You've probably seen the Braves' signature "look" for this World Series. No, not that "chop chant" about which everyone seems to have an opinion. We're talking about Joc Pederson's pearls. The story begins with a local jeweler who has custom-made all kinds of "bling" for Joc over the years, and the pearls were a special choice for this postseason. The necklace created more of a stir when it broke during Game 3 and the jeweler made a special flight to Atlanta to bring him a replacement. Not breaking were the Braves' ambitions to show that they belonged in this postseason. Of this year's 10 entrants, the Braves had the fewest wins (88), and they wouldn't have even gotten in had they been in the American League. But when the rest of your division is a combined 66 games under .500, well, here they are as the number-3 seed. And as many managers have said over the years, it's not about the first 88 wins, it's about the last 11.
If "Family Feud" asked 100 people to name something that shines, the #1 answer would obviously be the sun. The sun's going to be coming up even earlier after this weekend (Daylight-Saving PSA!), so make sure you are on time for an early dose of solar-- er, Soler-- power. You may have noticed that the first pitch of each World Series game is meticulously taken out of play and authenticated to give to Cooperstown, which makes us wonder if hitters are now conditioned to take the first pitch for just that purpose. But somewhere out there is a fan (we hope his initials are not Z.H.) who's much happier to have the third pitch of the game.
Our last post took you through the ups and downs of Framber Valdez's ALCS, from getting pulled in the 3rd inning of Game 1, to coming back and throwing 8 dominant innings in a Game 5 to put the Astros ahead to stay. Yeah, for Game 1 of the Fall Classic, it's back to the other Framber Valdez. Because on that third pitch of the game, Jorge Soler did this. If that feels kinda rare, well, it is. In over 680 World Series games there have been only 25 leadoff homers, and as you would expect, half of those were hit by the home team's first batter, not the visiting team to truly begin the game. The last first-batter homer of a WS game was by Dexter Fowler in 2016 Game 7, which you probably remember for the 10th-inning rally by the Cubs around a rain delay to win their first title in 108 years. But that, of course, was Game 7. The only time in 117 editions of the World Series that the first batter of the entire series went deep is... um... Jorge Soler in 2021. Amazing but true, he's the first visiting batter ever to lead off a Game 1 with a homer.
The Braves do have one of the other 24 leadoff homers, as the home team in 1958. Bill Bruton began Game 2 by taking the Yankees' Bob Turley deep. And four of those home leadoffs were hit in Game 1-- Chris Taylor in 2017, Alcides Escobar's questionable inside-the-parker in 2015, Dustin Pedroia in 2007, and Don Buford of the Orioles in 1969. As for the Braves, they've only begun one other postseason series with a leadoff homer, last year's Division Series against the Marlins (Ronald Acuña off Sandy Alcantara).
So all that for one batter. Mathematically, though, we still have at least 52 more batters to go. And as mentioned, the Game 1 Framber is back out there looking much different than Game 5 Framber. While we're still furiously researching leadoff homers, Ozzie Albies singles, steals second, and then Austin Riley connects for a double. The last visiting team to score multiple runs in the 1st inning of a World Series Game 1 was the Giants in their 2014 win. The 2nd is not much better, with the Astros conceding a run and taking a 6-5 tag play at third instead of throwing to the plate. Eddie Rosario leads off the 3rd with a single and then Adam Duvall deposits Valdez's second pitch into the left-field seats for a 5-0 lead. That also deposits Valdez in a seat in the dugout for the rest of the game. Only twice before had the Braves had multiple homers in the first 3 innings of a World Series game, and in the other cases it was the same player going deep twice. Andruw Jones did it in Game 1 against the Yankees in 1996, and Bob Elliott connected in 1948 Game 5 against Cleveland.
