The Atlanta Braves are your World Series champions.
With a 7-0 blowout win over the Astros in Game 6 of the World Series, the Braves clinched their first World Series title since 1995.
Behind Max Fried’s six shutout innings, Jorge Soler, Dansby Swanson, and Freddie Freeman hit monster home runs. The bullpen then made those early runs stand up with three scoreless innings of their own.
“We hit every pothole, every bump you could possibly hit this year, and somehow the car still made it onto the other side,” said Freeman. “We’ve been the best team since the Trade Deadline, and we played like it all the way into the postseason. We just got hot, and we just carried it over.”
Indeed, the Braves had their struggles in 2021. Mike Soroka re-tore his achilles and was forced to sit out all of 2021. Marcell Ozuna was shelved for the season after being suspended for domestic violence, and Ronald Acuna Jr. tore his ACL. The baseball world had every reason to believe the season was toast.
But things changed at the Trade Deadline. Atlanta acquired outfielders Adam Duvall, Jorge Soler, Eddie Rosario, and Joc Pederson to make up for the losses of Acuna and Ozuna. Even after that, they were still three games below .500 in early August and hadn’t been over that mark all season.
But they got hot and ultimately seized first-place in a weak NL East division. They took advantage of the Mets second-half swoon and pulled away with their fourth straight division title, doing so with just 88 wins in the regular season.
There were also injuries in the postseason that could have derailed them. Jorge Soler missed the NLCS due to COVID, and Charlie Morton broke his leg in Game 1 of the World Series. But nothing stopped these Braves.
“Guys that are in baseball, that’s what we do,” said manager Brian Snitker. “We fight through adversaries. We grind. After a while, it’s what you do. It’s not who you are, it’s what you do.”
And the Braves did the unthinkable. Snitker, who has been in the Braves organization for 45 years, finally gets a ring. And the recent string of postseason heartache has been put to rest.
Atlanta was up 3-1 in last year’s NLCS against the Dodgers before falling in the final three games and watching Los Angeles go to the World Series. In 2019, they allowed 10 first inning runs to the Cardinals in Game 5 of the NLDS and lost 13-1.
All of that is now just a memory.
“Wow, it’s been broken, I guess it’s been broken,” Dansby Swanson said of the so-called “Atlanta Curse.” “We’re coming back home as World Series champions.
And now, Atlanta fans can let out a sigh of relief. The drought has finally ended. The Braves are World Champs.
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