The 2022 World Series begins today, Friday, October 28, 2022. It pits the two-time defending American League champion Houston Astros, versus the Philadelphia Phillies, a franchise making their first World Series appearance in 11 years.
The Astros’ presence in this year’s World Series is not a shocking result. They led all American League teams in victories this season with 106, and subsequently swept their two playoff series in the American League side of the Major League Baseball post-season bracket, defeating the Seattle Mariners in three games in the American League Division Series, and the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series in four games.
The Phillies’ road to the World Series was a lot more improbable. Their former manager, Joe Girardi, who led the New York Yankees to a championship in 2009, was fired after only 51 games played, with the team posting a lackluster 22-29 record. He was replaced, on an interim basis, by Girardi’s bench coach Rob Thomson. The team responded more favorably to Thomson winning 65 of the remaining 111 games, clinching the last National League wild card playoff position in the season’s waning days.
However, with three 100+ win teams (Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, New York Mets) in the league, as well as theit first-round opponent, the 93-win St. Louis Cardinals, it did not seem likely that the Phillies would be long for this year’s post-season. However, with an amazing display of timely hitting and pitching, the Phillies managed to defeat the Cardinals, Braves, and fellow wild card qualifier, the San Diego Padres, winning 9 of 11 games along the way to winning the National League Championship. The National League playoffs saw the lower seeded team win each playoff series, something that happened only once on the American League side of the playoff bracket.
The Astros are led by future Hall of Fame ace Justin Verlander, who in his first full season of action in three years, posted a Major League-leading 1.75 Earned Run Average, and, leading the American League in wins with 18. Along with pitchers Framber Valdez (17 wins) and Luis Garcia (15 wins), the Astros will pose a formidable challenge for the Phillies.
The Phillies are led by their power hitting, MVP-caliber star Bryce Harper, who hit the go-ahead home run in the NLCS-clinching game versus the Padres, capping off a great post-season stretch to this point. Harper has a .419 batting average, with six doubles, five home runs and 11 runs batted in, in 11 post-season games, rounding his game back into shape at a most opportune time, after missing a substantial amount of the regular season after sustaining a thumb injury, while hit by a pitch in San Diego in June.