After a long and dramatic season, the two teams that will contest the Major League Baseball World Series are known and the first of the best of seven series between the Houston Astros and the Philadelphia Phillies will take place Friday evening.
Following two very different regular seasons, the two teams will go head to head over the next week or so to decide who will become the World Champions, with the bookmakers heavily favouring the team from Texas to land the overall win.
Remember, if you still have some spare bonus cash lying around in your account after claiming your Bet365 Sport Welcome Bonus using our bet365 bonus code, then the good news is that the site offers an extensive range of bets on the potentially seven World Series games.
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Let’s now take a look at how the regular season and playoffs turned out for both World Series Finalists, as well as a special look at one particular fan who will be one of many millions hoping for an Astros win.
Playing in the National League East, the Phillies endured something of a hit and miss season. Losing almost as many games as they won to finish a somewhat distant third in the division behind the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves, both of whom had a 101-61 record (.623) over the Phillies 87-75 (.537) performance.
That performance was just enough for a spot in the Wildcard games, they beat the Brewers to that by a single win, and in that Wildcard game they would face the third seeds St Louis Cardinals in a best of three encounter.
However, the Phillies needed just two games to land the win, defeating the Cardinals 3-6 in the opener and then wrapping up the series win in the second game with a 2-0 win.
Next up for the Phillies lay the top seeds in the National League, the Atlanta Braves and in what proved to be a crucial opening game in the Division series, the Phillies edged out the Braves 7-6, only for the Braves to bounce back to claim a 3-0 win in the second game.
Tied at 1-1, many expected the Braves to now take control of this series but that didn’t prove to be the case with the Phillies running out huge 9-1 winners in game three and then securing the series with another emphatic 8-3 victory in the fourth game.
In the League Championship series, they would face another team that came through from the Wildcard Game in the shape of the San Diego Padres.
Once again the Phillies claimed the first game before the Padres struck back to level things up in Game 2. However, that would be as good as it got for the San Diego team as the Phillies claimed wins in the next three games, winning 4-2, 10-6 and then most dramatically 4-3 in the final game to earn their first World Series shot in many years.
Hero of that dramatic final win was Bryce Harper who’s go-ahead two-run home run in the eighth inning proved to be the decisive blow to crush the Padres hopes of a World Series shot.
Who would the Phillies face? Well, that was already known given that in the American League, one team had dominated proceedings and had secured their third World Series finalist position of the last four seasons.
After winning the 2017 World Series against the Dodgers 4-3, the Houston Astros missed out in 2019 losing 4-3 to the Washington Nationals, then last year, they were 4-2 losers to the Atlanta Braves, but they now have a chance to earn a second World Series title for the franchise against the Phillies.
They were comfortable winners in the AL West, winning 16 games more on the season compared to the second placed Mariners in that division and in fact they won seven more games than the next best team, the New York Yankees, managed throughout the campaign.
Unsurprisingly, having amassed over 50 wins at home and on the road, the Astros started the Playoffs as the favourites to make it through from the American League, but few suspected just how easily the Astros would progress.
As the top seeds, they missed out on having to play in the Wildcard game so their first series came in the Divisional round where they defeated the Seattle Mariners 8-7, 4-2 and then 1-0 to complete a 3-0 series win.
Next up would be the New York Yankees who were expected to give the Astros their toughest test of the season.
It didn’t work out that way through as once again the Astros were perfect, winning all of the first four games 4-2, 3-2, 5-0 and 6-5 in order to clinch a place in the World Series with three games to spare.
The Astros are a team that polarises opinion, their sign-stealing scheme during the 2017 season is still an affront to many and means that for many neutral MLB fans in the World Series, their support will be going to the underdog Phillies.
However, the Astros start as favourites simply because they are able to win any kind of game, be it a blow out, or a very tight encounter that could switch direction with just one pitch and one crack of ball on bat.
And there will be one native of Houston who will be keeping a very close eye on matters.
That person is Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, a Houston-based businessman and owner of the McIngvale Gallery Furniture business in the city.
McIngvale is well used to making big sports bets. In April he won $15m when Kansas won the NCAA Mens Basketball tournament and he has been known to bet money on other huge sports events across the United States.
At the start of the season, he agreed a deal with a number of betting companies to stake a total of $10 million on the Houston Astros to win the World Series at odds of 7.50.
That would see him land the largest ever winning bet payout in sports betting history.
Additionally, he promised all his customers that spent more than $3,000 on certain products at his store, that if the Astros were to win and his bet comes in, he would refund DOUBLE the amount of money they spent on furniture at his store.
That means, if you are a customer at McIngvale Gallery Furniture and have spent $5,000 on furniture with the company since the bet was placed and the offer opened, then you would get back $10,000 if the Astros do indeed go on to win the World Series.
The Astros will already enjoy fervent support in their home city after their two near misses in 2021 and 2019 and this offer may well make them even more popular in their home city if they can land the win.
Latest Betting Odds With Bet365 Sport
Ahead of the first game of the series, the Astros are the 20/37 favourites to win the World Series, with the Phillies the unsurprising outsiders at 33/20.
Additionally, the Astros are 20/33 favourites to win Game 1, with the Phillies 29/20 to claim a key victory in the first game of the series.
Bet365 is offering well over 100 markets on the game already and with a number of other offers available, such as the Early Payout offer, you can be sure you’ll have all you need to enjoy betting on the World Series at bet365.
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