It's possible the Houston Astros could get a pennant before penance.
That's infuriating.
The year 2020 was supposed to be a lot of things that it wasn't. For the disgusting Astros, champion cheaters, it was supposed to be the year they felt the wrath of baseball (since the players themselves didn't feel the wrath of baseball in form of punishments). For 81 games, the Astros would have to hear it from the fans _ piercing boos and clever insults. Yes, before we go any further here, I realize the desire for this to happen is arguably juvenile and particular petty. Nevertheless.
Instead, what happened? The first season after it was revealed the 2017 champs cheated their way to glory was played in empty stadiums.
At least we could take solace in the fact that the Astros were under .500 in 2020.
Until the under-.500 Astros made the playoffs.
And then won that Wild Card Series against favored Minnesota.
And then, on Monday, mashed their way to a Game 1 win against Oakland in the American League Division Series.
Sure, yes, it's just one win on a long journey to possibly winning the American League pennant. But two things stand out. Oakland is without its masher, Matt Chapman (.535 slugging percentage), due to a shoulder injury. And the Astros don't have to play in front of opposing teams' fans, since the games are in a bubble setting.
Oh, and per MLB.com, the winner of Game 1 in these best-of-five series wins the series 72% of the time.
And sure enough, in Game 1, all the big-name baseball villains were part of the plot. Carlos Correa walloped two homers. Alex Bregman hit one. George Springer went 4 for 5. And Jose Altuve smacked a go-ahead single that drove in two runs.
"The way they had at-bats today was crazy impressive," Houston starting pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. told reporters after the 10-5 win. "When you see our guys and they start to feel dangerous and look dangerous in the box like they did today is when you have to have a lot of confidence. It's huge to get a big Game 1 victory over a quality team."
Unlike few things in our country today, the Houston Astros can bring everyone together in mutual distaste. Normally in sports, large swaths of fans hate a certain team for subjective reasons _ they win too much, their coach is too cocky, they have too much money to spend. But this is different. The Astros took the integrity of baseball, threw it in the trash can ... and then hit the trash can to alert teammates which pitch was coming.
I can only imagine the fury if it had been the Cardinals who lost the 2017 World Series to Houston. Imagine this proud and loud baseball town seething after finding out its opponent cheated? Of course, the Los Angeles Dodgers were the victims. And while Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly has become a cult hero with his trash-talking antics toward the Astros in the regular season, the Dodgers fans themselves have had to mentally wrestle with the fact that they could've won the World Series. And the Dodgers haven't won the World Series since 1988. So that means all their fans who are 28 years old or younger have never experienced a championship. That's a lot of fans and a lot of years.
The way this is all going, maybe the 2020 Astros will win the ALDS ... and the ALCS ... and face those Dodgers in the World Series. But it will be played in Arlington, Texas (So wait, the Astros could then win another World Series, this time in the stadium of their in-state rival?).
Yes, the world is in a terrible place. So many bad things are going on. Yes, baseball is just a game. Just entertainment.
Still. Let's go, A's!
