They cheated their way to a ring, then made it again this year. Is there a chance they had done this again? The Astros continue their success even after troubling years. The Houston Astros have once again made it the World Series, which is a best of 7 games played that decides who wins it all. This is an impressive feat, seeing that it’s their third time reaching the World Series in five years. They beat the Red Sox in the ALCS Friday in game 6, October 22^nd, at Minute Maid Park, which is the Astros home field.

The Astros were able to beat a very powerful offense, with lackluster pitching. Although their pitching isn’t bad, they don’t compete with top pitching rotations like the Dodgers or White Sox. Another factor that weighed into the Astros competition, was that their ace pitcher, Lance McCullers, was out due to injury. In prior years he put up some of the best postseason numbers ever recorded. This year he continued that dominance, posting a sub-2.00 ERA, against some of the strongest offenses in the league. Houston has a second pitcher by the name of Framber Valdez, who can compete with the best when he’s on top of his game. In the final game that won the Astros a trip to the World Series, Valdez held the Red Sox to 0 runs through eight innings, against a team that possessed the hottest hitter in the world at the time. With McCullers out now, Valdez is considered the ace for the Astros, and he needs to step up his game if they have any hopes of winning.

With that being said, Tuesday, October 26^th, Valdez started game one of the World Series for the Astros against the Atlanta Braves. After just having a dominant start, Valdez only survived 2 and a half innings versus the Braves. Homerun hitter Jorge Soler led of the game with a homerun, which is something that has never been done before. Soler became the first player to hit a leadoff homerun in a World Series game, which was also his first World Series game. Only one game has passed, and there is plenty of ball to be played. Another impressive feat for the Astros is that they once again proved the world wrong. In 2017, the Astros were caught red handed for cheating during the Postseason. Houston tried to put it behind them, but fans as well as the rest of the league refused to let this go away. Pitcher Ryan Teppera for the Chicago White Sox even accused the Astros of still cheating when they played them this year. Facing adversity, the Astros beat every team they faced, and have once again reached the World Series.

An interesting fact about the fight to the championship, was that a rookie won MVP for the ALCS to help them advance. Yordan Alvarez, a slugger native to Cuba, put up monstrous numbers against the Red Sox to assist in victory. This team has an extremely high-powered offense that continues to impress. Just this year alone, 6 out of the 9 in their starting lineup were All Stars this year. Not to mention they’re missing their former Cy Young pitcher, Justin Verlander, and still have dominated the majority of the league.