The Houston Astros beat the New York Yankees 6-5 in the Bronx on Sunday night, finishing a four-game sweep to win the American League Championship Series and punch their fourth ticket to the World Series since 2017. The Astros will play the Philadelphia Phillies, who topped the San Diego Padres 4-3 to win Game 5 of the National League Championship Series earlier Sunday. The Phillies last played in the World Series in 2009. Game 1 is Friday in Houston's Minute Maid Park.
Bryce Harper, whose two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth won the game for the Phillies on Sunday, was named NLCS MVP. Astros rookie shortstop Jeremy Pena was named ALCS MVP.
The Astros started their final rally against the Yankees with an infield single by second baseman Jose Altuve in the 7th inning, allowing him to tie the score when Yordan Alvarez hit him home with an RBI single. Alex Bregman's single sent Pena over home plate, giving the Astros their 6-5 victory.
"Altuve and Bregman were part of the sign-stealing cabal" that brought shame on Houston after their 2017 World Series title, but as Sunday night's game ended, Yankees fans were too dispirited to even boo Altuve, "long the fall guy for the cheating Astros' 2017 vanquishing of New York," USA Today reports. Now the Astros are "headed home, their sins of the past further in the rear-view mirror and a second World Series title in sight."