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Houston Astros: Know your World Series foe – Atlanta Braves
The Houston Astros took out the pesky Boston Red Sox and punched themselves a ticket to their third World Series in the last five years. What an incredible accomplishment for this organization and Dusty Baker, all Hall-of-Famer who last managed in the World Series 19-years-ago.
An incredible accomplishment by a team that is by and large has been unfairly represented by ignorant major sports media and other fan bases for the past two years. The Astros were able to block out all that noise, bile and toxic anger thrown their way, and now they once again get to represent the American League for the Fall Classic.
Now the Astros are merely on more series win from an another World Series title, but this one surely won’t be easy. They’re going to go up against the National League champion Atlanta Braves. So, who are the 2021 Braves?
Who are 2021 Atlanta Braves?
The Braves are managed by Brian Snitker and are led by 2020 NL MVP Freddie Freeman, Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson, Adam Duvall, and Austin Riley. They have a terrific starting pitching, led by our good friend Charlie Morton, future Cy Young winner Max Fried and the very-underrated Ian Anderson.
The season did not start well for this 2021 Braves – they struggled in the first half of the season with both inconsistent play and pitching and thus spent most of May and June below .500. The Braves also were ravaged with injuries one after the other.
After getting news that Mike Soroka re-tore his achilles and wouldn’t play in 2021, MVP Candidate Ronald Acuna Jr. tore his ACL in early July on a play in the outfield and their season looked all but over.
But then the Braves caught fire in the second half. In mid-August, Atlanta won 16 of 18 to take control of the AL East, and then finished the season on fire, winning 12 of their final 14. They’ve continued that momentum end of the playoffs, beating out the feisty Milwaukee Brewers and then taking down the high-and-mighty Los Angeles Dodgers in a not-so-close six game series.