After seven grueling competitions, The Houston Astros have come out on top after winning 5-1 in the seventh game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. This marks their first ever World Series Championship in 56 years of operation.
George Springer of the Astros was named the Willie Mays World Series MVP after hitting a homerun in his fourth consecutive game. Springer hit five total home runs in the series, tying Reggie Jackson and Chase Utley for the most home runs in a single World Series.
“This is a great day for our team and our city,” Springer said in a post-game interview with Fox Sports. “I don’t know if there’s a cloud higher than nine, but I’m on it.”
Springer went from hitting .115 in the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees and striking four times in the first game of the World Series to hitting five home runs, getting 29 total bases, hitting .379 and a 1.471 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.
Getting their first championship rings were veteran players Carlos Beltran and Justin Verlander. Beltran has been in the league since 1998, playing for eight different teams and Verlander has been pitching in the majors since 2005. Verlander spent his entire career in Detroit with the Tigers until being traded at the deadline this year.
“Yes, it is a great joy to finally win a World Series,” said Beltran. “But this is not about me. It is about my teammates who gave such a strong effort. It is about the people of Houston who rallied around us while they struggled after [Hurricane] Harvey. It is about my people in Puerto Rico, who are celebrating right now even after [Hurricane] Maria left us devastated.”
Beltran did not record a hit in the World Series during his three pinch-hit appearances, but he did hit 14 home runs and record 51 RBIs during the season. His help in the playoffs came in the form of a clubhouse message before Game 7 of the ALCS.
“He meant everything to us,” said Carlos Correa, the shortstop for the Astros. “He brought a different chemistry into our clubhouse, and now we’re World Series champions.”
Correa took the excitement of the victory as an opportunity to propose to his girlfriend, Daniella Rodriguez. Rodriguez is a former Miss Texas USA.
“I was planning this for months,” said Correa on the Fox Sports postgame show. “I knew we had a championship caliber team and I was just waiting it out. That was Plan A; I didn’t have a Plan B, so I’m glad we won.”
Correa wasn’t the only one with marriage on the mind after the game, as Justin Verlander and his supermodel fiancé Kate Upton are set to be married in Italy sometime this month. The two shared a romantic kiss on the field after the game.
Paul Helmers
Reporter