MLB: Astros defeat Phillies 4-1 to win second World Series crown

WASHINGTON -- Yordan Alvarez smashed a three-run homer and the Houston Astros captured their second World Series in six seasons on Saturday with a 4-1 victory over Philadelphia.

The Cuban slugger's sixth-inning blast off Phillies relief pitcher Jose Alvarado gave Houston the lead for good as the Astros took Major League Baseball's best-of-seven championship final four games to two.

"I just tried to stay a little calm and get a good pitch to swing at and that's what I did," Alvarez said of his third game-winning playoff homer.

"It was amazing. When I was rounding second base I felt the whole stadium moving."

The home victory brought 73-year-old Astros manager Dusty Baker his first World Series crown in 25 seasons as an MLB bench boss.

"That's the final chapter to the movie," Baker said. "They told me in spring training they were going to win. Now what's next? Party."

Baker, whose 2,093 wins were the most for any manager without a World Series title, quickly enjoyed the long-sought title.

"It hit me all right," Baker said. "It hit me as soon as Yordan hit that ball over the moon out there."

The Astros, in their fourth World Series in six seasons and fifth overall, won their only prior title in 2017.

Many MLB fans see that as a tainted title after the Astros were found to have used an electronic sign stealing system, allowing Houston batters to know what pitch was coming.

Baker took over in January 2020 after A.J. Hinch was fired over the scandal and helped the Astros put the shameful episode behind them.

"All the stuff we've been going through the last three years, hopefully it's over," Baker said. "You've got to let it ride."

The Astros, who lost the 2019 World Series to Washington and 2021 Series to Atlanta, were emotional about winning the crown for Baker.

"He means everything," said Astros star Jose Altuve, among five players from 2017 still on the roster. "He came here at the right time with the right team."

Houston's Jeremy Pena became the first rookie position player to be named World Series Most Valuable Player and only the second rookie MVP of a league final and World Series.

The 25-year-old Dominican became the first rookie with a hit in each of the first six games of a World Series.

"Individual awards are cool and all but that's the trophy we want right there," Pena said, looking at the champion's trophy. "This is what we dream about."

The Phillies, who sought their third World Series crown after 1980 and 2008, had not reached the playoffs since 2011 and hadn't reached the World Series since 2009.

"I'm really proud of them," Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. "They came to play every day. They played hard."

Philadelphia's Zack Wheeler took his second loss of the Series while Dominican left-hander Framber Valdez struck out nine and improved to 3-0 in the playoffs.

Kyle Schwarber blasted a solo homer in the sixth to give Philadelphia a 1-0 lead.

But in the bottom of the sixth, Altuve reached first base on a fielder's choice and took third on a Pena single, prompting the Phillies to remove Wheeler for Alvarado.

- Amazing pitching -

Alvarez then blasted the ball over the centerfield wall to put the hosts in front.

"Yordan has been doing it all year," Pena said. "Always trust the big man. That was impressive."

"I knew as soon as he hit that one it was a big one," Altuve said. "I thought 3-1 would be a good lead for us to win the ball game."

Alex Bregman added another run in the sixth when he walked, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on a Christian Vazquez single to create the final margin.

Astros relief pitchers allowed only two runs over 18 1/3 innings with 25 strikeouts in five games and again dominated Phillies batters over the final three innings to seal victory.

"This pitching staff has been amazing all year," Houston's Martin Maldonado said. "The bullpen has been really good. We get to them and then adios."

Agence France-Presse

MLB: Astros, Phillies win big to reach brink of World Series

NEW YORK -- The Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros advanced within a victory of the World Series thanks to Major League Baseball playoff triumphs on Saturday in vastly different fashions.

Rhys Hoskins smashed two home runs as Philadelphia outslugged visiting San Diego 10-6 while Houston pitchers allowed the host New York Yankees only one hit over eight innings in a 5-0 shutout.

The Phillies seized a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven National League Championship Series against the Padres, while Houston took a 3-0 edge over the Yankees in the American League Championship Series.

The Astros can complete a sweep on Sunday in New York to reach the World Series for the fourth time in six seasons, while the Phillies -- in the playoffs for the first time since 2011 -- can reach the World Series for the first time since 2009 with a Sunday home triumph.

"It was a big win for us," Houston's Cristian Vazquez said. "Every night we have a big chance to win. We have big pieces on the team and we're in a good place now. It's a special team."

J.T. Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber added solo homers to Hoskins' pair of two-run Hoskins homers as Philadelphia rallied after trailing 4-0, matching their greatest playoff comeback victory ever.

"Just persistent at-bats," Realmuto said. "As soon as we got down 4-0 we got back in the dugout and we just kind of regrouped as a team and said, 'There's a lot of ballgame left. We're going to score runs today.'

"We just never lost that confidence."

The Astros, in the ALCS for a record sixth consecutive season, won the title in 2017 but lost in 2019 and last year.

Chas McCormick smacked a home run and Christian Vazquez drove in two runs for Houston while 25-year-old Dominican right-hander Cristian Javier, making his first start in three weeks, hurled 5 1/3 shutout innings, striking out five while allowing only one hit, and five relievers completed a three-hit shutout.

