After seven months of baseball, it all came down to one night: a winner-take-all Game Seven.

The Houston Astros defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers to claim their first World Series title in franchise history. The Astros franchise has been around since 1962, and last week, all the years of futility came to an end.

A series that was expected to be defined by prolific starting rotations and untouchable bullpens was anything but that 

Players collectively hit a World Series record of 24 home runs, which led to many fans to question the authenticity of the baseballs being used.

“These balls have to be juiced, there’s just no other way to put it,” senior Eric Adams said. “We have never seen such an onslaught of homeruns like this before. It was an amazing series to watch, but it still just makes you wonder.”

Astros pitcher Justin Verlander was one of many to say publicly that he believes that the balls used during the World Series were slicker than those used during the regular season.

“The World Series ball is slicker. No doubt,” Verlander said in an interview with Tom Verducci. “I’m telling you, we’re in here signing [World Series] balls before the game, and it’s hard to get the ink on the ball sometimes.”

One player whose numbers suffered from the suspected ball change was Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish. Darvish lasted 1 2/3 innings in both his Game Three and Game Seven starts.

Darvish complained that the balls had a different tactile feel to them, and that he was not able to throw one of his pitches as effectively as before.

“I had trouble with the ball throwing a slider; it was slicker.” Darvish said in an interview with Verducci.

During the season, hitters registered a .109 average against Darvish’s slider.

Controversy over the baseballs aside, the series was tight throughout.

Five out of the seven games were decided by two runs or less, and Game Four was tied 1-1 going into the ninth until the Dodgers blew it open with five runs.

Nathan Bayer believes that Game Five could go down as one of the greatest World Series games ever played.

“I couldn’t believe what I was watching,” Bayer said. “Every time you think one team had the upper hand, the other would come right back the next inning and tie it up. This game was an all-timer and I’m glad I was able to witness it.”

The Astros had to overcome deficits in three of their victories, including bouncing back from a four-run hole against Dodgers’ ace Clayton Kershaw.

They kept battling, and even after the Dodgers tied the game in the ninth after a Chris Taylor two-out, two-strike base hit up the middle, they walked off in the 10th to win 13-12. 

For one UC student, this World Series win for the Astros meant a little extra.

Dustin Smith has family members who were affected by Hurricane Harvey and could not be happier to celebrate this championship with them. 

“It just means so much,” Smith said. “Seeing what my family was going through and not being with them to help was hard. With the Astros winning and knowing what it meant to them just made the whole situation a little bit easier to deal with.”

With the season over, baseball now shifts to a long offseason, as pitchers and catchers will not report to training camp until mid-February.