They talk about going on three days rest instead of four, as if it is asking them to lasso the moon. I always think of Mickey Lolich in 1968, who won three complete games in the Series, the last one coming on two days rest.

I'm also hearing a lot of new terms. When I was a kid, it was batting average, home runs, and RBI, and for pitchers wins and losses and E.R.A. I'm hopelessly out of date. I get on-base percentage and slugging average, and WHIP makes sense, but I still don't know how they tabulate WAR. And if you had taken a drink every time Joe Buck or John Smoltz said "analytics" (which I think used to be called sabremetrics) and "launch angle" you'd be very hungover. Number crunching is a useful addition to baseball preparedness, but sometimes you've got to go by what you see, or asking a player do something they're not used to. Leaving Hill in and starting Kershaw might have changed the Series for the Dodgers.

Of course, the Dodgers also could have got a timely hit in Game 7n. They left 10 men on base, with some hard luck outs and Cody Bellinger whiffing on inside breaking balls. If I were a Dodger fan I'd relive that game in my nightmares for a while. But I was rooting for Houston, almost entirely because of Justin Verlander, as I wrote last week. It also helped that Houston, a franchise since 1962, had never won the title, and that the city of Houston needed a break after Hurricane Harvey. It's interesting to note that the Dodgers have been somewhat snake bit. They won their first title in 1955, and from then until 1988, their latest victory, they've had five more championships in thirty-three seasons. So you can't really hate L.A. for their recent success.

Houston, enjoy your title. As a Tiger fan, I've now gone thirty-three years with bupkus. I hope I get another one in my lifetime (it won't be soon).