Valdez is the fourth starter in World Series history to give up 8+ hits while getting no more than 6 outs, joining Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown in 1906, Kevin Millwood in 1999, and Russ Ortiz in 2002. That Ortiz game has another interesting connection; it was an 11-10 slugfest between the Giants and Angels, and opponent Kevin Appier also gave up 5 runs and 2 homers while getting only 6 outs. Appier had been the only World Series starter ever to do that until... Framber Valdez came along on Tuesday.
So on the other side, Charlie Morton has been spotted 5 runs and seems to have a, um, "leg up" on the Astros. You've probably seen how this ends. That's a comebacker off his ankle from Yuli Gurriel that most likely (disclaimer, we are not doctors here) resulted in a small hairline fracture that then got worse as Morton continued to pitch on it. By the following inning he was unable to continue and left the game (and the series) after getting just 7 outs. That means both Game 1 starters failed to get out of the 3rd inning, which has happened in only two other World Series openers. Dave McNally and Don Drysdale both had early struggles in the 1966 Fall Classic, while Mule Watson and Waite Hoyt both got pinch-hit for in the 1923 opener. Neither of those pairs involved any injuries.
But as mentioned, the Braves are already up 5-0 and that solid bullpen of A.J. Minter, Luke Jackson, and Tyler Matzek is going to make the last 6 innings of this game fairly uninteresting. By the time their offense is done, the Braves will have the third World Series game in their history where all nine starters had a hit (1999 G3 at Yankees, 1948 G5 at Cleveland), and they will be the first team to have all nine starters get a hit in a World Series road win since the Phillies did that in Toronto in 1993. The lone bright spot for the Astros was Yordan Alvarez, who connected for a leadoff triple off Matzek in the 8th. You may or may not remember Alvarez also having a three-bagger in the final game of the ALCS against Boston. Only five other players have tripled in the 6th inning or later of consecutive postseason games: Devon White (1993 Blue Jays), Mark Lemke (1991 Braves), Tris Speaker (1912 Red Sox), Freddy Parent, and Tommy Leach (both 1903 Red Sox).
We were all set to make another "fried" joke based on the spelling, but Max Fried is actually pronounced with a long E, as in "freed". In Game 2 the Astros freed themselves from Max Fried's pitching by blowing up for 5 early runs and setting up another game that didn't have a lot of drama.
Astros pitcher Jose Urquidy began the game with back-to-back strikeouts, joining Justin Verlander (2017 Game 2) as the only Astros hurlers to do that in a World Series (they've only been in four of them, so #SmallSampleSize). Fried, on the other hand, did not strike out the first two batters. In fact Jose Altuve clocked a double to left, the first leadoff two-bagger for Houston in a home game with Atlanta since Dexter Fowler off Alex Wood on June 25, 2014. He would score on a sac fly, but then catcher Travis d'Arnaud came through in the 2nd with a solo homer to briefly tie things up. The only other Braves backstops to homer in a World Series game on the road are Del Crandall (1957 Game 7 at New York) and Bill Salkeld (1948 Game 5 at Cleveland, which keeps coming up).
That would, however, be the closest the Braves got on this Wednesday. The bottom of the Astros order swung Fried-ly against Max, connecting for four straight singles in the bottom of the 2nd. That already made it 4-1, and when Michael Brantley added a fifth base hit, the Astros had recorded 5 runs in the first 2 innings of a home playoff game for the first time since October 10, 2004, when Russ Ortiz (previously mentioned with the 2002 Giants) was also pitching for the Braves. (Fun fact, the Astros ended up losing that game.)
To his credit, Fried did settle down and retire 10 straight Houstonians before getting pulled in the 6th. But damage done. His leadoff walk to Yordan Alvarez broke that streak and would be the sixth and final run allowed by Fried; the only other Braves pitcher to allow 6+ runs in a World Series game is Lew Burdette, who did it twice in the same series against the Yankees (1958).
