The Road to the World Series

The October classic is between the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros this year. The Astros entered the playoffs this season as the favorites to win it all, being the number one seed on the American league side of the bracket, having one of the most experienced teams in all of the major leagues. As a result of that, the Astros made it through the first 2 series of the playoffs going completely untouched, sweeping the Seattle Mariners in 3 games, and sweeping the New York Yankees in 4 games for a combined 7-0.

The Astros are also coached by the oldest coach in the league, Dusty Baker, who is 73 years of age. Dusty has worked with many different teams throughout his career, coaching since 1988. Dusty has always been one of the most successful managers in the league, finishing with a winning record in all of his seasons as an Astros manager.

This is not the Astros first time in the world series recently, as they were in the World series in 2019 and 2021. However, they came away empty handed both of those seasons, losing to the Washington Nationals in 2019 and the Atlanta Braves in 2021. Dusty looks to lead the Astros to their first world series title since 2017, when the sign-stealing scandal took place.

The Phillies entered the playoffs as the 6 seed in the national league and being ranked last by almost every critic. If you had asked anyone, most people would have said they didn’t expect the Phillies to make it past the first wild card round. Entering the last week of the regular season, the Phillies were on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. With 5 games left to play, they were tied with the Milwaukee Brewers for the final wild card spot in the national league.

While the Brewers folded and played subpar baseball their last 5 games, the Phillies took advantage of this and won their last 2 games of the season, squeezing into a playoff berth for the first time since 2011. The Phillies first challenge was traveling to St. Louis to face a very experienced Cardinals team for the first round, best out of 3 Wild Card series.

In game 1, Phillies key players Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper led the team in a dramatic 9th inning comeback to win game 1. This was a huge statement win, as it showed the rest of the playoff field the Phillies were to be taken with authority. The Phillies used their heavily armed offense to hit their way to a series win against the Cardinals, and now would be tasked with facing division rival and defending world champion Atlanta Braves.

Many people thought the Atlanta Braves would go for a repeat this October, especially facing the Phillies in round 2. The Braves and Phillies played each other 19 times in the regular season, with the Braves winning 11 of those 19 games, and finishing 14 games ahead of the Phillies in the standings.

Yet again, the Phillies defied all odds and hit their way to a series win, taking down the defending champions in 4 games. The offensive led Phillies then had the challenge of taking down the San Diego Padres, which was a team made out of super stars. Philidelphia also faced the challenge of playing the first 2 games in San Diego. Splitting these 2 games, Philly would go back to town with the series tied 1-1.

The Phillies won the first game in front of their home crowd by 2 runs, then went onto obliterate the Padres pitching staff in game 4, posting 10 runs on the board. This team had a chance to win the national league pennant in front of their home crowd, with a game 5 victory. The Phillies were down all game, as the Padres began to think they would send the series back to San Diego. Until the 8th inning, when Bryce Harper stepped up to the plate, delivering with a 2 out, 2 run homer to give the Phillies the lead. They now needed 3 outs to secure the victory, which closer Ranger Suarez successfully did, sending the Phillies to a world series date with the Houston Astros.