The Houston Astros relied on a dominant pitching staff to win the 2022 MLB World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Outside of Game 3 in Philadelphia, in which Lance McCullers Jr. gave up five home runs, the Astros pitching staff seemed in control.
Their bullpen had an ERA below 1.00 over the course of the series, and their starters were good outside of McCullers: Justin Verlander didn’t pitch all that well in his first start, but rebounded in a big way in Game 5 against a hostile environment in Philadelphia.
Perhaps most notably, the Astros pitchers were masters of the strikeout.
They established a new record for most strikeouts thrown in a Fall Classic, surpassing two notorious rivals.
“Most strikeouts thrown in a World Series: 71 – Astros (2022); 70 – Dodgers (2020); 70 – Yankees (2001); 69 – Cubs (2016),” Baseball Reference tweeted.
Most strikeouts thrown in a World Series:
71 – Astros (2022)
70 – Dodgers (2020)
70 – Yankees (2001)
69 – Cubs (2016)#WorldSeries | #LevelUp pic.twitter.com/niznksVWv1— Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) November 6, 2022
The Astros have a modern rivalry with the Dodgers: the teams don’t like each other since their matchup in the 2017 Fall Classic, as Dodgers fans accused them of cheaters because of the sign-stealing scandal.
The Astros Have Bragging Rights
On top of that, both organizations are continually competing to see which one is the most advanced when it comes to sabermetrics and analytics.
Houston can now say that they had more strikeouts in the 2022 World Series than the Dodgers had when they last won, in 2020.
Of course, the Astros also surpassed the Yankees’ 2001 iteration.
We don’t need to tell you that the Astros and Yankees are also in another modern rivalry.
The Yanks are also mad about what happened in 2017, as they fell to the Astros in the Championship Series.
They also lost to Houston in 2019 and 2022.
Whether Dodgers and Yankees fans like it or not, the Astros can brag about having the most overpowering World Series winning staff when it comes to strikeouts.
Verlander, Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, and the excellent bullpen with Bryan Abreu, Ryan Pressly, Rafael Montero, Ryne Stanek, and others, took the Astros to another level of dominance.
