In game three of the 2017 World Series, Houston Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel hit a homerun to put his team up 1-0 in the second inning. The camera followed Gurriel into the dugout for footage of the team celebration. While the camera remained on him, he reached up to his face and pulled his eyes back to a slant while saying what appeared to be “chinito”, mocking the heritage of Japanese Dodger’s pitcher Yu Darvish.

Photo courtesy of Business Insider

Gurriel, a native Cuban, attempted to rationalize his actions by saying, “In Cuba, we call everyone who’s from Asia ‘chino,'” and “I didn’t want to offend anybody in Japan. I have a lot of respect for Japan. I played in Japan.”

Gurriel’s apology was far from what I would call sufficient, but I am more disappointed with the way the MLB handled the incident. Gurriel was allowed to play the rest of the Series. His punishment will be a five-game suspension without pay at the beginning of the 2018 season. These beginning games are trivial compared to the loss Gurriel would have felt from missing out on the remainder of the World Series.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred stated that Gurriel was not banned from the rest of the Series because that would have punished the other Astros players as well. With this decision the MLB set the precedent that the game is more important than upholding human dignity. I’m finding it harder to love America’s favorite pastime when the values of American society are being compromised in the process. The American political climate today has reverted to racial harassment, and I’m upset that this is permeating other aspects of society, such as baseball.    

The World Series incident does not stand alone. Other discriminatory events occurred throughout the 2017 season. Fans harrassed Baltimore Orioles centerfielder Adam Jones at Fenway Park in May, repeatedly calling him the N-word. A bag of peanuts was thrown at him, too. The fans were removed from the park immediately. In September, a banner was hung from the Green Monster that said “Racism is as American as Baseball.” Once again the fans were removed.

The hasty removal of fans is inconsistent with the lackluster approach that was taken with Gurriel. Gurriel finished the game. Gurriel finished the season. Gurriel won a World Series Championship. If Gurriel had been a fan in the stands, I think the MLB would have taken different actions because the MLB is quick to denounce racism, so long as it doesn’t interfere with the game.

Photo courtesy of Bleacher Report

Game one was a big one for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The first pitch from Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel turned into a leadoff home run by Chris Taylor and a 1-0 lead for the Dodgers. Clayton Kershaw was the key to the Dodgers win. He pitched seven innings that only allowed one run off of three hits. Fifty-seven of Kershaw’s 83 pitches were strikes. But, in the top of the fourth inning, Kershaw allowed a solo home run by Alex Bregman to even the score 1-1. Justin Turner then stepped up to the plate in the sixth inning to hit a two-run home run and give the Dodgers the lead. The first game wrapped up in two hours and 28 minutes, making it the shortest World Series game since 1992.

The Dodgers beat the Astros 3-1, giving the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the Series.

GAME TWO

In the second inning of the second game, the Astros were the first to strike. Multiple singles eventually led to Bregman driving in Josh Reddick to give the Astros a 1-0 lead. The lead lasted until the fifth inning, when Joc Pederson hit a solo homerun to tie the game. Then, in the very next inning, Corey Seager hit a two-run home run to give the Dodgers a 3-1 lead. With a two run lead, it looked like the Dodgers were going to take game two.

But in the eighth inning, the Astros cut the lead by one when Carlos Correa singled to bring Bregman home. The Astros didn’t stop there.

In the top of the ninth, they kept fighting to eventually tied the game 3-3 when Marwin Gonzalez hit a solo home run.

Extra innings began. In the top of the 10th, Jose Altuve hit a solo home run to give the Astros the lead 4-3. Right after this, Correa stepped up to the plate and launched another home run to stretch the lead 5-3.

In the bottom of the 10th inning, it was do or die for the Dodgers and they refused to die in this inning. Yasiel Puig hit a solo home run, just one run behind the Astros. Then, Hernandez hit a single to the right to bring in Forsythe. In the bottom of the tenth, the Astros and Dodgers were tied 5-5.

In the top of the eleventh inning, to no one’s surprise, yet another home run was hit. George Springer of the Astros hit a two-run home run to give the Astros another lead. With the game now 7-5 going into the bottom of the 11th, the Dodgers came close with a home run by Charlie Culberson. They eventually fell to the Astros.

The Astros beat the Dodgers 7-6, and the series was tied 1-1.

GAME THREE

Yu Darvish for the Dodgers and Lance McCullers for the Astros faced off in game three. Darvish was traded from the Rangers right before the trade deadline this year, giving the Dodgers a push into the post season. Astros are in the same division as the Rangers, so they are very familiar with Darvish. They jumped on him early in the second inning by scoring four runs, including a Yuri Gurriel solo home run and two RBI singles by Brian McCann and Gonzalez.

Darvish was pulled in the second inning, making this his shortest outing in his entire MLB career.

