World Series 2022 -- Houston Astros vs Philadelphia Phillies

voted astros in 5 but i've been wrong about everything else this postseason so who knows

i can't really root for either of these teams, but if philly wins i'll at least be happy that kyle schwarber has another ring

Phillies in 6.

Always amazed me that Casey Stengel started by playing alongside names like Zack Wheat in the 1910s, then 50 years later he was managing the Mets. Dusty Baker was drafted in 1967, played alongside Aaron, now 50 years later he's managing in the WS. He (and Stengel, and Durocher, and even someone like Buck Martinez) personifies Posnanski's idea of the "baseball life." So I'd love to see him win.

But if the Phillies win, I'll be happy for Harper. I used to be iffy about his inconsistency, but the last two years he's really settled in--he was a good candidate for a third MVP before he went down this year.

I have a feeling the Phillies are the serendipitously hot team this year, so I'll take them in six.

Yeah -- Astros for Dusty, Philths for Harper.

During the regular season, Realmuto and Schwarber combined for 32 SBs and were caught only twice. #howaboutthat

only one person involved with this series invented the high-five

also dusty winning might help me stop thinking about poor russ ortiz

only one person involved with this series invented the high-five

still completely fucked up by this

which is the thread for off-season hot stove shit? do we have one yet?

skip schumaker is going to be managing the marlins, for example. he's very scrappy!

Astros in 5

Phillies are hot but the Astros are not going to let Harper beat them. Astros are that good and about to prove it.

I hope I'm wrong because I actually really like this Phillies team but

Phillies do have that team of destiny vibe but the Astros have seemed well-nigh unbeatable and I voted Astros in 4 because it would be kind of cool to see a team sweep the postseason

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

- verlander will tie jon lester for most playoff game 1 starts (12)

- with michael brantley on the IL, this will be the first world series since 1950 with no african-american players

wow, that actually quite surprising!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

11 - 3

as a western pennsylvanian it would be tough to root for the phillies but also i hate their cream uniforms

points for being unique; more points off for being awful

oh look, it's red and blue and a barely stylized P

i'm glad they were the first team to lose 10,000 games

a juggernaut vs an okay team. momentum is fake in baseball

My mom scored a ticket to see the Halloween game, I told her she should go as Mike Schmidt.

mike schmidt was on a level with like, burt reynolds and george brett in my personal cosmology of manliness

i feel like american masculinity reached its absolute apex in the late 70s, black, white, gay, straight, didn’t matter

Here's Posnanski's preview:

https://open.substack.com/pub/joeposnanski/p/the-no-bs-world-series-preview?r=1jtu0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

The Astros have primarily won via pitching so far, but it is impressive that they could sweep the first two series with their leadoff hitter 0-26 at one point.

Alas I am not a subscriber

That's supposed to be a sharable link--let me try again.

https://open.substack.com/pub/joeposnanski/p/the-no-bs-world-series-preview?r=1jtu0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Here we go

Gonna be 25 strikeouts tonight.

Joe Davis is very good

Pretty damn impressive (Tucker, I mean).

Wow

Did this just really happen?

Phillies come all the way back

I thought this was over two innings ago. Verlander retires like 12 in a row and then sets about giving up a 5 run lead!

The Verlander curse

The Baker curse

Harper up with two on

Astros get out of that mess

you don't actually have to give us a play-by-play

True, sorry

bee, i kinda appreciate the play by play you offer. feel free to continue

Same

Kyle Tucker has gotta be asking what else does he have to do.

He wasn't all that far from catching Realmuto's HR...I was watching and somehow managed to drift off for a few seconds and missed Castellanos's catch.

That was, as they say, a statement win.

But then again, game of inches ... Castellanos barely making the catch, Tucker barely missing his, and so on.

Justin Verlander eh. Why the fuck did they leave him on for the 5th?

He hasn’t been good this post season (and has never been good in the WS) but his regular season numbers plus future hall of fame credential probably count for something in the way of trust.

