The World Series has officially started with Game 1 between the Astros and Phillies in Houston, TX. 

After a homerun by Kyle Tucker, making the score 1-0, a single by Martin Maldonado to make it 2-0, and finally a second homerun by Tucker again making it his third homerun this postseason and his second of the game as the Astros would find themselves with a 5-0 lead in the third inning.

That lead would not last long, however, as in the 4th and 5th inning the Phillies would strike back.  It started with a single by Nick Castellanos that would make the lead 5-1, a double by Alec Bohm, scoring two runs and cutting the lead in half, and a deep double off the wall in left centerfield by J.T Realmuto that would score two more runs and tie the game up at 5-5. 

In the 6th inning, the Astros had men on first and second, and Bohm made a great grab and throw to get Maldonado at first. Then a bases-loaded chance for the Phillies was thwarted by Hector Neris after he struck out Castellanos. 

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Jose Altuve secured himself a single and stole second base to give the Astros the winning run at second base. With the ALCS MVP Jeremy Peña at the plate needing a hit to win the game, he would only scrape out a shallow fly ball that would be very tough to get if the Phillies did not have Castellanos who made an incredible sliding catch to save the game and end the inning. 

The 10th inning came around, and Realmuto came ready in the clutch on a 3-2 count, hitting his third home run of the postseason giving the Phillies their first lead of the game as they held on to win 6-5 and take a 1-0 series lead.

Game 2 saw the Phillies looking to take a commanding 2-0 series lead over the Astros after the miraculous comeback and instant classic in game 1; however, this did not end up being the case as the Astros would once again go up early taking a 3-0 lead off of two doubles that each scored runs.

The Astros later scored two more as Alex Bregman hit a home run, making the game 5-0 in the Astros favor. The Phillies would go on to score two runs in an effort to make another miraculous comeback with a sac fly hit by Jean Segura and a fielding error by Yuli Gurriel to make the final score 5-2 in the Astros favor and tie the series up at 1-1. 

All of that is not the only story from Game 2 as some history was made. For the second time, an umpire called a perfect game. A perfect game for a pitcher is not letting a single player get on base the entire game, meanwhile for an umpire to get a perfect game, they would have to not get a single strike or ball call incorrect the entire game, which is rarer than an actual pitching perfect game, making Hoberg’s feat one for the history books.

 Umpire Patrick “Pat” Hoberg, who is considered statistically the most accurate umpire this season with a 96.4% ball-strike accuracy rating which is the best in the MLB this season. Also only three umpires this year matched his consistency rating of 94.9%. 

“I think [umpires] have a big impact, especially on high stress situations. For me as a player, I gotta know what the strike zone is, where everybody’s strike zone is different. It’s not a perfect strike zone. It definitely affects my approach as a hitter and affects pitchers and how they look to attack the strike zone,” senior baseball player Austin Ridge said.

The Astros star-power has had their light dimmed for Game 3 as the Phillies completely crushed them with a score of 7-0.

 The Phillies started off their scoring early with a two-run home run by Bryce Harper in the 1st inning to give them the first lead of the game at 2-0, a solo shot to left center by Bohm to extend that lead to 3-0 in the 2nd inning. Later in that inning, Brandon Marsh hit his second home run of the postseason, making it a 4-0 ballgame. A two-run home run by Kyle Schwarber in the 5th inning made the game a 6-0 game. To put the icing on top of the cake, Rhys Hoskins hit his sixth home run of the postseason to really put the game out of reach and make it 7-0.

This is the first time this postseason that the Astros have been shut out in a game and has also become their worst loss this postseason as their batters just were not in it tonight and neither was their pitching.

All that needs to happen for the Astros to get back into this series is them calming down, and going back to the undefeatable Astros they were before this series. However, the Phillies just need to keep doing what they are doing because it seems to be working very well.

After being postponed, Game 4 will take place on November 2, 2022, at 8:03 PM on FOX. The Phillies will be looking to take a commanding 3-1 series lead and be one win away from winning the World Series at their home ball park, meanwhile the Astros will be looking to tie this series up after a disastrous Game 3 to force at least a Game 6, which they would play in Houston.