Jose Altuve will add to the fun with a leadoff homer in the 7th. Recall his leadoff double in the 1st. He's the 15th leadoff batter (meaning #1 in the order, not necessarily to lead off an inning) in World Series history to have both a homer and a double in the same game, and five of those have been Astros. George Springer, in 2017 and 2019, accounts for the other four Houston games. That homer also tied him with Bernie Williams of the Yankees for the second-most home runs in postseason history (22); for the moment they trail only Manny Ramirez who hit 29. (Again, asterisk that there are a lot more rounds and games now.)
And in one of our famous "random combo alerts", Drew Smyly-- who gave up that homer to Altuve in the 7th-- would later throw a wild pitch and also hit a batter (Kyle Tucker). The only other Braves pitcher to do that in the same postseason game was John Smoltz in the 1995 Division Series against Colorado.
Investigative journalists the world over are still trying to solve the mystery of how Joc Pederson's strand of pearls broke during a game where he didn't even play. Fortunately for the Braves there were other gems being spun.
You may know Game 3 as The Ian Anderson game, but it's not even completely his. This is more of a charm bracelet, in which Anderson and a couple of his friends combine to just dominate the Astros in the first World Series game in Atlanta in 22 years. At 49°, it's also tied for the coldest game so far at Truist Park which opened as SunTrust in 2017 (dangit, banks, stop buying each other). The fans will not be the only thing that's cold.
Oh sure, it looks a little shaky at first. Anderson walks Jose Altuve to start the game, but (a) at least that's better than him homering, and (b) he retires Altuve on a double play. So we get out of the 1st without a hit. One-two-three go the Astros in the 2nd. Travis d'Arnaud is still hot, connecting off Luis Garcia for a double and the game's first hit in B2. That's as many hits as Garcia gave up in the final game of the ALCS, when he matched Brandon Backe's mark for the longest no-hit bid in Astros postseason history. Funny how this works.
Anderson issues another walk to Yordan Alvarez in the 4th and then hits Carlos Correa. But neither of those is a base hit that turns that "0" into a "1". Garcia gets replaced in the bottom of the 4th, in a 1-0 game, in what is not a "must-win" situation, leading to a little bit of blowback. The Astros even use pinch-hitter Marwin Gonzalez in the top of the 5th, and he knows something about breaking up no-hitters. Instead he strikes out. And now the fun part.
Anderson is already at 76 pitches, so the chances of him going all 9 innings were small anyway. At best he'd have been taken out as soon as the no-hitter gets broken up. But Brian Snitker is not even going to take that chance. It's 1-0 in a World Series game and his "gut" said no more. Maybe this is to save Anderson for a potential Game 6 or 7. Maybe this is because that one break-up-the-no-hitter-hit might be a game-tying homer. Maybe this is because that Braves bullpen has been superb throughout the postseason. But despite his protests, Anderson is done. The only other pitchers in postseason history to be pulled from a game in the 6th or later with a no-hitter intact are Paul Abbott of the Mariners (2001 ALCS 4 at Yankees) and Anibal Sanchez of the Tigers (2013 ALCS 1 at Boston). Anderson did walk three and hit a batter, possibly causing some of Snitker's trepidation, but also creating a fun stat line. Scott Feldman, for the Rangers in 2011 WS 7, is the only other pitcher in MLB postseason history to give up 0 hits but walk three and hit a batter.
A.J. Minter is charged with the 6th and escapes with only a hit-by-pitch of Alex Bregman. That's still not a hit. Luke Jackson, can you "fix" this in the 7th? By now the Don Larsen, Roy Halladay, and even Bill Bevens notes are flying. (The first two threw no-hitters, the other had one denied on the last batter of the game.) Nope, the Astros go in order in that inning too. The Braves, meanwhile, have also mostly gone in order, so we are still stuck on 1-0.
It is pinch-hitter Aledmys Diaz who starts the 8th with the base hit we've all been waiting for. Yes, it denies us that third no-hitter in postseason history. It also supplants Bill James (NO, not the baseball analyst) as having the longest potential no-hitter in Braves postseason history. James went 5⅔ in Game 2 of the 1914 WS at Philadelphia, and Derek Lowe matched that in the 2010 NLDS against the Giants.