Even though I know you've got to have a quicker hook the nearer the end you are, it's almost a catch-22: the biggest reason Dusty Baker is successful as a manager is the respect his players have for him, and I think you'd damage that if you pull Verlander mid-inning in the 5th when you're still up 5-3.

Surely if your pitcher shits the bed and gives up five runs to tie the game that puts pressure back on the batting order to get back that lead - which they obviously didn’t do.

i agree with gyac. Dusty’s sitting on the deepest pen in baseball, possibly the deepest pen in World Series history. everything was clicking for Verlander through three, and then all of a sudden it wasn’t, and he’s lucky the Phils only got 3. now you’ve got the top of the order coming back for the dreaded third time. i think it’s pretty cut and dried. you’re trying to win the World Series not a popularity contest.

It's a seven-game series--I'm inclined to wait and see. Verlander gave up a double, and that tied the game, then he got the next two outs. Tucker's second HR made it 5-0 with one out in the third; should Thomson have pulled Nola then? He didn't, Nola finished the inning, got through the 4th without a run, and got the first out in the 5th. So it's forgotten.

what the Phillies did or didn’t do is irrelevant. you’re Dusty Baker and you’ve got the greatest bullpen ever assembled, your starter is handing out bases like they’re halloween candy and they haven’t even been around the order twice yet. in the 4th Verlander gave up three singles, a double and a walk. he just didn’t have it anymore. he started the fifth by surrendering a double. he then walked Schwarber. and STILL he stays in the game. crazy.

I mean this is just going by the book. you’re the one arguing in favour of an unorthodox “trust the guy” approach clemenza but usually people argue that when the by-the-book outcome DIDN’T come to pass. this time it did.

a harder decision would have been - this is the third time through the order but verlander’s only given up, say, a solo homer and a walk. do you leave him in, 5-1 in the fifth? probably.

Disagree with some of your characterizations there...but will step away from yet another epic argument.

Sheehan:

Verlander retired the first ten batters of last night’s game. Right when I went to look up my note speculating on the possibility of a postseason no-hitter this year, one tied to Verlander, Rhys Hoskins lined a single to center. The next batter, J.T. Realmuto, hit a soft liner back to the mound, hitting Verlander right in the glove. Verlander, though, looking over to first for a possible double play -- he had Hoskins dead to rights off first base -- didn’t secure the ball. It popped out of his glove, and instead of two outs on a 1-3, the Astros got just one. It wasn’t an error, wasn’t an egregious bad play, but anyone who watched the ’06 Series felt the ghosts at that moment.

Maybe it wasn’t the supernatural, but you can divide Verlander’s night neatly before and after that play.

Before: 12 batters, 11 outs, one single, four strikeouts, no runs

After: 11 batters, four outs, three doubles, two singles, two walks, five runs

I predicted Verlander would go exactly 23 batters, but not like this.

Verlander threw so many bad breaking balls: a slider down and in, within the zone, to Harper for a single; a hanger to Alec Bohm for a double, another to J.T. Realmuto for the same. I didn’t understand his need to keep going to the breaking stuff. We’ve talked about this a lot this month: The Phillies hit breaking stuff and they don’t hit good velocity. Every time Verlander threw a breaking ball rather than a 97-mph fastball, he was giving the Phillies a gift. Verlander’s night was a failure of approach and a failure of execution.

I love the way baseball history connects across decades: 1) Realmuto's HR the first extra-inning HR by a catcher since Carlton Fisk in Game 6; 2) the first extra-inning walk-off HR to win a G1 since Dusty Rhodes (the other famous guy from the '54 WS).

I’m wondering who starts game 3 for the Phils. Seems weird to burn Suarez for 0.2 innings.

They're saying he can still go since he only threw 11 pitches

It wasn't a walkoff HR though clem. First extra inning HR by a catcher since Fisk (and I think just the fourth of all time) is fun and interesting though.

Re:Verlander, in G7 of the 2003 ALCS (the Pedro-Grady Little game), Torre pulled Clemens in the fourth inning. There was speculation at the time that he was retiring and it was his final game. Didn't matter to Torre, Clemens was done. Bochy won three championships with the Giants by not being sentimental with his SP's. He had former CY winners like Zito, Peavy, and Lincecum and used a quick hook with them, reassigned them to the bullpen, whatever it took to win.

