The Houston Astros is a professional baseball club headquartered in Houston, Texas, that has won just one World Series championship (2017). The Astros now play in the American League (AL), but they formerly played in the National League (NL) for 51 seasons, winning an NL pennant in 2005 in addition to AL pennants in 2017, 2019, and 2021.
The 2017 World Series was the culmination of the 2017 MLB season. The 113th World Series was a best-of-seven playoff between the NL champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the AL champion Houston Astros. The series ran from October 24 through November 1.
The Astros defeated the Dodgers 4-3 to win their first World Series and become the first Texas club to accomplish so. They were the second club, after the 1985 Kansas City Royals, to win two Game 7s in one playoff. Not since 2001–2002 has two World Series gone to seven games. The Astros blasted a franchise record of 15 home runs in the series, while both teams hit eight home runs in Game 2 to establish the single-game World Series record.
George Springer of Houston was voted the World Postseason MVP after hitting five home runs in the series, tying him with Reggie Jackson in 1977 and Chase Utley in 2009.
The regular-season records of the two pennant winners determined home-field advantage for the first time. The AL and NL had alternated home-field advantage from 1903 through 2002. From 2003 to 2016, it was determined by the winning league’s All-Star Game results. The Dodgers won the Astros’ home-field advantage. The Dodgers hosted Games 1, 2, 6, and 7 and the Astros hosted Games 3, 4, and 5.
MLB concluded in 2019 that the Astros had improperly used technology to steal signs from competing clubs during their championship season and the next season. The Astros were fined $5 million, lost many high draft selections, and manager A. J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were both sacked.
However, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred chose not to discipline any of the players or revoke the Astros’ World Series win. The 2017 World Series “delivered a winner we all loathe,” according to ESPN’s Sam Miller.
