WASHINGTON – With a cheating scandal tainting their 2017 baseball crown, the Houston Astros seek a measure of redemption when they face the Atlanta Braves in the 117th World Series starting Tuesday.
The host Astros will send Dominican left-handed pitcher Framber Valdez to the mound for the opening game in the best-of-seven Major League Baseball final against US right-hander Charlie Morton for Atlanta.
Morton pitched for the Astros in 2017 and won a seventh-game winner-take-all World Series showdown over the Los Angeles Dodgers, throwing the last four innings to deliver Houston’s first MLB title.
But a sign-stealing scheme revealed in 2019 showed the Astros used cameras to learn what pitches were coming to their hitters in home games, banging on trash cans to signal batters what sort of throw to expect.