Land of the Champs, Home of the Braves
The Atlanta Braves are World Champions. This was something that was seen as highly unlikely when Ronald Acuña was lost for the season in July and then Charlie Morton suffered a season-ending injury in Game 1 of the World Series. The Braves overcame all these odds and won their first title since 1995. Let’s take a look back at how they got here.
The Braves came into this postseason as underdogs. Seeing Atlanta in that situation is still weird after all these years, because if you’re like me, you remember their impressive run of consecutive division championships from 1991–2005. Those teams featured the 3 headed pitching monster of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz with feared hitters like Chipper Jones, Fred McGriff, David Justice and later Andruw Jones. These solid teams were managed by the popular Bobby Cox and not only made it to the postseason, but were usually good enough to win it all. Atlanta only won one title when they defeated Cleveland in the 1995 World Series. Two players who had taken a lot of heat for comments they made about 1994 players strike and the fans in Tom Glavine and David Justice respectively, were responsible for the win in the Game 6 clincher.
The Braves’ title seemed like the beginning of a dynasty as Bob Costas famously said “The team of the 90s has their championship” when the final out was recorded in that game. 1996 did see the birth of a dynasty but not with the Braves. Atlanta blew a 2–0 series lead to an upstart New York Yankees squad which would end up winning 4 out of the next 5 World Series. The Braves continued to make the postseason, but their run of consecutive berths ended in 2006. Age and free agency caught up with the Braves as these were no longer the same squads that you expected to contend for a title. Bobby Cox remained in charge until 2010 and Chipper Jones called it a career after the 2012 season.
By that point, two current Braves were already with the major league squad. Current manager Brian Snitker was the third base coach, while Freddie Freeman was a young slugger that had a promising future. Freeman stayed on through all these years, as the star of some pretty bad teams. Snitker managed in the minors and was then given a shot to manage in Atlanta in 2016. The Braves went through one more year of growing pains in 2017 when things finally started to come to fruition in 2018. Atlanta now had 2 exciting young stars in Ozzie Albies and Ronald Acuña, who won Rookie of the Year. Snitker’s efforts were also rewarded as he won Manager of the Year that same season.
The Braves went up against the mighty Dodgers and enjoyed their brief moment of joy when Ronald Acuña hit a grand slam in that Division Series to send the home crowd into a frenzy. The young Braves were eliminated in 4 games, but this was seen as a big stepping stone in the right direction. They seemed to be trending the right way as the Braves repeated as division champs and won more games in the regular season, but they blew a 2–1 series lead to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2019 Division Series which featured an embarrassing blowout loss at home in the decisive fifth game. The next season was unlike any other as COVID pushed back the start of the season and when it finally began, the stadiums were empty. Atlanta won their third straight division title and got all the way to the League Championship Series, where they took a 3–1 series lead on the Los Angeles Dodgers. They seemed well on their way to the World Series, but lost 3 in a row to the eventual World Champion Dodgers. For the second consecutive season, Atlanta had a very disappointing end to their season.
The following offseason featured the rival New York Mets making some big moves to the point where they were seen as the favorite to win the National League East instead of the Braves. This appeared to be what would happen as the Mets were fighting with the Philadelphia Phillies for first place early in the season. Atlanta was inconsistent and was under .500 when the news first broke in May that outfielder Marcell Ozuna was involved in a domestic violence dispute with his wife. In July, superstar Ronald Acuña tore his ACL and the Braves season seemed like it was over for sure. However, general manager Alex Anthopolous looked to fill the holes and traded for Joc Pederson, Jorge Soler, and Eddie Rosario. Their numbers in the regular season won’t jump out at you, but they were productive. However, the best was yet to come in October.
