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Houston Astros: Five things Dodgers fans have to come to grips with

By Kenneth Cline

LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 01: Yuli Gurriel
LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 01: Yuli Gurriel /
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LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 01: The Houston Astros celebrate 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 Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 01: The Houston Astros celebrate 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 Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /

Reason #1 – The Astros Were Better!

Now you might believe that all the previous reasons had a common theme of the number one reason and you are correct. ESPN Classic would not have made it a point to go pro-Astros on the four before. But they would certainly agree on number one. The truth was the Astros were better.

They were battle-tested, resilient, and tougher than the Dodgers.

Whether it was the burden of carrying a city through the aftermath of the worst natural disaster in recent memory, they didn’t have to do that. But they felt it was their mission to help a city heal with a winning team.

Every casual fan says Harvey was the reason the Astros won

Those that don’t want to give the Astros winning legitimately due to a hurricane can do so. But here’s the honest truth. Harvey or no Harvey, the Astros were a team to be reckoned with and they were going to win the World Series.

By the all-star break, everyone was on board to the idea for an Astros-Dodgers World Series because both teams had won sixty games. Houston possessed three guys that were capable of winning the MVP and was enjoying the return of Dallas Keuchel in Cy Young form. I still thought that even with no trade deadline acquisition, we were still going to the series. The Justin Verlander trade just made it where no one was going to beat us.

Coming in Hot!

The saying of it’s not how you start, but how you finish came into effect. The Dodgers did get hot

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to where they were 91-36. That’s great if you want to fully get closer to the playoffs. But it’s also bad because you’ve yet to hit a cold streak, which will happen. It did for them in September. Meanwhile, the Astros did have a cold streak in August, which is better than September.

But here’s the best thing. While the Dodgers stumbled and barely recovered in time to win the division, the Astros went on a rocket ship and were hot in September.

Dodgers in August: 17-10

Astros in August: 11-17

Dodgers in September/October: 13-17

Astros in September/October: 21-8

Obviously, the tides had turned as the Astros had the advantage of coming into the postseason with a strong finish winning just 14 of their last 17 games. Now the Dodgers did win 12 of their last 18, but I’ll let the math decide which team was coming in hot.

Yes, the Dodgers jumped to 7-1 through eight games while the Astros went 7-4. But the fact that everyone didn’t realize the Astros were just as good if not better than LA despite being three wins behind just shows that we don’t know as much baseball as the players and baseball gods do.

Conclusion

So to all the Dodger fans who probably read this or don’t want to hear anything about it, you have nothing to be ashamed of. Whoever lost the World Series had a great reason. The other team was better. I’m sure we would’ve said that had the Astros lost.

Next: Top 10 heroes of the Astros successful postseason run

The Dodgers gave us a great battle and they deserve to be recognized as one of the best teams that either won or lost the World Series. But for right now, the Houston Astros were the best team in baseball. That never changed in the All-Star Break. It never changed during Harvey or the Justin Verlander trade and until someone knocks us off throne, it’s not going to change.

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