Heroes and goats: Key performances in the 2022 World Series

There was hero-level activity aplenty in Houston’s World Series victory over Philadelphia. On the Phillies’ side, there were also goat-level performances.

You could see it in the basic data. For the entire World Series, the Astros outhit the Phillies .240 to .163. Astros pitchers, meanwhile, bettered the performance of the Philadelphia staff by a full ERA point, 2.90 to 3.97.

At  the level of individual performance, the Astros roster justified the reputation it earned across a 106-win regular season. Nine Astros players contributed a Championship Win Probability Added that measured out to at least +5.0; only five Phillies did so.

As calculated by Baseball-Reference Championship WPA, here are the five heroes and five goats of the 2022 World Series.

Hero 1: Ryan Pressly, +33.87. Pressly appeared in five of the six World Series games, saving the final two. Among Astros pitchers, only starters Framber Valdez, Justin Verlander and Cristian Javier pitched more innings than Pressly’s 5.2 frames. He struck out five, allowed just two hits and one unearned run. In Game 5, he also stifled the Phillies momentum at the critical moment, preserving a decisive 3-2 Houston win at Citizens Bank ballpark. Should he have been the Series MVP?

Goat 1: Rhys Hoskins, -27.02. The No. 2 hitter in the Philadelphia lineup batted just .120 for the series with three hits in 25 at-bats. He came to the plate 10 times with runners on base (twice with teammates in scoring position) and produced just one harmless single while striking out five times and hitting into a double play.

Hero 2: Jeremy Pena, +16.52. The designated World Series MVP presented a valid case for that honor. He batted .400 with a home run and three RBI, among them five hits and two RBI in Houston’s decisive Games 5 and 6 victories. In the pivotal 3-2 Game  5 win, Pena was the central figure. His single drove in Houston’s first run, his homer accounted for the second, and his eighth inning base hit put Jose Atuve in position to score on Yordan Alvarez’ ground out.

Goat 2: Jose Alvarado, -18.76. Teams these days live and die by their bullpens. For the Phillies, it was the latter. Alvarado appeared in four games, and he was touched for four runs in just three and one-third  innings. In Game 6, it was Alvarado who delivered Yordan Alvarez’ three-run home run that turned the outcome.

Hero 3: Framber Valdez, +12.77. Given the work of the Houston bullpen, it was easy to overlook Astros starters. So let it be noted that Valdez made two starts (both of them Houston wins) and worked 12.1 innings, allowing just two runs and six hits. He struck out a series-high 18.

Goat 3: Nick Castellanos, -17.51. Like Hoskins, Castellanos never could get his bat going. He hit .125 (3-for-24) with 10 whiffs. He did contribute to the Phillies’ Game 1 win, but for the series went 1-for-9 with teammates on base. Fate also dictated that Castellanos would make the final out in both the Game 5 and Game 6 losses.

Hero 4: Bryan Abreu, +11.45. Abreu allowed just one harmless base hit in four relief appearances covering five innings. He also struck out nine. Along with Pressly and Rafael Montero, he helped finish off the Game 4 combined no-hitter.

Goat 4: Aledmys Diaz, -13.64. Not all the sub-par performances unfolded on the losers’ side. Diaz was hitless in eight official at-bats across three games, striking out four times. Trailing 6-5 in the bottom of the 10th inning of Game 1, Astros manager Dusty Baker called on Diaz to pinch hit against a faltering David Robertson with two out and the tying and winning runs in scoring position. He grounded out to end the game.

Hero 5: It’s a close statistical call between Cristian Javier (+9.63) and Yordan Alvarez (+9.13), but the honor goes to Javier. In his two-thirds of the no-hitter, he struck out nine and walked just two. Alvarez delivered some critical hits, especially in the final two games, but he batted just .130 for the series as a whole, dragging down his statistical profile.

Goat 5: Rafael Montero, -12.97. Montero’s overall numbers aren’t that bad. In four appearances covering four innings, he allowed just two hits and one run. But that one run threatened to undo the Astros. Protecting a 3-1 Houston lead in the eighth inning of Game 5, Montero walked Castellanos and Bryson Stott, then surrendered an RBI hit to Jean Segura. Only Pressly’s intervention saved Montero from blowing the lead entirely and being a real goat.