The Houston Astros got a game winning three-run homerun from Yordan Alvarez in the sixth inning on Saturday night, and clinched their second world championship with a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 of the World Series at Minute Maid Park in Houston. Houston wins the series 4-2, giving manager Dusty Baker his first ever title.
Both pitchers were good early, Framber Valdez for Houston and Zack Wheeler for Philadelphia. The game was scoreless until the sixth inning when Kyle Schwarber hit a leadoff solo homerun for a 1-0 Phillies lead. The Astros came right back in the bottom half when Martin Maldonado was hit by a pitch and after a groundball force out hit by Jose Altuve, Jeremy Peña would single ending the night for Wheeler. Alvarez then stepped up against reliever Jose Alvarado and took a 2-1 pitch deep over the batters eye in centerfield for a three-run homerun that traveled an estimated 450 feet. Christian Vazquez added another run in the frame with an RBI single. Philadelphia, the surprise World Series participant, couldn’t muster any offense the rest of the way. The Phillies end their season with a final record of 98-81, reaching baseballs biggest stage as a Wild Card team after knocking out the Cardinals, Braves, and Padres before facing Houston. The Astros, who won their first title in 2017, had the second best record in baseball in the regular season.
Dusty Baker, who has been a manager in the majors for the Giants, Cubs, Reds, Nationals, and now the Astros for a total of 25 seasons finally gets his top prize. At age 73, Baker is the oldest manager to win a World Series. Peña, the former University of Maine product, was named the World Series MVP after earlier this week becoming the first rookie shortstop to win a gold glove. The native of the Dominican Republic hit .345 in the postseason with four homeruns and eight RBI, and becomes only the second rookie ever to win the ALCS and World Series MVP in the same season. He is the first ever rookie position player to win the MVP in the Fall Classic, and first player in the history of baseball to do all three of them things in the same year (WS MVP, Championship Series MVP, gold glove award). Houston had a final record of 117-58, going 11-2 in the playoffs.