But wait, it's still only 1-0. One swing of the bat ties or maybe even flips this thing. OR, one swing could also double the Braves' lead. That swing came from Travis d'Arnaud in the 8th, and you might happen to remember that he homered in Game 2 as well. He joins Ryan Klesko (1995), Lonnie Smith (1991), and Hank Aaron (1957) in that club. Alex Bregman will get a cheap single to lead off the 9th and finish the Astros' line as 0 runs on 2 hits. They hadn't posted that linescore against Atlanta since May 8, 2005. And no team had posted it in a World Series game since the Tigers did it against Madison Bumgarner and the Giants in Game 2 of the 2012 contest.
We can't use it as the title and not give you a chance to play the Prince song in question. Intermission!
Was there a point in this year's World Series where you just knew the Braves were destined to win? And was that point somewhere late in Game 4? Um, yeah, them too. But it sure didn't look that way early on.
The Braves knew from the outset that they would go with a "bullpen game" in Game 4, which is a thing that most of the previous 116 World Series teams would never have announced in advance. We're not sure if the Braves knew exactly how much bullpen they would need. And wait, if the bullpen is starting, then exactly who comes in from the bullpen? In, oh, say, the 1st inning?
The most memorable part of Dylan Lee's World Series start will forever be his entrance, which occurred not from the dugout like every other starter, but as a sprint from the bullpen in right field just like all his other appearances. Maybe that tired him out. Jose Altuve with yet another leadoff hit, joining George Springer and Craig Biggio as the only Astros to have three in a single postseason. Walk. Strikeout. Another walk to load the bases. And Dylan Lee's foray into World Series start-dom is over after only four batters. He's the first "starter" to record only 1 out in a WS game since Mark Thurmond of the Padres did it in a "must-win" game against the Tigers in 1984. Kyle Wright, who is an occasional starter, allowed one of those three inherited runners to score but otherwise got out of the jam.
Still it wasn't certain how long Wright would stick around. He gave up two more hits in the 2nd and loaded the bases in the 3rd to put the Astros on the verge of blowing the game open at any moment. But they didn't. Altuve came up for another at-bat in the 4th and yanked a solo homer to the deepest part of Truist Park for a 2-0 lead. You will recall from Game 2 that Altuve was tied with Bernie Williams on the postseason home-run list, so that's no longer true. Given that the Astros have at least reached the ALCS in five straight years, it's also Altuve's third straight postseason with five or more total homers, the first player in history to pull that off.
Despite facing 22 batters and never having a perfect inning, Wright would get all the way through the 5th, recording the second-longest relief appearance in the Braves' World Series history. Warren Spahn went 5⅔ in (here it is again!) Game 5 of the 1948 affair against Cleveland. We should mention that two of those batters were Astros pitcher Zack Greinke, who may become your trivia question of the last pitcher in MLB history to get a base hit as a batter. With MLB contemplating the "universal DH", and depriving us of Bartolo Colón home runs, your only chance to see a pitcher hit might be at your local Angels game when Shohei Ohtani does it. The last one to get a hit in a World Series game was Corey Kluber at Wrigley Field in 2016 Game 4. Greinke was also notable for batting #8 in the order instead of the traditional #9. The only other starting pitcher in World Series history to bat not-9th was Babe Ruth in Game 4 of the 1918 affair. Expanded to the entire postseason, you bring in Joe Maddon's 2015 Cubs who had four pitchers do it before losing in the NLCS to the Mets.
(And yes, hold that thought on Greinke. We know.)
