The World Series Review
by Commission Jonaie
by Commission Jonaie
The fans in the stands erupt as Freddie Freeman, the Atlanta Braves 1st baseman, catches the final out of the 2021 World Series. The Atlanta Braves have just won the 2021 World Series. The Atlanta Braves were facing off against the not-so-favorite Houston Astros. The Atlanta Braves took the Houston Astros to 6 games and beat them to end the series 4-2. But let’s rewind before the whole world series went down.
We’ll start off with the winners of the World Series, the Atlanta Braves, and recap their whole season a little. The Atlanta Braves finished the season with a 88-73 record and finished first in the NL East. But they didn’t really get off to a good start in the first half of the season. At the All-Star Breakthe team was already sitting on a 44-45 record which didn’t really help. And on top of that, one of their star players, Ronald Acuna Jr., had suffered a horrible season injury. Nonetheless, the Braves were still able to get a 44-28 record after the All-Star Break placing them first in the NL East.
Now we’ll talk about the Houston Astros and what their whole season looked like and review it a little. The Astros were able to finish the season with a pretty good 95-67 record and finished 95-67, placing them first in the AL West. The Astros seemed to have a great season offensively leading the league in batting average and on base percentage. The Astros pitching however wasn’t as good as their stellar offense, but was definitely not one to take lightly. Might had a little trouble with their starting pitchers, but their relievers were able to cover some of the ground to make up.
This will be the part where we’ll review both of their postseason performances and how they played during the playoffs. Both had amazing offenses and just seemed like they were unstoppable with the bat. The Astros placed 3rd in batting average with .260, while the Braves followed in at 4th with a .246. This is both impressive as both teams played more games than those above them. The pitching situation was a little bit different, as the Braves had the better ERA with a 3.28 ERA and placed 4th, while the Astros placed 6th with a 4.44 ERA. What helped the Braves achieve such a lower ERA was their defense. The Braves defense was impeccable and you could tell it was from the way they did their drills before each game.
We’ll be discussing the World series now and summarize what each game was like. Before the start of the game and the fans finally figured out who was gonna be in the world series, the Atlanta Braves were clearly already the fan favorite and called “America’s Team”. This was caused by the huge cheating scandal that the Houston Astros had in the 2017 regular and postseason. The Astros somehow seemed to get away with it anyway, as they were punished with a $5 million dollar fine and stripped of their 2020 and 2021 first round picks.
But enough of that, and we’ll get into it. Game 1 started off with major slugging on the Braves offense. Jorge Soler started off the world series with a deep bomb, Adam Duvall would also hit a home run later on that game too. The game ended 6-2 as the Braves would take this one. In game 2, it seemed the roles were flipped as Jose Siri led the team offensively and Jose Altuve would hit a home-run in the game. The Astros would take game 2, 7-2 and tie the series up. Game 3 looked like a defensive and pitching show. No runs were really able to score due to both teams' defense and pitching. That would go on for a while until Travis D'arnaud hit a homerun. The game ended up going to the Braves as they took the series to 2-1. Game 4 was a must-needed win for the Astros, but Dansby Swanson and Jorge Soler back to back homeruns put it away and caused the Braves to take that game and be up 3-1. Game 5 started off amazingly as Adam Duvall hit a grand slam to lead the game in the first inning alone. But the Astros would somehow amazingly come back to take game 5, bringing the series to a 3-2 lead for the Braves. Tensions were rising as the Astros were looking to force a game 7, while the Braves were looking to finally put an end to the series. Soler started off the game continuing his offensive hot streak by sending the ball out of the park with an amazing homerun. Dansby and Freddie Freeman would also contribute and would both hit a homerun too. The pitching on the Braves also contributed massively too, as Max Fried struck out 6 hitters in 6 innings only allowing 4 hits the entire game. The Braves would win this game 7-0.
In the end, The Atlanta Braves would become the 2021 World Series Winner. Shortly after winning, Jorge Soler was crowned the World Series MVP after the game and was clearly a no doubter. The fan favorites, the Atlanta Braves, were able to achieve their goal, despite major setbacks and people predicting what they thought of them. There was even a prediction for the chances that the Braves were gonna win the World Series on July 13th, putting those odds at 0.3%. Nonetheless the Braves were still able to win and claim the prize of being called the 2021 World Series Champions.