The moment the 2022 World Series turned was as shocking for the Philadelphia Phillies as it was joyful for the Houston Astros.
With two runners on and one out in the bottom of the sixth inning on Saturday, Yordan Alvarez stepped in against reliever Jose Alvarado, worked the count in his favour and turned on a 99 m.p.h. fastball. A few seconds later, the ball landed 450 feet away above the batter’s eye in centre field.
With that signature moment, Alvarez gave the Astros their first lead of the game, setting in motion a 4-1 Game 6 win that clinched the 2022 World Series title for Houston. Of course, what happened right before the slugger’s big swing may be just as memorable from the Phillies’ standpoint.
With Zack Wheeler and Framber Valdez locked into an epic pitchers’ duel, Phillies manager Rob Thomson turned to his bullpen for Alvarado. It was the kind of aggressively proactive move that’s sure to be second-guessed if it goes wrong and, unfortunately for the Phillies, the move backfired in a big way.
A strong effort from Houston’s bullpen secured the win for the Astros, who win their second championship in franchise history. Along the way a baseball lifer earned his first World Series title as a manager, questions about Houston’s legacy arose again and the second guessing began. Let’s look at some of the biggest moments from the season’s decisive game…
THE DECISION
Clearly, the decision to pull Wheeler for Alvarado didn’t work. That much is obvious. This outcome will haunt the Phillies for years.
But let’s look beyond the outcome to the decision itself. Wheeler had thrown just 71 pitches at the time and his stuff was notably lively. Thanks to a fastball that sat 98 m.p.h., he had five strikeouts compared to just one walk. If this was a regular season game, he’d be staying in the game and the bullpen would probably be quiet.
At the same time, this is a World Series elimination game, not a Tuesday in May. With a 1-0 lead, Wheeler’s margin for error was non-existent and he had allowed two of the last three hitters to reach. Complicating matters, the Astros had their two best left-handed hitters approaching with Alvarez due up and Kyle Tucker in the hole.
Under those circumstances, it’s certainly understandable that Thomson chose to go to his bullpen instead of allowing Houston’s hitters to get a third look at Wheeler. And while Alvarado has had his ups and downs, he throws 99 m.p.h. and struck out 38 per cent of the hitters he faced this year. If you’re going to replace Wheeler, it had better be for a trusted reliever like Alvarado or Seranthony Dominguez.
In the end the decision backfired quickly and loudly. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a reasonable move at the time.
THE PHILLIES’ HOPE
Before Alvarez delivered the swing of his life, another left-handed slugger hit a potentially pivotal home run, and considering how difficult it is to homer against Valdez, what Kyle Schwarber did should not be overlooked. Of the 827 hitters Valdez faced this past season, only 11 hit home runs. Of those hitters, just one was left-handed.
But Schwarber is no ordinary hitter, as he showed in the top of the sixth inning. With the game still scoreless, Schwarber turned on a 96 m.p.h. fastball, sending it into the right-field seats for his sixth home run of the 2022 playoffs in addition to the NL-best 46 he hit during the regular season. This time, it simply wasn’t enough.
A CHAMPION, AT LAST
When the Los Angeles Dodgers won it all in 1980, their slugging left fielder was none other than Dusty Baker. Then 31 years old, Baker hit 29 home runs and drove in 97 on his way to a fourth-place finish in MVP voting.
So yes, he has a World Series ring, but it’s been a while. Now in his 25th season as a big-league manager, Baker has won 2,093 career games, nine division titles and two pennants (with the 2002 San Francisco Giants and last year’s Astros). Now, he finally has his first championship as a manager.
With the win, Baker also becomes the third Black manager to win a World Series title, joining Cito Gaston (1992-93 Blue Jays) and Dave Roberts (2020 Dodgers).
A COMPLICATED LEGACY
The Astros’ 2017 championship will forever be tainted. They cheated, using trash cans to illegally relay signs to hitters on the way to the first title in franchise history. Manager A.J. Hinch, coach Alex Cora and GM Jeff Luhnow later faced discipline from MLB, but some within the game still bristle at the mention of Houston’s ’17 title.
Five years later, how will this second championship resonate? There are significant differences to the 2022 team, with George Springer, Carlos Correa and Gerrit Cole all having departed as free agents and the likes of Tucker, Alvarez and Jeremy Pena emerging as new core players. All told, there are just five players remaining from 2017.
With Baker managing and GM James Click now leading baseball operations, much of the leadership has turned over, too. And – it must be noted – MLB has put in place many new systems and employees designed to prevent the kind of rule-breaking that occurred in 2017.
But as long as Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman are hitting atop the Houston batting order there will be many who find it hard to praise the Astros too much. Like it or not, that’s an inevitable outcome after the Astros’ decision to cheat their way to the 2017 title.
