4 Ways the Astros Completely Blew the World Series

Oh, AJ Hinch. You had it right in your pocket! This World Series was already stolen, done and dusted when the Astros returned to Houston for Game 6 with a 3-2 advantage. They'd already lost twice at home in the series, and only 21 times at home all season long. Only needing one more victory to cinch it, things would have to go catastrophically poorly from that point forward for Houston to go home unhappy.

Well, about that...

Hinch handled things like a first-timer, the Astros bats choked in clutch time, and the Washington Freaking Nationals are your World Champions. So how'd the 'Stros gag it? It's simple, really.

4. Terrible Clutch Hitting

In the bottom of the first inning in Game 6, Alex Bregman launched a solo homer to Saturn, igniting Houston's rabid cheering section and stealing all the momentum in the world. In that moment, they somehow morphed into the New York Yankees: all sizzle, no steak. If they could've only gotten a few more dingers over the next two days, things wouldn't have looked so bleak. Instead, they spent the next two games going 1-for-12 with RISP, constantly putting pressure on Max Scherzer early in Game 7, but letting him off the hook. Even one single, and things look different. They had all the chances in the world to alter the narrative.

3. Justin Verlander Challenging Juan Soto on 3-1 in Game 6

With the game already tied after an Adam Eaton bomb, Justin Verlander played the "I'm Bigger and Stronger Than You" Game with Juan Soto, and his hubris was shoved right back in his face. On 2-1, Verlander buzzed Soto with a fastball up and in, and the kid danced all over it. Clearly, that irked the big righty, who decided to come back to the same spot on 3-1 (???). Soto, beyond ready for it, stomped the fastball all the way to Saturn, earning the Nats a 3-2 lead they would never relinquish. Sorry, Justin. Biiiiiiiiig man.

2. AJ Hinch Pulling Zack Greinke Too Early for...Will Harris?

This is a multi-part gaffe if I've ever seen one. Zack Greinke, through six innings, was throwing -- without exaggeration -- a top 10 World Series game of all time? He was inducing nothing but tappers to the mound. Washington was swinging early. They had no chance. Then, Anthony Rendon sat on a changeup and blasted it, and somehow that sent Hinch's brain off the conveyor belt. He let Greinke pitch to Soto (he walked him, but only because Robinson Chirinos couldn't frame a low changeup). Then, at 80 pitches...Hinch decided he'd seen enough. This was a classic case of over-managing Game 7. To boot, he put in Harris, one of Houston's stalwart relievers, but someone for whom "running on fumes" would've been a compliment. Harris surrendered a homer in Game 6. He did so again in Game 7, and the Astros lost. Hinch, you cannot justify any part of this sequence.

1. An Available Gerrit Cole Sitting in the Bullpen Alone

What a sendoff into free agency! Before Gerrit Cole was the weirdo in the Boras Corp hat spouting robotic talking points about how he wasn't an Astro anymore and therefore must never have appeared in this series, he was doing an excellent 2016 Zack Britton impression in Houston's bullpen. The unhittable ace was available for a short spurt, at least, in Game 7, but Hinch didn't call his number. After the game had already been boxed up and lost, Hinch claimed he didn't want to go to Cole unless he had a chance to win and close out the game. You...you mean a situation like being up 2-1 in the seventh? You imbecile? There are mistakes, and then there are unjustifiable mistakes. From the seventh inning on Wednesday night, after John Smoltz praised him for adjusting his game plan (leaving Greinke...in, I guess?), Hinch did nothing right. Now he has to stew in it.