You're right, it wasn't...they mentioned first-since-Dusty Rhodes last night; I must have botched the factoid.

Not to reopen this, but I would differentiate between a G7 and a G1.

Just extra-inning HR in G1, not a walk-off:

Extra-inning HR in Game 1 of a World Series:

1946, Rudy York vs. Cardinals
1954, Dusty Rhodes vs. Indians
2022, JT Realmuto vs. Astros

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) October 29, 2022

fantastic bottom of the ninth in G1.

I hate these in-game dugout interviews.

Houston's turn to get Dusted in the playoffs. They might rip off 4 games in a row and make it go away, but then again maybe not.

I think I have seen this movie before

Bee, could’ve used some of your play by play just now. Wild top of the 8th

G1- 4:34
G2- 3:18

So according to ESPN, Syndergaard will be starting (opening?) tomorrow.

Really wanted a game tonight as a diversion from you-know-what. Disappointing.

halloween? CUPE strike? elon musk? the certainty of death? lotta directions we could go here tbh

The first and most obvious, although "the certainty of death" is also a preoccupation.

fair <3

My mom was bummed. She said she waited in her car near the Citizens Bank parking lot in light rain until the call, then was able to beat the traffic back home, albeit in the forecast heavy rainy. Back tomorrow!

your mom is smooth

and i mean that in a v. respectful way

She's a trooper. Keeps score and everything.

Just casually reminding everyone it’s ok to hate Justin Verlander because he plays golf with Trump.

btw Bee Ok you should check the what are you reading thread as I am reading books about the WS winning giants dynasty atm and you might find some posts there of interest to you

Considerate of Castellanos to inform everyone that there is one out.

Woop

thanks Phillies guess I can watch basketball tonight

how, in the world series, do you leave a guy in long enough to give up five homers

if your bullpen sucks

I don't get that at all. I don't want to re-open the Verlander game, but to me, there's a difference between staying with a presumptive Cy Young winner/HOF pitcher at home with a 5-run lead, and leaving Lance McCullers in there to get pummeled on the road. It's like you've given up on the game in the third inning.

so far in this series the starters have allowed 23 runs and the relievers have allowed 2

Leaving a SP in the game to give up five homers is something that doesn't even happen with last place teams in July. How did it happen in G3 of the WS? Were the Astros suffering from some kind of rain-induced hangover?

Nobody was arguing that Verlander should have been taken off when they were 5-0 up, the bewildering thing was leaving him in after he coughed up three runs in the 4th, he then allowed two more in the 5th to tie the game. Which they then lost.

Dusty Baker what are your pitching decisions

All those runs were home runs tho, right? I tuned in part way through but it didn’t look like he was getting into constant jams and walking people or anything.

yeah the 3rd and 4th he was three up three down. the other innings he only gave up a walk and a hit (apart from the homers lol)

it did seem like he was (basically) in control. what you may be able to ding baker for is using mccullers in the first place, who relies on breaking balls. philly, as we have seen, enjoys that stuff. javier, as fine a starter as the astros have imo, with an absolutely wicked fastball, may not even pitch until game 6. if there is a game 6.

interesting that dusty is apparently going with javier tonight rather than verlander on normal rest

i’m for it

btw Bee Ok you should check the what are you reading thread as I am reading books about the WS winning giants dynasty atm and you might find some posts there of interest to you

― after several days on “the milk,” (gyac)

Thanks for pointing this out, I will go and find this thread.

I just don't think Dusty Baker is going to win it all at this point. I witness his breakdown in 2002 tho not sure there was anything else he could have done. In 2012 his Reds team had the Giants on the ropes and he didn't manage it well at all, as they only needed one more win and never got it. Giants got past those Reds and then the Cards and then they went on to sweep the Tigers.