"He's got one of the best fastballs and sliders in the game," catcher Vazquez said of Javier. "So attacking hitters, that's the key for him, and getting ahead."

McCormick's two-run homer in the second inning, a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Trey Mancini in the sixth and a two-run Vazquez single to left field in the sixth provided all the scoring Houston needed.

The Yankees, winners of a record 27 MLB titles, have not reached the World Series since beating Philadelphia for the 2009 crown. They have lost their past four ALCS appearances, the past two to Houston.

- Phillies rally to win -

At Philadelphia, it was a slugfest from the start as the Padres grabbed a 4-3 lead after the opening inning.

Manny Machado smacked a solo homer, Brandon Drury belted a two-run double and Drury scored on Kim Ha-seong's single to give San Diego a 4-0 edge.

Philadelphia answered in the bottom of the first on a two-run Hoskins homer and a Bryce Harper run-scoring double, then equalized in the fourth when Nick Castellanos doubled and scored on Bryson Stott's single.

San Diego's Juan Soto smashed a two-run homer in the fifth to give the Padres a 6-4 lead, but Hoskins equalized on a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth.

Realmuto then walked and scored on Harper's double to give the hosts their first lead. Castellanos then singled in Harper for an 8-6 Phillies edge, with Schwarber and Realmuto adding solo homers in the sixth and seventh innings respectively.

Agence France-Presse

Baseball: Phillies' Harper, Mets' Matz donate to virus relief efforts

Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper and New York Mets left-hander Steven Matz have stepped to the plate by making donations to coronavirus relief efforts.

Harper and his wife, Kayla, are donating $500,000 to Direct Relief and Three Square in his hometown of Las Vegas and Philabundance in Philadelphia.

Direct Relief in Las Vegas is a nonprofit humanitarian aid organization that assists people affected by poverty or emergencies. Three Square and Philabundance are both food banks.

"Now is the time to come together and adhere to the guidelines of medical professionals! We are wishing the best to all with our prayers during this time," the Harpers said in a statement Thursday.

Matz, who wears jersey No. 32, is donating $32,000 through TRU32 charity to New York City first responders and hospitals.

"Thanks to those who support & contribute to the program all year. Partially because of your generosity, we're able to pitch in now," Matz wrote Friday on Twitter. "The first of three donations just went out to one of the hardest hit hospitals in NYC, Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, so close to our Mets Citi Field."

--Field Level Media

Roy Halladay, ex-MLB pitching star, dies in plane crash off Florida

Retired Major League Baseball pitcher Roy Halladay, who twice won the game's top pitching award and threw one of only two no-hitters in postseason history, died on Tuesday when his small plane crashed off the west coast of central Florida. He was 40.

An ICON A5 single-engine amphibian aircraft belonging to Halladay crashed into the Gulf of Mexico less than a mile offshore from the city of New Port Richey, according to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

"We were praying for the best, that it could be a search and rescue and we were just going to be taking him to the hospital," Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said at a news conference. "The worst-case scenario happened and it just breaks our hearts."

Halladay was alone in the plane and his body was recovered, Nocco said. He did not send out any distress calls before the crash, which the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate, Nocco said.

Halladay pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies and retired in 2013 after a 15-year career. He won a Cy Young Award as best pitcher in both the American and National Leagues, was an eight-time All Star and amassed 203 regular-season victories.

In 2010, he pitched a no-hitter for the Phillies in Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Cincinnati Reds. His feat came 54 years after Don Larsen threw a perfect game for the New York Yankees in the 1956 World Series.

Halladay recently bought the ICON A5 aircraft, the company said on Oct. 12 in a news release, which quoted Halladay as saying he had dreamed about flying a plane since boyhood.

The company could not be reached for comment.

Halladay posted several photos of the plane on Twitter and said he pinched himself in anticipation of receiving it.

"I keep telling my dad flying the Icon A5 low over the water is like flying a fighter jet! His response ... I am flying a fighter jet!!," Halladay wrote on Twitter on Oct. 31.

   

'WE ARE NUMB'

Tributes to Halladay flowed in from across Major League Baseball.

"It is impossible to express what he has meant to this franchise, the city and its fans," the Blue Jays said in a statement. Halladay spent most of his career in Toronto, where he acquired the nickname "Doc," after the 19th century U.S. gunfighter Doc Holliday.

The Phillies, with whom he spent his final four seasons, said in a statement: "We are numb over the very tragic news about Roy Halladay’s untimely death."

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred voiced condolences to his family, including his wife and two sons.

Halladay, after his retirement from baseball, settled in the Tampa Bay area, according to the Tampa Bay Times. He helped coach baseball at Calvary Christian High School in the area, according to a statement on the school's Facebook page.

"He was one of the nicest human beings," Nocco said. "A lot of times people talk about sports athletes and you hear about egos or about, worrying about money and cars. That was not Roy."

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Colleen Jenkins in New York, Letitia Stein and Ben Klayman in Ann Arbor, Mich., Rory Carroll in Los Angeles and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)

source: news.abs-cbn.com