AN UNIMPEACHABLE VICTORY

Astros erase five years of hurt from cheating scandal to claim their second World Series

For five years, wherever the Houston Astros travelled, they felt the fury behind the booing and jeers from opposing fans, and withstood charges that their 2017 World Series championship was tainted by allegations of cheating.

Amid the outcry, the Astros never went away. They kept striving to legitimise their success, reaching the post-season each subsequent year while advancing to the World Series three times since. But as close as they came in that period, they never managed to prove unequivocally that, yes, they could win a title without illegally stealing opponents' signs. Now they can.

Playing at home, where the scandal is rarely highlighted, the Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 in Game 6 on Saturday to win the best-of-seven World Series 4-2, rewarding their loyal fans with an unimpeachable championship to pair with their tarnished title in 2017.

That was the year Houston beat the Los Angeles Dodgers for the Major League Baseball side's first World Series crown. But they were later forced to admit to using technology and banging on rubbish bins to steal and relay signs. In the wake of the scandal, they were shunned by the baseball world, with fans in opposing stadiums demonstrating their outrage by booing and flashing signs that vilified them as cheats.

Winning in 2022 does not change history, but it helps isolate the cheating scandal as a one-time event, not a crutch on which Houston rested their only title.

"It goes away forever," John Smoltz, a Hall of Fame pitcher working as a pundit for Fox, said after Game 5. "To win this one would be the greatest relief in the world."