The Houston Astros won. They beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games, finishing it off on a cool November night at Dodger Stadium. George Springer hit a massive home run. Charlie Morton came out of the bullpen and threw four innings of absolute ice. It was the first title in franchise history. For a city still reeling from the devastating flooding of Hurricane Harvey, the "Houston Strong" narrative felt like a movie script.
But honestly? Just saying "the Astros won" is the easiest way to start a fight in a sports bar.
Most people searching for who won the 2017 World Series aren't just looking for a score. They’re looking for the context of what happened after the trophies were handed out. This wasn't just another Fall Classic. It became the most scrutinized, debated, and frankly, hated championship in the history of Major League Baseball. Whether you think they earned it or stole it depends entirely on how you view the sign-stealing scandal that broke two years later.
The Seven-Game War
The actual baseball played on the field was incredible. People forget that because of the drama that followed. Game 2 was a chaotic masterpiece with home runs flying out of the park in extra innings. Game 5? That was a 13-12 fever dream that lasted over five hours. Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, and Alex Bregman looked like the new face of a dynasty.
The Dodgers were no slouches, either. They won 104 games that year. Clayton Kershaw was hunting for his legacy-defining moment. Cody Bellinger was the Rookie of the Year. It was a heavyweight fight between a team that rebuilt through data and "tanking" (Houston) and a team that spent massive amounts of money to stay at the top (Los Angeles).
When the dust settled in Game 7, the Astros took an early lead against Yu Darvish and never looked back. George Springer won the World Series MVP. He tied the record for the most home runs in a single World Series with five. At the time, it felt like the triumph of the "Process" that Sports Illustrated famously predicted three years earlier when they put the Astros on the cover and called them the 2017 champs.
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The Scandal That Reframed the Trophy
If you talk to a Dodgers fan today, they’ll tell you the 2017 World Series was stolen. In late 2019, pitcher Mike Fiers—who was on that 2017 Astros team—went on the record with The Athletic. He blew the whistle on a sophisticated system involving a center-field camera, a monitor in the dugout tunnel, and a trash can.
Basically, the Astros were decoding the catcher’s signs in real-time. If a breaking ball was coming, someone would bang on a trash can. If it was a fastball? Silence.
It changed everything. Major League Baseball’s investigation confirmed that the Astros used this system throughout the 2017 regular season and postseason. Manager A.J. Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow were suspended and subsequently fired. The team was fined $5 million and stripped of draft picks. But the players? They weren't punished. And the title? It wasn't vacated.
This is why the question of who won the 2017 World Series is so loaded. Statistically, it's Houston. Morally, for a huge chunk of the baseball world, there's a permanent asterisk next to it.
Does the Data Support the "Cheating" Narrative?
It’s complicated. Baseball is a game of inches, and knowing what pitch is coming is a massive advantage. However, some researchers and analysts, like Tony Adams, spent hundreds of hours logging every single "bang" heard on game broadcasts.
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The data showed that the banging happened mostly during home games. Interestingly, the Astros’ road stats in the 2017 postseason were often better than their home stats. In the World Series specifically, they won Game 7 in Los Angeles—where they presumably weren't using the trash can system.
Does that exonerate them? Not really. It just makes the "what if" scenarios more painful. If they were good enough to win on the road without cheating, why did they feel the need to do it at home? It tainted the careers of guys like Carlos Beltran and Alex Bregman, and it turned Jose Altuve—one of the most likable players in the game—into a public villain for years.
The Pitchers Who Suffered
We have to talk about Yu Darvish. He was the "loser" of Game 7. He got shelled. Fans and media crushed him for not "having the heart" or for "tipping his pitches." He carried that weight for years. When the scandal broke, it became clear that the Astros might have simply known what he was throwing because they were watching him on a monitor.
It wasn't just Darvish. Dozens of pitchers probably lost jobs or saw their ERAs balloon because a lineup of All-Stars knew exactly what was coming. The human cost of the 2017 win is what bothers people more than the record books.
How History Will Remember 2017
Usually, time heals all wounds in sports. This feels different. The Astros have remained a powerhouse, winning another World Series in 2022. To their fans, the 2022 win was "vindication." It proved they didn't need a trash can to be the best team in baseball.
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To the rest of the world, it didn't change a thing about 2017.
When you look up who won the 2017 World Series, you see the Houston Astros. You see the photos of the parade. But you also see the "Houston Asterisks" jerseys in the stands of every stadium they visit. It is the most polarizing championship in modern American sports.
Practical Ways to Evaluate the 2017 Title Today
If you're a student of baseball history or just a fan trying to make sense of this era, here is how you should look at the 2017 results:
- Consult the Official Record: If you care about the Commissioner’s Trophy, the Astros are the winners. Period. MLB has never shown an interest in vacating titles like the NCAA does.
- Look at the Home/Road Splits: Check the 2017 postseason stats. It helps provide nuance. The Astros were a great team that cheated, which is a harder pill to swallow than a bad team that cheated.
- Acknowledge the Pitch-Tipping Factor: Many scouts still believe the Astros were also elite at picking up natural "tells" from pitchers, which is legal. Separating the legal gamesmanship from the illegal technology use is almost impossible now.
- Follow the Legacy of the "Process": The 2017 win changed how teams are built. The "tank for picks" strategy became the blueprint for the Cubs, the Orioles, and many others.
The 2017 World Series wasn't just a series of games. It was a turning point for the sport's relationship with technology and ethics. It’s the year that changed how we watch every single pitch.
To understand the 2017 Astros, you have to look at the 2022 Astros and the 2019 investigation. It's all connected. You can't have the glory of the George Springer home runs without the thud of the trash can in the background. It's a package deal. If you're betting on or studying baseball trends, remember that this era led to the pitch-clock and PitchCom technology we see today—specifically designed to stop the kind of thing that happened in 2017.
The best way to respect the history is to acknowledge both the talent on that roster and the choices they made that will follow them forever.