I suffered through years of Bobby Cox, some managers just have a hurdle they can't get over (tbf, Bobby did get over once).

tbf i think a large part of being a good manager has less to do with particular bullpen deployments than keeping a bunch of millionaires happy and focused on playing hard. joe torre was . . . not a great bullpen manager (rip scott proctor's arm) but seemed to be pretty good at managing egos.

that said, managing in the playoffs -- especially now, when there are so many rounds -- is just a very different thing from managing a 162-game season. does andy reid now have a clock coach, just to keep him from doing stupid shit at the ends of halves? maybe dusty needs someone to point out to him that saving his 10-deep bullpen is less important, at this point in the season, than it would be in mid-may

Good points, I didn't think Bruce Bochy would be good in the playoffs but he always managed it so different from the 162. It was night and day, miss that guy but he even drove me crazy with his veterans deserve to play first mentality during the regular season. The front office in 2010 had to get rid of Molina before Botchy would play Posey in 2010 when he was called up.

nola’s good huh

Braves generally had an Achilles heel that the back of the bullpen was often subpar compared to the rest of the roster.

He's on tonight

Xpost

Not anymore

That was hilarious, that chart with Vázquez's last 10 pitches--every one a four-seam fastball, all but one 93 m.p.h., the other one 92. Announcer: "...between 92 and 93 m.p.h."

Houston 6 outs away from a no hitter

Amazing if the Phils go from that 7-0 hr derby to getting no hit.

It’s like someone finally got the memo to throw the Phillies only fastballs instead of breaking balls, but it shouldn’t work *this* well

Jesus. Three outs to go

2

1

No way

Fun

Best of three

only the 2nd in WS history? neat

Glad I saw most of it, but I just can't get excited about combined no-hitters. And I'm not at all saying they should have left Vázquez in--100 pitches, not even a question. It just doesn't mean anything to me.

I dunno. That was pretty crazy

If it goes 7, and Vázquez is rested (I know there's one day off in there), he's probably your starter.

blanking a team by committee that banged dingers a world series game prior is pretty impressive to me

how is it not impressive that a world series team got no hits (in its own ballpark no less)

god knows i don't want to tell you what exactly to be excited about, but . . . it's a rare feat. and you seem to be shitting on it for purely petulant reasons

Here we go again...I'm saying I personally don't find it that exciting unless it's accomplished by one pitcher. The Phillies hitting all those home runs last night was impressive, but one guy hitting four would be more exciting and more impressive. And if everyone was so enthralled by tonight's game, I didn't see many posts. I'm going to take a wild guess that one guy taking a no-hitter into the ninth might have generated a few more.

Clemenza is just dreading the MLB.com headline tomorrow that says “Ohtani becomes first two-way player to watch a no-hitter in the World Series”

Nice!

Don Larsen is part of baseball lore; will they be talking about the Javier/Montero/Pressly no-hitter in 2035, much less 2088? (I know, end of the world, etc.)

okay

i guess i just have no idea what about baseball even interests you, considering that no starters have thrown 400 innings in decades

why are you caring/watching at all?

Yes; caricature's the way to go.

Reggie hitting 3 HR in one game is possibly the greatest thing I've ever seen. Have teams combined for more than 3 HR in one WS game since then? Probably--who knows, and who cares.

You want me to agree with every last change in the game, with every bit of conventional wisdom as it exists in 2022, and if I don't, I'm Old Hoss Radbourn.

evidently you should just watch reggie on youtube, as nothing will ever measure up to it

jeez

nah I think Clem is right, no-hitters are a weird statistical anomaly and when they happen it's fun it's more fun for the player himself than the team. I mean you forever get to be the answer to some trivia question which is kinda the whole point of baseball. that said this was definitely cool to watch especially since non-combined no-hitters may not actually happen again

fwiw i don't want you to agree with every bit of conventional wisdom in 2022! but also i don't want you to be all like 'this particular circumstance, however rare, is inadequate'

you could have just been 'well, whatever' but instead you chose to challenge everyone else's idea of noteworthiness

as nothing will ever measure up to it

Right--it's not like I got caught up in Judge going for 62 or anything.