Back to 2021, however, the Astros are still hanging onto their 2-0 lead. Dusty Baker had a fairly quick hook for Greinke after only 58 pitches, although that was equal to his total from his other two postseason appearances combined, as he tries to come back from a neck injury late in the regular season. But now both teams are into their bullpens, and in this case we know who that favors. Brooks Raley gives up a double in the 6th that eventually cuts the lead to 2-1. Then it is Cristian Javier for the 7th. With 1 out, Dansby Swanson does this. That's the third tying (not go-ahead) homer by a Braves player in the 7th or later of a World Series game. The others are only by Lonnie Smith in 1991 Game 4 against the Twins, and Hank Aaron in 1957 Game 6 off Bob Turley of the Yankees. Now we're at the pitcher's spot, so Jorge Soler gets sent up to pinch-hit. Remember how he started this World Series? He might have just ended it too. In five pitches the Braves have mashed back-to-back homers to flip the lead and send the Atlanta crowd into a frenzy. Let's unpack.
We listed the Braves' only other tying homers in the 7th or later of a World Series. Before Soler, their only go-ahead one had been Eddie Mathews' walkoff against Bob Grim of the Yankees in Game 4 of the 1957 affair. As a pinch hitter, Soler joined an elite list of go-ahead homers in World Series history; you can probably picture Kirk Gibson in 1988. The others are by Toronto's Ed Sprague in 1992 (against Atlanta) and Dusty Rhodes of the Giants in 1954.
As for Javier, he's got a place in World Series history as well. Brandon Morrow and Josh Fields-- both of the 2017 Dodgers-- are the only others to give up 2 homers while getting 1 out in a WS game. And only one other pitcher has given up multiple dingers and gotten both a blown save and a loss; that was Arizona's Byung-Hyun Kim in Game 4 of the 2001 series against the Yankees (commonly known as the Derek Jeter "Mr. November" game).
Someone say November? With the Braves on the cusp of a title after that rally on Saturday, Sunday's Game 5 might have felt a little scary. After all, no World Series title has ever been won on Halloween (including late in the night of the 30th), and that team wearing orange wasn't going to let it happen this year either.
Sounds easy. And Framber Valdez is pitching again for Houston. Remember the "trick/treat" combo Valdez gave the Astros in the LCS, stumbling in the 3rd inning of Game 1 but then coming back to throw 8 innings of 1-run ball in Game 5. And we got the "trick" in Game 1 of this series with 5 more runs and a 3rd-inning exit. So the pattern suggests Game 5 should be another treat. Ah, but the baseball gods are taking Halloween off. They're gonna be that house that gives out raw apples or toothpaste or bags of pennies. (PSA: Don't be That House.) This time they've giving out grand slams.
After a leadoff single, Valdez gets two quick outs and it looks like he might be back in "treat" mode. But Austin Riley singles, Eddie Rosario works a walk, and then Adam Duvall does this. That's one of those "king-size bars" that definitely felt the next nail in the, uh, trash can. The only other grand slam hit by the Braves in the World Series was by Lonnie Smith off by-then-with-Toronto Jack Morris in Game 5 of the 1992 edition. The only other player to hit a slam in a World Series game that could potentially give his team the title was Bill Skowron of the Yankees in 1956, and his came in the 7th with the team already leading. Another Yankee, Bobby Richardson in 1960, hit the previous 1st-inning grand slam in the World Series (and remember how that turned out); the only other was by Elmer Smith of the Indians in 1920, a game that also featured the only triple play in WS history.
But the game is 9 innings long. And there's still 8 left. The Astros are going to do some spooky chants, channel some spirits, bang on some trash cans, and combine a bunch of those "fun size" bars into some actual fun. Serving size, nine miniatures. Tucker Davidson is the rookie starter for the Braves who has been staked to a 4-0 lead. Except he gives up a single, a walk, a double to Alex Bregman, and then a sac fly to Martin Maldonado, and it's 4-2. He will start the 3rd by watching Dansby Swanson boot a ground ball, walking Michael Brantley, and then watching the rest of the game from the bench. Jesse Chavez lets both those runners in, suddenly it's 4-4, and the Braves are the first team in postseason history to hit a 1st-inning grand slam and lose that lead by the end of the 3rd. That also gets Valdez off the hook for the loss.