Atlanta got hot at the right time and finally got over .500 in August. Their hot streak along with a free fall by the New York Mets and an inconsistent September by the Phillies resulted in the Braves repeating as Division Champs. Atlanta had overcome losing one of their superstars and another key outfielder and had managed to make it into the postseason once again. As they had won the least amount of games of any of the teams who made the playoffs, Atlanta was seen as the underdog. They took the momentum from a split in Milwaukee and closed out the series at home. Joc Pederson contributed in Game 3 with a 3-run home run. Longtime Brave Freddie Freeman came up big with the game winning home run in the decisive fourth game.
Next up were the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers. This was a Dodger team that was somehow a Wild Card team despite winning 106 games because the National League West Division Champs San Francisco Giants won 107. Again, the Braves were seen as an underdog, this time more so than against the Brewers as the Dodgers had won almost 20 more games in the regular season and had a stacked roster. However, as Chris Berman likes to say: “That’s why they play the games.” Atlanta had home field advantage since they were a division winner and won their first 2 games at home in dramatic walk-off fashion. New acquisition Eddie Rosario provided the walk-off RBI hit in Game 2. The Braves won Game 4 to ensure they would go back home with a series lead and ended up completing the upset by eliminating the Dodgers in Game 6. Atlanta had faced Los Angeles 3 times in the postseason since 2013 and had lost the previous 3 matchups, but they finally got revenge on their fourth try.
Lastly, the Houston Astros stood in the way of a Cinderella like run to a World Series title. These Astros were managed by former Brave Dusty Baker, who seemed like a perfect fit for this team. Houston still had a very formidable lineup, but didn’t have the stout pitching from recent years, especially when Lance McCullers was lost due to injury. Even then, the Astros were favored and had home field advantage. The Braves won Game 1 but their hopes of winning it all took a big hit when Charlie Morton suffered a season ending injury. The Astros rebounded to win Game 2 and now the World Series headed to Atlanta for the first time since 1999. Houston’s pitching was solid as the Braves only scored 2 runs in Game 3 and 3 runs in Game 4, but the Astros went silent at the plate, which was highlighted by the Braves shutting out Houston and holding them to 2 hits in Game 3. Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz are no longer pitching in Atlanta, but it sure felt like it at times with the way Braves pitching shut down the Astros offense.
Game 4 featured clutch home runs by hometown kid Dansby Swanson and recent acquisition Jorge Soler to first tie and then give the Braves the lead in the 7th inning. The Astros couldn’t seem to get Eddie Rosario out and then he helped on the defensive front when he caught a possible extra base hit in the top of the 8th inning. Atlanta looked to close out at home in Game 5 and things appeared to be going in the right direction as Adam Duvall hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 1st inning. However, the Astros offense woke up and came back to score 9 runs while their pitching held the Braves to only 1 more run to force Game 6 in Houston.
Since the Astros had a chance to force Game 7 at home and the Braves had blown a 3–1 lead in the NLCS last year, it didn’t seem Houston coming back to win was unlikely. However, Braves starter Max Fried pitched the game of his life as he only allowed four hits and no runs in six innings. Jorge Soler hammered a pitch out of Minute Maid Park to give Atlanta a 3–0 lead they would never look back from. Hometown Brave Dansby Swanson added a two-run shot to extend the lead to 5–0 as the lead began to look insurmountable with the way Fried was pitching. Appropriately, the last two runs of the game were driven by longtime Brave Freddie Freeman via an RBI double and a solo home run respectively. Freeman wouldn’t be done for the night as Will Smith closed out the game in the ninth and the final out was a groundball to Swanson at short who then threw to Freeman on first base for the final out.
Freeman’s reaction said it all as he lifted his arms and shouted with joy. All those years of solid play were finally rewarded as he now had a ring to show for it. The same could be said for manager Brian Snitker, a man who’d been involved with the Braves organization for 40 years. He finally got a shot to manage the major league club in 2016 and is now a World Series winning skipper. For his efforts, Jorge Soler won the World Series MVP award. The run to win it all was seen as unlikely, but the team that seemed to be dead in the water at one point became the team of destiny. However, when Acuña joins this squad next year, a run to win it all again seems very likely. Congratulations Atlanta Braves, time to party like it’s 1995.
