The World Series has now finished and the Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies in the series 4-2. One of the main reasons the Astros won was because of rookie shortstop Jeremy Pena who was the X-factor for the Houston Astros, as his batting average was .400. 

The star player on the other side of the field was Phillies superstar right fielder Bryce Harper who signed with the Phillies in 2019 for a 13 year $330 million deal. In the series, Harper batted .200 with one home run. While these stats aren’t as good as they could be, he is also the main reason why they reached the world series.

Senior Ej Kuster loves the world series and watches it every year. ”I watch it every year. I love the crowd, the atmosphere, and the competition of playoffs and especially world series baseball,”lhe said. 

In the first game, the Phillies won a close game, 6-5. In the beginning of the game, it looked like the Astros were going to run away with this game as they took a 5-0 lead, but then the Phillies came back to tie the game 5-5 and took the game to extra innings. In the top of the 10th inning, JT Realmuto hits a solo home run to give the Phillies a lead. Then as the Astros came up to bat in the bottom of the inning, starting right fielder Nicholas Catellanos made a game saving diving catch to secure the win.

In the second game, the Astros had the home field advantage, and just like in the first game, they took a quick five run lead, but this time they did not let the Phillies come back and secured the 5-2 victory.

Game three of the World Series was a different story. The Phillies took home field advantage back and they did not fail to disappoint. This game was a blowout with the Phillies figuring out that Astros pitcher Lance McCullers was tipping pictures. They took advantage of it and got off to a great lead, continuing to hit the whole game, winning 7-0 with a record tying 5 home runs in a world series game. McCullers got taken out in the fourth inning after already allowing 7 runs. They then led the series 2-1.

At this point the Phillies fans were feeling confident. “I wanted the Phillies to win,” Kuster said. “I’ve been a big fan of Harper and how he plays the game and would love to see him get a ring.” 

Game four was one for the history books. After the Astros couldn’t score a run in Philadelphia, they came back pitching and hitting. The Phillie fans were excited coming into the game with a series lead but unlike last game, their team let them down. 

The Astros pitched a combined no hitter which was the second no-hitter in World Series history. The last time a no-hitter occurred in the world series before this was in 1956. This was a game of history as the Astros stole a 5-0 victory in Philadelphia.

Junior Charlie Roberts was very impressed with this combined no-hitter. “The no-hitter was very impressive, but I still wanted the Phillies to win the series,” Roberts said.

Game 5 was a competitive match as the Astros took a close victory 3-2. Playoff Pena hit a solo home run in the fourth inning to give them a 2-1 lead. As he hit the home run, he became the first rookie shortstop to get 5 hits in 5 games in the world series. The Astros did not slow down after this and secured the win.

The series was now 3-2 in the Astos favor, which meant that game 6 could be the final game. The Phillies had a one run lead in the top of the 6th inning but as the Astros came up to bat at the bottom of the inning, they scored 4 runs. These were the final runs of the game and the Astros took home the world series 4-2. Pena took home the World Series MVP as a rookie. 

Junior Matthew Hernandez wanted the Astros to win the World Series and he was happy when they won. “I want the Astros to win because I’m a fan of Justin Verlander,” he said. “He has had a great MLB career so far and he has pitched well for the Astros in his career so it’s good to see all his hard work pay off.”