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Houston Astros: A detailed look back at the team’s World Series clinch

By Dan Shedd

LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 01: The Houston Astros celebrate in the clubhouse after defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 in game seven to win the 2017 World Series at Dodger Stadium on November 1, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 01: The Houston Astros celebrate in the clubhouse after defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 in game seven to win the 2017 World Series at Dodger Stadium on November 1, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
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Your Houston Astros are the 2017 World Series Champions so let’s take a look back at level of emotion during their historic Game 7 performance.

Aside from the Houston Astros, Sports Illustrated doesn’t have the best luck in predicting champions of sports, resulting in the well known “SI Cover Jinx” where an individual or team would experience bad luck after appearing on the cover of the magazine.

In 2014, Sports Illustrated ran a story of how the Houston Astros franchise would win the 2017 World Series.  The magazine featured a young George Springer on the cover.

The article described the inner workings of Jeff Luhnow’s plan to revive the Houston Astros franchise to make it championship-caliber year in and year out.

With Wednesday’s Game 7 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers, the plan is far from complete. If anything, we are just getting a taste of Astros baseball in the future.

What Jeff Luhnow has done in a six-year span has been nothing short of amazing. Yes, Astros fans have had to suffer through consecutive years of having the worst team in baseball, but it was all worth it come Wednesday night.

Dynamic stars like Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, and Alex Bregman shined on the biggest stage under the the bright lights of LA.

The Astros took control early on, jumping out to a 5-0 that lasted until the Dodgers scored in the bottom of the sixth with Andre Ethier‘s RBI single, scoring Joc Pederson, making it 5-1.

The Astros pitching on the other hand, was out of control early on. Lance McCullers was clearly too amped up for Game 7, hitting 4 batters in 2 1/3 innings, making manager A.J. Hinch go to the bull pen early.

The Astros bullpen did a pretty good job of keeping the Dodgers bats at bay, until the aforementioned RBI single by Ethier in the sixth. Could the bullpen have been better? Yes, It could

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have and that should be priority number one for Luhnow and Co. going into the off season.  If we can fix that, then look out Major League Baseball. The Orange Crush is coming, like it or not.

After Hurricane Harvey devastated the area with 20 trillion gallons of water that left people having to start over and rebuild their lives, this team gave people a few hours every night to forget Harvey’s devastation and actually enjoy something for awhile. The Astros gave people hope of better things to come, that tomorrow was going to better than today and that we will rise from the waves of Hurricane Harvey stronger than ever.

This photo was captured perfectly by Stephen Gonzalez of the Houston Chronicle:

I got emotional as the final out was recorded and the celebration was on the field at Dodger Stadium. I screamed out of pure joyous emotion because of what this team means to me and this city, my hometown.

This team was built brick by brick and off of faith. Faith to trust a process that may seem daunting at first, but is worth it in the end.  Faith that no matter how many times we get knocked down in life, if we keep getting back up and fighting, we will eventually be victorious.

Next: Four ranges of emotion leading up to the World Series clinch

This team carried a city and it’s people on its back and delivered them a championship that showed how resilience, hard work and humaneness can get things done, no matter how daunting a task may seem.

No magazine cover can ever jinx that.

#HoustonStrong

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