Braves capture World Series title
HOUSTON — Most of the season, it just seemed this wasn’t their year.
They dropped their first four games, and soon injuries piled up. They lost their most dynamic player before the All-star break. They were stuck below .500 in August.
Yet out of nowhere, suddenly, these Atlanta Braves transformed themselves and took off.
Jorge Soler, Freddie Freeman and the Braves breezed to their first World Series championship since 1995, hammering the Houston Astros 7-0 on Tuesday night in Game 6.
“We hit every problem, every bump you could possibly hit this year,” Freeman
said. “Injuries, every single kind of thing that could have happened, that could go wrong, went wrong, and we overcame every single one of those things.”
How proud The Hammer himself would’ve been.
Max Fried threw six dominant innings in the signature pitching performance of the Series. Soler, a July acquisition who tested positive for COVID-19 in the playoffs, backed him early with a monster three-run shot for his third homer against the Astros.
Freeman hit an RBI double and then punctuated the romp with a solo home run in the seventh that made it 7-0.
By then, it was a total team effort. Ailing star Ronald Acuña Jr., the dynamo of Atlanta’s future, bounded from the dugout to join the celebration for Freeman, the longtime face of the franchise.
A mere afterthought in the summer heat among the land of the Giants, White Sox and Dodgers, but magnificent in the Fall Classic.
Soler tapped his heart twice before beginning his home run trot after connecting off rookie Luis Garcia in the third inning, sending the ball flying completely out of Minute Maid Park and clinching the Series MVP award.
Dansby Swanson also homered and by the final out, nothing could stop them. Not a broken leg sustained by starter Charlie Morton in the World Series opener. Not a big blown lead in
of the season. Jones sees it readily on film.
“They’re big and pretty,” Jones said. “They’ve got some kids that look really good. They’re athletic and they can run. I think they’ve kind of had the injury bug, but they’ve always been good. They’ve had a good program for the most part and I’m looking forward to the challenge. Hopefully we can come out with the win.”
The running back is Joe Moss, who has made the offense work this year with his 1,582 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns. The rest of the offense has rushed for under 500 yards and scored four touchdowns.
Defensively, the unit is led by Jaylon Townes, who has 111 tackles in 10 games with a team-high 15 tackles for loss and seven sacks. Dtrevion Parker has 99 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and five sacks himself.