A fast start for Braves
Atlanta overpowers Astros with early surge; Morton breaks leg
HOUSTON — A healthy swing by Jorge Soler powered the Atlanta Braves to a smashing start in the World Series.
Making his first start since testing positive for COVID-19, Soler became the first player to begin a World Series with a home run and the Braves, despite the loss of pitcher Charlie Morton to a broken leg, hushed the Houston Astros 6-2 on Tuesday night in Game 1.
Boosted by a strong bullpen effort, a two-run homer by Adam Duvall and a late sacrifice fly from Freddie Freeman, the Braves coasted in their first Series appearance since Chipper Jones and their Big Three aces ascended in 1999.
“We’ve been through a lot this year. And I say that just in the 2 1/2 months that I’ve been here,” Duvall said. “But you know, guys gotta step up. We need everybody at this point in the season. We know this is a grind. This is a point in the season where nobody’s probably 100%, and we need everybody.”
Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and the Astros mostly looked lost at the plate. This is their third World Series in five seasons — and first since their illegal sign-stealing scheme was revealed.
Before the game, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said there were plenty of sleuths monitoring the dugouts, clubhouse and stands to guard against any possible shenanigans.
“There’s a lot more people watching what goes on as a result of the issues that we’ve had,” he said.
Soler’s no-doubt jolt into the left-field seats on Framber Valdez’s third pitch quickly took all the juice out of Minute Maid Park, quieting a boisterous crowd.
Fresh off dispatching the defending World Series champion Dodgers in the playoffs, the Braves weren’t done, either.
Moments later, Ozzie Albies stole a base and Austin Riley hit an RBI double, taking a rare swing at a 3-0 pitch.
Soler added an RBI grounder in the second and when Duvall launched a tworun homer, it was 5-0 and the Braves had made even more October history — the only team to score in each of the first three innings in a World Series opener.
But baseball can be a fickle game, and
an Astros’ player. He announced his retirement after the World Series. He was named as manager in November 2019 by the Mets. (We note, not for the first time, that the Mets never get anything right.) When he was identified by MLB as a leader in the Astros’ grand theft of signage, he and the Mets parted ways.
The reason no still-active players were penalized was because MLB agreed to a deal with its players’ union, trading immunity for answers. Hinch lost his job — he’s now managing the Detroit Tigers — because he, not being a player, had no such union. Luhnow sued the Astros. The case never went to trial, Luhnow and the Astros announcing they’d reconciled their differences. He’s still out of baseball.
As for the current Astros: They bear a strong resemblance to the Astros of 2017. Jim Crane stills owns the team. Jose Altuve stills plays second base. Carlos Correa remains the shortstop. Alex Bregman holds down third. Yuli Gurriel is the first baseman.
Crane told USA Today last week: “We got it pinned on us. We owned it. We took the penalty and we’re past that now.”
In other words, the team that stole signs en route to a championship — Adams couldn’t find evidence of sign-stealing in the 2017 postseason — has suffered enough, although the beneficiaries of the trashcanbanging haven’t suffered much beyond the hurt feelings that come from being heckled on the road, and even that experience was deferred. The COVIDshortened 2020 irregular season was staged without fans. The Astros got earfuls of this year, but sometimes, as G.K. Chesterton averred, justice delayed is justice denied.
Adams identifies George Springer and Marwin Gonzalez as the recipients of the most trashcan bangs. Springer is with the Toronto Blue Jays. Gonzalez has since done stints with Minnesota and Boston; he re-signed with Houston but hasn’t played this postseason. Adams lists Gonzalez as having had 136 at-bats with “correct bangs,” Springer with 131. Bregman had 125. Altuve, the face of the franchise, received 19. Some believe he opted out of the chicanery. Others think he might have gone so far as to wear a buzzer under his jersey to tip pitches.
The MVP of the 2021 ALCS was Yordan Alvarez, who made his Astros debut in 2019. Michael Brantley signed with Houston in December 2018. Can’t lump them with the cheaters. Nor can we summon outrage for the Houston pitchers, the whole point of the trash can having been to warn hitters as to what manner of pitch — fastball or off-speed — was coming. Dusty Baker has managed the Astros the past two seasons, and he’s a former Brave who was a close friend of Hank Aaron’s. He’s also among the nicest men in the world.
If we’re going to hate the Astros — “hate” is a strong word, and we use it only in the trivial context of sports — we can’t make it a blanket thing. We need to target our ire. Oh, and Brian McCann and Evan Gattis, both distinguished Braves, received 41 and 67 “correct bangs” as 2017 Astros, respectively.
We can’t say the Astros didn’t know what they were doing, though MLB penalized Luhnow for not having made it clearer that stealing signs via electronic means — the trashcan was the blunt end of the plot — was impermissible. (Stealing of signs via the naked eye remains A-OK.) Baseball has a tradition, from spitballs to corked bats to PEDs to the more contemporary application of Spider Tack, of flouting the rules. Should we dislike the Astros because they happened to overdo it, or because they did it too well?
I pulled for the Astros in the 2017 World Series. They’d arrived in Cobb County on the Fourth of July and stacked 16 runs on the Braves. They were the most dynamic team I’d seen maybe ever. And here we note: The trash can didn’t make road trips.
How much should we hate the Astros? Cheating isn’t good, duh, even though much of the world indulges. (When last did you drive 55 mph on the Perimeter?) And they did get away with it. Nobody stripped them, NCAA-style, of their 2017 championship banners. And they’re back again, and this time they’re playing a suddenly beloved band of Braves.
So maybe we should only strongly dislike these Astros. Even though we know what we know, it’s hard to despise anything connected with Dusty Baker. Besides, we’re running low on bile. The Braves just faced the Dodgers. Everybody hates the Dodgers.