I think my first post after the game was exactly "well, whatever," and expressed very subjectively. I have no idea what you're talking about.

"Glad I saw most of it, but I just can't get excited about combined no-hitters. And I'm not at all saying they should have left Vázquez in--100 pitches, not even a question. It just doesn't mean anything to me."

Please explain to me how that post is challenging "everyone else's idea of noteworthiness."

idk why having an opinion like "no-hitter by one pitcher > no-hitter by pitching staff" is controversial.

anyway the astros won and dusty is a genius so this is all beside the point

until he starts mccullers in game seven

xp how many no-hitters, of any kind, have happened in the world series

why, upon one of the latter happening, would one immediately feel the need to denigrate it as 'uninteresting'

Do you understand the difference between expressing a personal opinion--"I just can't get excited," "It just doesn't mean anything to me"--and some blanket statement you seem to think I made and didn't about the game being "uninteresting"?

I mean, Jesus fuck, my first six words were "Glad I saw most of it..."

no hitters were already a team effort anyway

just ask pedro martinez who pitched 9 perfect innings and yet has not been credited for one

in this day of advanced metrics, # times through a lineup, reasonable bullpen management, etc. a combined no-hitter just doesn't have that shock to me. i think the narrative of the phillies belting 5 homers off a starting pitcher and then getting their asses handed to them the next game is a better story.

obviously because you were waiting for a marginal hit to be called an error (j/k)

mmm tell me more about 'that shock' and 'better stories'

fuckin shams-level shit

i sincerely like clemenza; i just think he's wrong

gtfo with that bacon-flavored pap

To me, this isn't all that complicated. CG no hitters are cool and awesome -- as we all know, it's happened only twice in the playoffs and once in the WS. Is a combined no hitter just as cool and awesome? Obviously not ... but it's still pretty great! Unlike three combined team HR's, a combined no-hitter in the WS is rare and historic! Is it as historic as Don Larsen's perfect game? No way -- but's it's still historic!

in a way it’s really christian vasquez’ no

whoops hit send too soon

it’s vasquez’s no-hitter - he was the constant

it’s historic and amazing. slightly more likely in an era of max effort one-inning guys? of course. but on the biggest stage, throwing fastballs for six innings to a team that absolutely launches the ball? hey it’s no AL regular season home run record - what could be, really - but extremely, extremely impressive nonetheless. wish i could have stayed awake! (here in the UK it was 1:30am in the 5th when i finally conked out)

We're making the same mistake! I called him Vázquez because (I think) I've got Javier Vázquez on the brain. You're calling him Christian Vázquez. It's Christian Javier.

i’m talking about Houston’s catcher :)

Ah, yeah, "the constant"--that's how fouled up I am. (That might have been the cause of my initial confusion.)

There is, I think, a pretty nuanced look by Posnanski at two ways to view last night's game. It's not shareable, and I'm glad--I'd be enmeshed in another two-day back-and-forth. One part did make laugh, though, and might make mookieproof laugh too (he's describing a friend who tweeted him last night)

"He was actually in the crowd the night that Reggie Jackson hit three home runs in a World Series game. It remains one of his most cherished sports memories."

Evidently a few us are still stuck back there.

Sheehan:

It’s fair to hold combined no-hitters apart a bit, as no-hitters are more individual accomplishments than team ones. When that combined no-hitter happens with a team down 2-1 in the World Series, though, it’s possible to be too jaded. It was a no-hitter in the World Series! That’s happened exactly once, 66 years ago. It was a no-hitter in the postseason! That’s happened one other time, 12 years ago. I don’t care if the Astros used all 38 pitchers they’re carrying and the Phillies went up there with souvenir bats, that’s a big moment, that’s an incredible accomplishment.

That the Phillies are tied 2-2 in this Series is remarkable when you consider that everyone figured their path to a victory was through the right arms of Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler. Through four games, the two of them have allowed 13 of the 15 runs the Phillies have conceded, they have an 8.10 ERA in 13 2/3 innings, and neither has seen the sixth inning.

