Atlanta Braves Win the World Series for the First Time Since 1995
On Tuesday, November 2nd the Atlanta Braves defeated the Houston Astros to claim the World Series championship with a (4-2) record. This impressive Atlanta victory would come after being beaten (5-9) at home but they bounced back stronger and cruised through game 6 with a (7-0) victory.
Both teams went scoreless in the first two innings until Designated Hitter Jorge Soler put the Braves on top by hitting a 3-run home run in the top of the 3rd inning. The Astros were unable to respond and the Braves were able to plate 2 runs through a Dansby Swanson home run in the 5th inning. They didn’t stop there when a Freddie Freeman double put them in a comfortable (6-0) lead heading into the 6th inning. Freeman finished off the Astros in the 7th inning hitting an 85.5 mph pitch for a home run with that being the last score of the game.
Max Fried started the game pitching and got an injury scare in the 1st inning because his ankle got stepped on by outfielder Michael Brantley.
“It didn’t feel good but it’s the world series so you just gotta figure out how to get through. It kind of refocused me,” Fried said. “I knew it was a big point of the game, and I wanted to make sure I left everything out there and shut it down instead of giving up two, three, or four runs and then be behind the eight ball.”
Despite getting stepped on, Fried carried on and finished with a strong performance pitching for six innings allowing four hits, giving up no runs or walks, and striking out six.
Tyler Matzek replaced Fried for the 7th and 8th innings rallying 4 strikeouts and Will Smith came on in the 9th inning to finish the game.
This would be the first time the Braves brought home the Commissioner’s Trophy to Atlanta since 1995 and the 4th time in franchise history.
When asked what the victory meant to him, Freddie Freeman told Fox Sports, “I’m at a loss for words, this is it. This is everything we worked for. We’re in November right now and we’ve been doing this since February. We’ve had so many ups and downs this year and for us to be world champions that is awesome to hear.”
The Braves headed into the season in early April with a stacked lineup and a bright future ahead of them. Things abruptly went south when left fielder Marcell Ozuna was arrested for domestic charges on May 29, all-star and face of the franchise Ronald Acuna Jr. tore his ACL on July 10, and ace pitcher Mike Soroka retore his Achilles on August 9. The team didn’t have a winning record until August 6, and up until that date, the season was looking like it would be a wash.
General Manager Alex Anthopoulos went on a hunt at the Trade Deadline in July and reconstructed a completely new outfield to fill the void left by Ronald Acuna Jr. The opening day lineup’s outfield consisting of Marcell Ozuna, Cristian Pache, and Ronald Acuna Jr., turned into Eddie Rosario, Adam Duvall, and a platoon system of Jorge Soler and Joc Pederson. All four players were not a part of the opening day roster, and they weren’t even on the team until August.
At the All-Star break, the Braves’ record was (44-45) and Tom Tango of TangoTiger Blogs said, “Atlanta had a 0.3 percent chance of winning the World Series, behind 15 other teams.” Despite the odds, all the adversity faced, they ended up with only 88 regular-season wins, but the team went on one of the most incredible post-season runs in baseball history. This is including a nearly perfect record at home, going 7-1 during the post-season in front of their home fans.