That is, until he puts himself right back on it. No sooner has Jesse Chavez gotten out of the top of the 3rd than Freddie Freeman lofts a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the 3rd and give the Braves another lead. That was Freeman's sixth go-ahead homer in postseason play, passing Chipper Jones for the most in Braves history. Eventually this leads to Valdez's exit later in the inning, and while this has only been possible in more recent times with more rounds, he's the first pitcher ever to make three starts in the same postseason where he gave up multiple runs and didn't finish the 3rd. Between Duvall and Freeman, the Braves are the fourth team in World Series history-- after the 2011 Rangers (The David Freese Game), 1958 Yankees, and 1955 Dodgers-- to hit multiple go-ahead homers in a home game and end up losing it.
Wait, losing? Yep. Still 6 more innings to go. Enter Martin and Marwin. (Where's Marvin Benard when you need him?) A.J. Minter is now in the game in a "bullpen game" that the Braves can technically afford to lose, but he gives up a pair of singles and then intentionally walks Alex Bregman with 2 outs. Except you should probably start throwing strikes again after that. Martin Maldonado draws a game-tying, bases-loaded walk to once again get Valdez off that hook, the first game-tying walk in a World Sereis since Steve Pearce of the Red Sox got one in 2018. Marwin Gonzalez follows with a 2-run single, the Astros' first multi-run hit of this World Series, and the orange towels are a-waving on Halloween as they go up 7-5. It was the second multi-run, go-ahead pinch hit in World Series history in the 5th inning or later of a potential elimination game; the other was Dane Iorg's walkoff to extend the 1985 "I-70 Series" against the Cardinals.
Phil Maton, Ryne Stanek, and Kendall Graveman end up throwing five shutout innings for the Astros while the offense scratches out two additional runs. One of those, by Maldonado in the 8th, makes him the second catcher in Astros history to have a hit, a walk, a sac fly, and 3 RBI in a single game; Alan Ashby did it in Pittsburgh on May 22, 1985.
But we promised you Zack Greinke nuggets. Remember that Greinke started Game 4. After those years with the Dodgers, Greinke's a decent hitter as pitchers go. So rather than "waste" a bench player when Valdez was removed, Dusty Baker elected to send Greinke up to bat as a pinch hitter in the top of the 4th. His appearance was fairly inconsequential to the game. But yes, he blooped one into right field and thus made a little history. The last pitcher-as-pinch-hitter to have a base hit in a World Series game was Jack Bentley of the Giants in 1923. And while technically he does not have a hitting streak "as a pitcher", Greinke also got a hit in that start on Saturday. Bentley was the last pitcher (or pitcher-as-PH) to do that as well; the only others before him were Jack Coombs (Athletics 1910) and Deacon Phillippe (Pirates 1903).
Just as "Soler Power" started the World Series, the sun must eventually set on the 2021 season. And despite that little blip known as Game 5, we went back to Houston on Tuesday with a blue-colored team from Georgia trying to win on Election Day without it causing months of controversy. The only way to do that was a complete and indisputable blowout.
Cue the complete and indisputable blowout. The most memorable play of Game 6 might have happened in the 1st inning when Michael Brantley rolled one to first and stepped on Max Fried's ankle while approaching first base. Back in Georgia, Charlie Morton was certainly not the only Braves fan to cringe. Recall that Morton took a ball off his ankle in Game 1 and was done for the year. So while the Braves staff is worried about Fried suffering a similar fate, the Internet erupted with the opinion that Brantley had also missed first base and the Braves' video room never challenged it. Yes, Brantley is allowed to overrun first base without penalty after he touches it, but not before. But Atlanta does not challenge the play, and it is up to Fried to try and escape "2 on, 0 outs". In the next 9 pitches-- before Fried can tell us in Charlie Morton fashion that he actually has a broken leg-- Carlos Correa strikes out, Yordan Alvarez rolls one to second, and Yuli Gurriel whiffs. So someone in the Braves' video room breathes a huge sigh and doesn't have to update their résumé after all.