The ugly reality of the expanded-playoffs era is that to history, October matters more than the six months that precede it. All-time greats have had their career accomplishments ignored in favor of a listing of playoff failures. Others we remember as legends because they got the big hit, the big strikeout, the big double play. Barry Bonds over here, David Ortiz over there. Alex Rodriguez over here, Derek Jeter over there. No stats, just vibes.

Tonight, Justin Verlander’s career gets sorted, for good, into one of those groups.

I don't know if Bonds is exactly over there: some struggles with the Pirates, historic Series with the Giants, marred by the finish. Mixed bag.

"Too jaded"--I could counter that with some of Posnanski's column today, but I'm trying hard not to.

(Sheehan's exclamation marks are not working their magic on me.)

Lifetime postseason OPS:

Derek Jeter: .838
Alex Rodriguez: .822

Who is here and who is there exactly?

I'm not even sure what the point is with Verlander either. He almost single-handedly pitched the Tigers past the A's in two division series. He was the MVP of the 2017 ALCS. He's been bad in the WS, but he's hardly been a postseason bust during his career.

Drifted off during the fifth.

Has Trumplander's effort been called gutsy yet?

Looks like Verlander is going to get that monkey off his back after all

oooo they comin

Or maybe not, who knows at this point. This has been a good game

it's Schwarbin' time

What an out

Was really hoping the Phillies would tie it up thre

Great play...this should be a fun bottom of the ninth.

Didn't get home till the bottom of the fifth, so I missed the first half. Am I reading correctly that Verlander worked his way out of a couple of jams? Starting pitchers sometimes do that?

Great play, I thought it was gone

oh my god so close

Kissinger needs to die right now so Castellanos hits this out of the park

...

Damn

Man, that was a catch.

The Great Mancini

Where is Karl Malone? This thread needs some levity that even my old-man wrong opinions cannot provide.

can’t speak for KM but there is something about your team being bounced from the playoffs prematurely that makes me a bit more distant come World Series time. It’s a long haul until the re-start.

i’m the opposite! what happens to me is i instantly become a fan of the team that bounced me. weird psychology at play there maybe

“Own me, daddy,” - TH

lol apparently

i dunno

part of it is just getting to know these dudes

obviously i would never with the yankees

I want a Game 7

I do too...but I started the series divided, and now I want Houston to win, so tonight would be fine.

This can go one of two ways, 1) Valdez dominates again and is named WS MVP when the Astros win the series tonight, 2) The Phillies go homer happy again and set up an all-time unpredictable, anything can happen Game 7.

The latter. I kinda dont want baseball to end this year!

Yes agree, this years playoffs have been a lot of fun even if my beloved Giants weren't in.

Great turn by Altuve--don't know how he hung in there.

If the Astros win and Valdez only gives up a run or two, I suppose he would win MVP. Short of that, though--or Javier winning a G7--Pena will win.

Love seeing a huge classic curveball--you hardly ever do anymore.

Valdez settling in

I want a game 7 because I can’t watch tonight and also I want the phils to win.

i don't really care who wins the series, but i *would* like a Brad Lidge Moment tonight

I want everyone to tell me--and tell me before it happens--the exact moment when they should take out Valdez.

(Left myself wide open there: "How about we tell you the exact moment when we take out you instead?")

tell us -- before it happens -- the exact moment at which you will no longer be impressed by his performance

There it is

(Not talking about current conversations in this thread)

Yeah--it wasn't me who gushed about his curveball.

(It amuses me that after a decade of being ridiculed by ILX's patron saint as a wide-eyed naif, you've decided I'm jaded because I wasn't thrilled three relievers pitching three hitless innings.)

No way he leaned into that.

Wow

Ditto...I think Alvarez has only been so-so since the Mariners HR, but what a flair for the dramatic.

I want everyone to tell me--and tell me before it happens--the exact moment when they should take out Valdez.

Just needling...not sure your post was necessary in the middle of this great inning.

Don’t needle if you don’t like getting it back. Also, don’t read ilx during the game if you get annoyed at being replied to while play is happening?

