When the Astros won the World Series in 2017, the city exploded with pride. Some Houstonians claimed it was due to the team’s hitting. Some said it was the pitching. Or the way the team carried a hurricane-ravaged city on their shoulders, wearing uniforms patched with the declaration “Houston Strong.”

But there’s a tiny corner of Montrose that knew the true secret ingredient in the Astros’ historic success that year: “It’s the cakes.”

That's the familiar refrain that buzzed around Facebook as the Astros engaged the Dodgers in a tense, yes!/no! momentum-shifting seven-game scrap to eventually win the team's first-ever Commissioner's Trophy. Janet Roush Flood’s cakes to be exact. She’d made several for Astros players. And to Flood’s surprise, when they ate her cakes, they hit home runs. Even more so than usual.

Maybe this sounds a little superstitious. Maybe it was the hitting and the pitching. But in baseball, you can’t snub your nose at cosmic coincidences. And so Roush Flood spent this week in her kitchen, making a slew of good luck cakes for Houston’s baseball team to deliver Thursday, allowing the players a chance to chow down before the opening pitch of the Astros’ postseason on Friday.

The first cake was happenstance. Roush Flood and her husband, Charles Flood, met Marwin González’s family as soon as they moved into the neighborhood. Neighborly conversations evolved into friendship, and Roush Flood mentioned that she was a baker. Marwin’s wife, Noel González, asked if Roush Flood could make a baseball-shaped cake for the her son’s first birthday.

She agreed, whipping up her celebrated white cake with buttercream frosting recipe in the shape of a ball, decorated with intricate red stitching.

It was adorable. It was also delicious. And after the González family finished their party, Noel González sent the leftovers into the clubhouse at Minute Maid Park.

“The guys loved it,” Noel González says. In fact, they loved it so much that when Jose Altuve needed a special “smash cake,” for his daughter’s first birthday — the tradition of buying a photogenic cake for a toddler to smash is growing in the Instagram age — he asked González for Roush Flood’s phone number.

“So I made the smash cake, and he hit a home run that night,” Roush Flood remembers.

That didn’t mean much to her. But her husband thought it meant the world.

“Oh my gosh! He hit a home run after he ate your cake!” he exclaimed at the time. “You need to offer them another one.”

The Astros are no strangers to superstition. In July, Altuve got four hits after Jake Marisnick wore Altuve’s jersey in the clubhouse that night. The following day, Marisnick layered jerseys for Altuve, Wade Miley, Robinson Chirinos, Josh Reddick and Alex Bregman on top of each other, hoping to optimize the luck he’d landed on.

But Roush Flood’s cakes have the benefit of being both lucky and delicious. And as Astros fans, Roush Flood saw offering up Game Day cakes as a community service.

“I baked lots of good luck cakes for (Altuve) all the way through the series,” Roush Flood says, reminiscing about that magic autumn in 2017. “And every time I did it, in that series, he would hit a home run.”

She turns to her husband. “Remember that?” she asks.

Charles Flood is a season ticket holder and die-hard fan who made sure he always gave González a lucky thumbs-up on Game Day. So he remembers. He also remembers how Altuve responded.

“If I keep hitting home runs, will you keep baking for me?” Altuve asked.

Of course, she would.

“She made little individual cakes for Marwin, Jose and another player,” Noel González remembers. “But then it turned into all the guys wanting cakes. And I remember telling Marwin, ‘Maybe you should take your cake to the ballpark for all the guys to enjoy. And he just looked at me like, ‘Why would I share?’”

Needless to say, Roush Flood started making even more cakes. But she says there’s more to the superstition than just delivering a cake and hoping for the best. Quantity matters. Cupcakes seemed to have some effect, but weren’t as likely to bring homers as the two-layer cakes she sends out.

Charles Flood remembers an exchange in Altuve’s driveway, while dropping off a cake:

“We brought you a cake before, and you hit a home run,” Flood said.

Altuve corrected him: “No, no. You brought me two cakes and I hit two home runs.”

In 2018, Roush Flood had to largely step away from baking. Her father was sick, and he needed her. She spent that fall as his primary caregiver. The Astros flamed out in the ALCS.

Her father died earlier this year. And when the Astros clinched their division, the Floods realized it was time to get back in the game themselves. Roush Flood likes to think her father would be excited that the Astros are back in the postseason again. And also that his daughter has had a hand in the process.

This year’s cakes look similar to the 2017 editions — a good omen. But there are more of them. After baking baby shower, birthday and smash cakes for a growing stable of Astros players, Roush Flood offered up free good luck cakes to Lance McCullers, Brad Peacock, Josh James, Carlos Correa, Reddick, Marisnick and Altuve.

González is no longer on that list, having been traded to the Minnesota Twins earlier this year. And the Floods are not yet set on what they should do if their former neighbor plays here in Houston during this postseason.

“I baked something for Marwin in the regular season,” Roush Flood says.

She likes the idea of baking for her neighbor in the postseason. But what’s the etiquette on baking for potential competitors?

Her husband weighs in. “If they come here for the ALCS, we’ll make Marwin a cake,” he says. “I hope he hits five home runs. But then I hope he loses.”

The couple laughs, and Flood gets an idea.

“Or, you know,” he says. “We’ll make Marwin a cupcake.”

Briefed of this exchange, Noel González laughed. “Those are fighting words.”

maggie.gordon@chron.com;

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