MLB World Series Recap: Young Writers

Baseball is a family favorite event—two teams clash in a best-of-seven series. One team wins the trophy, and the other team goes home. In the 2022 World Series, the Houston Astros came out on top, defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in 6 games. The final game was on Nov. 5, where the Astros beat the Phillies in a final score of 4-1. It was the first World Series won by the American League since 2018.

The series-clinching game six did not prove to be an exciting finish to the World Series. Houston’s starting pitcher, Framber Valdez, and Philadelphia’s starter, Zack Wheeler both dominated in the first five innings. But a home run hit by Kyle Shwarber in the top of the 6th put the Phillies on top, 1-0. The celebration was short-lived though, as Yordan Alvararez hit a three-run bomb to center field in the very next inning, which gave Houston a 2-point lead. From there, the Astros scored another run and iced the game with a pop fly out to Kyle Tucker. Jeremy Peña also won the World Series MVP trophy, since he got 10 hits and played stout defense. He is the first ever rookie position player to win the World Series MVP.

The outcome of the series was not a surprise to many. The Astros came prepared, as they had been in the World Series the year prior, and the team has been to the MLB’s biggest stage 3 times in the last 6 years. But the Phillies, on the other hand, were the new kids on the block, as they hadn’t been to a World Series since 2009 (13 years ago). Philadelphia was also the huge underdog with only 87 regular season wins.  It didn’t feel like much compared to the Astros’ 106 wins in the regular season. Even though The Astros were favored to win, both teams had resounding wins in the Championship series. The Astros had swept the New York Yankees in the ALCS (American League Championship series), while the Phillies beat the San Diego Padres in the NLCS 5 games to 1.

This year’s Fall Classic also had the second-lowest TV audience of any World Series since 1968, which was when TV audiences started being tracked. The series averaged 11.78 million views per game. The only other World Series that attracted less attention was the 2020 World Series which was during the COVID-19 pandemic. The season was only 60 games that year, and every game of the World Series was in Arlington, Texas. However, there isn’t a clear reason why this year’s got such low viewership. A possible reason would be that World Series TV viewership has been declining since the 1970s. 

A game-six blowout win put the Houston Astros to the very top of Major League Baseball. A Philadelphia underdog win like in Super Bowl 52 didn’t happen, but the Astros won their first World Series since 1955 without cheating. Hopefully, next year’s World Series will get higher viewership and be more exciting.

Article written by Josh Green of Sligo Creek Middle School

Photo courtesy of Riley Sims of The Diamondback, Creative Commons Licensed