Oh my goodness--you sound far angrier than any of my posts.

My basic point was that everybody decided pulling Verlander was the right move after he gave up the two runs. No one posted beforehand. So I was saying, "Okay, this time tell me beforehand." Twice Thomson has removed his starter this series and had it blow up. In G5, Baker left Verlander in to get out of a couple of jams, and that time it worked.

It's baseball--anything can happen, and there's no right answer.

fwiw i would not let valdez start the seventh

93 pitches, three straight righties to face (not that i know his splits, of course)

Great! That's all I'm asking for. I think that's reasonable around 90 pitches. I'd give him a baserunner before pulling him--we'll see.

dusty otm (until the phillies run amok, of course)

No one posted beforehand. So I was saying, "Okay, this time tell me beforehand."

gentlemen, can we simply enjoy the mystery that is baseball? it’s been a great series (also, valdez out this inning)

gyac is no gentleman

If the Astros do hang on, Valdez vs. Pena is a pretty interesting MVP call.

Peña mvp for me

Gyac, I can be stubborn about my opinions. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying there's room for a difference of opinion there.

I think I'd go with Pena too.

bothers me that espn resets all the individual stats for each series while mlb dot com shows cumulative playoff stats

espn is wrong, but i guess it's useful for mvp-ness

If he hadn’t already gone out, this would have been a great time for Nick Castellanos to have homered.

If it were just Pena with the bat, maybe Valdez, but Pena's been fantastic in the field, too. They still have to win.

(Not sure which broadcast I have on, but if you don't the same one, they just said there hasn't been a home team clinch the WS at home since 2013...that's kind of amazing.)

That was truly weird, about six different ways.

fortunately for my aunt, the iggles are 8-0

I hate the astros

congrats to Dusty and Dusty only

Okay you won a real one, can you please fade from the spotlight now, there are other, much cooler less tainted teams that would like to play baseball well too

Found it moving the way they surrounded Dusty in the dugout. I guess I've seen that before, but I don't remember.

I picked Astros in 5, it took a extra game. Very happy for Dusty Baker.

Joe Davis > Joe Buck

fuck the haters, my Astros take another WS, wearing my Altuve jersey RN

Congrats f. hazel

f. hazel, you and me both :)

pena, mvp. right on.

Congrats sknybrg, I thought you would be a Mets fan

Between Ortiz shooting the fake money at him and the cameo by his wife, I know Verlander has endeared himself to ILB even more.

Phillies offense stressed me out this entire series, never felt safe from them

they were like 3-for-420 with runners in scoring position tho

wonder how joe girardi feels tonight

lol phils did very well given their shit unbalanced roster, late season streaks are real but they disappear as soon as they come

Joe Davis > Joe Buck

I second this. Davis probably made more memorable calls in this postseason than Joe Buck did in the last 25 years.

Fun season

Didn't realize till last night that Pena's already 25. Late start for a rookie (for the obvious reason of Correa) that will probably come into play when he hits the free agent market down the road.

Like anything pertaining to old media, I doubt Sports Illustrated's Sportsperson of the Year is nearly as newsworthy as it was 20 years ago. (1998, McGwire and Sosa; 2001, Johnson and Schilling. Three of the four are pariahs now.) Still, I'd love to see Dusty Baker win it this year. Wasn't sure if they've ever given it to a coach, but I checked and they have, at least three times: John Wooden in 1972, Dean Smith in 1997, and Pat Summitt and Mike Krzyzewski in 2011. (They seem to have a thing about college basketball coaches.) If they do go with baseball, I suppose it'd be Judge; if the Yankees had won, for sure it's be Judge. I don't know if there is an obvious winner from some other sport this year.

Totally forgot that it was Dusty Baker's son who almost got trampled at home in 2003.

https://www.mlb.com/news/darren-baker-celebrates-dad-dusty-s-world-series-victory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzV7x8WcR4g

That’s literally the first thing I think of when it comes to Baker. I had only recently started watching baseball again and I wondered who the idiot was that let a toddler on the field

J.T. Snow ought to be in the HOF for that.