The Dodgers had a chance to answer with a big inning in the third but only came out with one run from a Seagar double play. The Astros quickly answered with an RBI single in the fifth inning by Evan Gattis. The Dodgers returned in the sixth inning with an RBI ground out by Puig and a run scored by Turner on a wild pitch. This made it a 5-3 Astros lead going into the seventh. The Astros held on to the lead through the ninth. The Dodgers used six pitchers while the Astros only used two.

The Astros beat the Dodgers 5-3, giving the Astros a 2-1 lead in the series.

GAME FOUR

Compared to the other games, game four was pretty quiet. There was no score until the bottom of the sixth when Springer hit a solo home run, giving the Astros a 1-0 lead. The Dodgers answered in the top of the seventh when Logan Forsythe singled to bring Cody Bellinger home. The Dodgers turned right around and tied the game up. But they weren’t done there.

In the top of the ninth inning, the Dodgers made sure to get ahead plus a little more. Bellinger doubled and Seager scored. Austin Barnes hit a sacrifice fly to bring Culberson home. Pederson hit a three-run home run to give the Dodgers a 6-1 lead in the ninth inning. The Astros tried to come back in the ninth with a solo home run from Bregman, but not much else could be done.

The Dodgers beat the Astros 6-2, and the series was tied at 2-2.

GAME FIVE

The Dodgers came out to play in game five, trying to take a lead in the series over the Astros. In the top of the first inning, Forsythe singled to bring home Taylor and Turner. Forsythe tried to steal second but got caught. When the Astros tried to throw out Enrique Hernandez at home, it was a wild throw. The Dodgers took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first.

The Dodgers scored again in the top of the fourth when Barnes singled, causing Forsythe to score. The Dodgers took a big lead in the top of the fourth, but the Astros came back in the bottom of the fourth.

Correa doubled on a line drive to left field, and Springer scored. Then, Gurriel hit a three-run home run to tie the game at 4-4. No runs were given until the seventh inning when both teams tried to take the lead.

In the top of the seventh, Hernandez scored on a Bellinger triple to give the Dodgers the lead again. But in the bottom of the seventh, the Astros answered with four runs including a solo home run by Springer and a two run home run by Correa. The Astros took the lead 11-8.

In the eighth inning, both teams scored. The Dodgers’ Pederson got a run off a double by Seager, and the Astros’ McCann hit a solo home run. The score pushed up to 12-9 with the Astros leading. But the Dodgers weren’t giving up.

They wanted a lead in the series. So in the top of the ninth inning Puig hit a two-run home run to make it a one-run game. With two outs in the ninth inning, Taylor stepped up to the plate and singled to center field to bring Barnes home. The game was all tied up at 12-12 and going to extra innings. In the 10th inning, the Dodgers came up short with no runs and were praying the Astros didn’t end game five for them. But that wasn’t the case. Bregman singled to left field to bring Derek Fisher in. The Astros won game five and took yet another lead in the World Series.

The Astros beat the Dodgers 13-12, giving the Astros a 3-2 lead in the series.

GAME SIX

Though not as exciting as game five, game six was still well fought. The Astros came out in the third inning when Springer hit a solo home run to give the Astros a 1-0 lead. But, the Dodgers came back when Taylor hit a double to drive Barnes in. Then, Seager hit a sacrifice fly to bring Chase Utely home. The Dodgers took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth. With the Dodgers pushing for a game seven, Pederson hit a solo home run to stretch the lead 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh. There were no other runs in the game, so the Dodgers forced game seven.

The Dodgers beat the Astros 3-1, and the series was tied 3-3

GAME SEVEN

With the Series tied up, both teams forced a game seven. The last time the Dodgers won the World Series was 1988, and the Astros wanted their very first World Series win.

In the top of the first inning, the Astros scored two runs by Springer and Bregman. Springer scored when there was a throwing error by first baseman for the Dodgers, Bellinger, and he was able to run in. The very next inning, the Astros continued to show their eagerness to win by scoring three more runs.

McCann scored on a ground out by Lance McCullers, Jr., and Springer hit a two-run home run on the very next play. The Astros were leading 5-0 and hoping to keep it that way. The Dodgers didn’t score until the bottom of the sixth when Andre Ethier singled to bring Pederson in.

All the way through the ninth inning, the Astros did not let the Dodgers score. Alex Wood struck the first two batters out, and Springer came up to the plate hitting a fly ball to center field, which was caught out. With a quick ninth for the Astros, it all came down to the bottom of the ninth to see if the Dodgers could rally and come back for a win.

Charlie Morton, pitching for the Astros, struck out the first batter, Utely. Taylor then ground out to first. With two outs and nobody on base, Seager came up to the plate. On the first pitch, he hit a ground ball to get thrown out at first. The Houston Astros won their first World Series in franchise history, becoming the 2017 World Series Champions.

The Astros beat the Dodgers 5-1, and the Astros won the 2017 World Series.