MLB Fans attempt to downplay Houston Astros five years of American League dominance with reminders of the 2017 cheating scandal: "Yeah it’s easier when you cheat" , "1 World Series and they cheated"

The Houston Astros (barring their first few seasons) have dominated the American League West since their transfer to the division. The men from Space City landed in the AL West in 2013 and have proven to be a force to be reckoned with.

In the past decade, the Astros have only missed the playoffs twice as part of the AL West. This run of dominance includes a World Series ring in 2017, seven winning seasons, and four seasons with more than 100 regular season victories.

While the Houston Astros have certainly made strides and have asserted themselves, few were impressed by their accomplishments. The root cause of this, of course, was their questionable 2017 campaign that led them to their first World Series title amidst the sign-stealing controversy. Fans on Twitter didn't shy away from reminding the Astros how they felt about the incident.

Memories from five years ago remain fresh and vivid in the minds of MLB fans. In the succeeding years after the truth was revealed, many questioned the league for not stripping the Astros of their title.

Years later, the organization still gets reminded on every avenue how non-Astros fans despise their team.

Houston Astros fall to the Philadelphia Phillies

In their most recent game, the Houston Astros fell to the Philadelphia Phillies 3-0 at home. It was a no-bearing game for the Astros, who have clinched the top spot in the American League this year.

Manager Dusty Baker used a total of 13 players on offense as a sort of experiment. The Phillies, on the other hand, had everything to play for in this game. The Astros only managed to generate two base hits in the low scoring affair. Philadelphia starter Aaron Nola struck out nine Astros batters and only gave up two hits in a gem of a start. He worked 6.2 innings in the contest.

Lance McCullers Jr. bit the loss for the Houston Astros after issuing one run on six base hits and five strikeouts in six innings of work. With the victory, the Phillies clinched the final Wild Card spot in the National League and in the process, broke their 11-year playoff drought.

Having already clinched the top spot in the American League, the Astros are set to play the Phillies again on October 4.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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MLB fans attempt to downplay Houston Astros' 5-year American League stranglehold with reminders of 2017 cheating scandal: "Yeah it’s easier when you cheat", "1 World Series and they cheated"

Houston Astros fall to the Philadelphia Phillies