Freddie, Eddie, and Snit, oh my: Braves take care of business and the Dodgers
A 22-year-old monkey knocked from Braves’ backs
Led by an unlikely hero, the Atlanta Braves are heading back to a place that used to be so familiar to them.
The World Series.
Eddie Rosario capped a remarkable NL Championship Series with a three-run homer, sending the Braves to the biggest stage of all with a 4-2 victory over the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday night.
One really hot MVP bat
Eddie Rosario talked the other day about his lucky lumber, a 33 1/2-inch, 31-ounce Louisville Slugger that started to heat up with a four-hit night in mid-September.
“I’ve been using that bat that I hit for the cycle with and it has not disappointed,” he said through a translator after his second four-hit game of the NL Championship Series. “Man, this bat has not let me down yet.”
Sweet revenge
Atlanta is still seething that Major League Baseball stripped the All-Star Game away from their beloved city this summer.
Well, politics or not, there’s absolutely nothing MLB can do to stop Atlanta now.
Atlanta will host the World Series for the first time since 1999.
The Braves knocked off the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-2, winning the National League pennant Saturday night.
It was sweet revenge, Southern style, with a sellout crowd of 43,060 at Truist Park loving every minute.
Odds-defying season rolls on
The season that wasn’t turned into the October that finally was.
After a two-decade absence, the Braves are back in the World Series for the first time this millennium. They eliminated the reigning champion Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, capped by a 4-2 victory in Game 6 on Saturday in front of 43,060 fans at Truist Park.
These Braves defied the odds every step of the way. This time, it was one of their July newcomers, Eddie Rosario, who put the team into the Fall Classic. Rosario had perhaps the greatest series in Braves history, collecting 14 hits. He appropriately delivered the big blow Saturday, smashing a three-run homer off Walker Buehler to put the Braves ahead for good.
Scherzer watches, Buehler struggles
Baseball’s biggest payroll couldn’t buy the Los Angeles Dodgers another championship.
Certainly not with so many high-priced expenditures stuck on the bench when it mattered most.
The defending World Series champion Dodgers couldn’t pull off a repeat. Saturday night’s 4-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series ended the Dodgers’ streak of seven consecutive postseason wins in elimination games.
Max Scherzer watched helplessly from the dugout, unable to go in Game 6 as planned because of lingering fatigue in his powerful right arm. Clayton Kershaw, Max Muncy and Justin Turner were also spectators due to injuries, a combined 12 All-Star Games between them.
Matzek was magic
While Braves outfielder Eddie Rosario will rightly be remembered as the hero -- and MVP -- of the 2021 NLCS, the decisive Game 6 featured a second Atlanta savior. That was lefty reliever Tyler Matzek.
Dodgers pay the price with failed Series bid
Rosario gave the Braves so much
Scherzer’s relief appearance cost LA
Column: And it was a brutal decision, a Buckner-esque botch
This was the management equivalent of Bill Buckner’s blunder at first base, of Willie Davis’ three errors in center field, or Steve Bartman’s gaffe down the left-field line.
Actually, this was worse.
106-win, $267 million Dodgers go home
‘Braves Country is a real thing’
Column: Season, injured cornerstone too much for Dodgers
A really early look at Braves-Astros
Freddie Freeman swinging onto baseball’s biggest stage for the first time, Jose Altuve & Co. back for more. Luis Garcia, Framber Valdez and a fresh set of Houston arms facing Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley and these eager, young Atlanta bats.
And the endless quest for Mr. Dusty Baker.
Braves-Astros, a lot to savor in this World Series — even a family faceoff. Atlanta manager Brian Snitker’s son, Troy, is a Houston hitting coach.
“It’s like the Snitkers are going to have a World Series trophy in their house here,” dad said Saturday night. “I don’t know who is going to own it, but we’re going to have one. So that’s a pretty cool thing, too.”