Given that reprieve, the Astros can only ponder what could have been. Because in the top of the 3rd, we finally crank up our Soler Power. Ozzie Albies leads off with a single against Luis Garcia, and with 2 outs, Jorge Soler brings the curtain down on the same World Series on which he brought it up. That would be a 3-run homer, joining Ryan Klesko (1995), Lonnie Smith (1991), and Hank Aaron (1957) as the only Braves batters to hit 3 homers in the same World Series. Because we're playing in the American League park, he's in the lineup as the DH. Only two other DH's have hit a go-ahead 3-run homer in a World Series: David Ortiz in 2004, and Kurt Bevacqua of the Padres in 1984. The last Braves batter to hit any 3-run homer at Minute Maid Park was Jordan Schafer on June 13, 2011.
Unlike Game 5, the gradual chipping-away by the Astros was not to be. Cristian Javier replaced Garcia and gave up a 2-run shot to Dansby Swanson in the 5th. Remember that momentum-shifting homer in Game 4? That was off Javier as well. Adam Duvall (in this series) and Bob Elliott (off Cleveland's Bob Feller in 1948) are the only other Braves hitters to connect for multiple homers off the same pitcher in the same World Series. Javier also became the second reliever in World Series history to give up three total homers in a single series, after Byung-Hyun Kim did it for the Diamondbacks in 2001.
Max Fried's ankle, despite getting stepped on, suffered no ill effects. He continued to shut down the Astros for 6 full innings, becoming the first pitcher to throw 6+ scoreless in a World Series clincher since Freddy Garcia of the White Sox also did it in this same park in 2005. Two other Braves hurlers have pulled that off in their history-- Tom Glavine in 1995 and Lew Burdette in 1957.
Freddie Freeman kicked in an insurance homer in the 7th, making him the fourth player in World Series history with a homer, a double, and 2 RBI in a title-winning game on the road. George Springer did it for the Astros in 2017; the others are Willie Stargell in 1979 and Johnny Blanchard of the Yankees in 1961. Tyler Matzek and Will Smith finished off the last 9 outs to bring Atlanta its first World Series title since 1995. We already knew (thanks to last year's neutral-site series in Arlington) that this would be the first time three straight titles had been won in the state of Texas. But it's also the third time that Minute Maid Park has watched a visiting team celebrate a World Series title (2005, 2019, 2021). Only six other stadiums have had that happen-- Yankee Stadium before and after the renovation; Ebbets Field; the Polo Grounds; Dodger Stadium; and Bennett Park in Detroit which saw the Tigers lose three straight World Series from 1907 to 1909.
The 7-0 final was the fourth-largest road shutout to clinch a World Series victory, and the first in 65 years. The 1956 Yankees reclaimed the title from Brooklyn with a 9-0 win at Ebbets Field; the 1934 Cardinals won 11-0 at Tiger Stadium; and the 1909 Pirates hung an 8-0 for the last of those three straight losses at Bennett Field in Detroit. No team had won any World Series clincher by 7 runs on the road since the 1985 Royals went back to St Louis (after Dane Iorg's walkoff mentioned above) and blew out the Cardinals 11-0.
In a year where the Braves family lost Hank Aaron, Joe Niekro, Don Sutton, and others-- plus "losing" the All-Star Game for other reasons which we won't get into here-- they didn't lose the World Series. That means that of the 30 current franchises, half of them have won the title in the 21 years of the 21st century. Who says there's no parity in baseball?
And since we do not say this enough, a huge thank you to Baseball Reference, their Stathead subdivision (an amazing subscription for only a few dollars a month if you're into this kind of thing), Retrosheet, the Society for American Baseball Research, and all the other sites listed down the right side. We couldn't do it without your help.
If all goes well, baseball is back in "only" 148 days. Hang in there.
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