ATLANTA — 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.
It’s been a storybook journey for the 2021 Braves, whose route to avenging their NLCS ousting a year ago went nothing like they could’ve imagined in March.
Their season started in Philadelphia, where the Braves were swept. They stayed below .500 until Aug. 6. During that frustrating stretch, they lost several key contributors. Their chances at a fourth consecutive division crown seemed toast.
But that’s the charm in these Braves. No matter how bleak the situation appears, they had an answer for it.
Young ace Mike Soroka never returned as expected. Catcher Travis d’Arnaud missed several months, forcing the Braves to go on a maddening catching carousel. Outfielder Marcell Ozuna was injured then arrested on domestic-violence charges, ending his season. MVP candidate Ronald Acuna tore his ACL one day before the All-Star break. Early season star Huascar Ynoa broke his hand punching a bench. Every starter except Charlie Morton landed on the injured list.
The recurring thought for months: Sometimes it’s just not your year. Yet it turned out, after years upon years of postseason failures, this was the Braves team that figured it out. This was even the one that didn’t blow the 3-1 lead, separating itself from recent Atlanta sports history.
General manager Alex Anthopoulos executed one of the greatest trade deadlines in MLB history. In July, he reshaped his roster with outfielders Joc Pederson, Jorge Soler, Rosario and Adam Duvall. It didn’t just save his team’s season; it helped turn a middling team into a pennant winner.
The Braves went 34-18 across August and September. They surged past the fading Mets and perpetually mediocre Phillies to win their fourth consecutive NL East crown. Their 88 wins were tied for the fewest in franchise history for a division winner.
That didn’t matter. As Anthopoulos stressed at the trade deadline, you just have to get into the tournament and anything can happen.
This was better than an 88-win team after the trade deadline, as the postseason showed. The Braves faced the 95-win Brewers in their Division Series. They dropped Game 1 — giving them their necessary adversity — then won three straight, including a thriller in Game 4, to advance.
Meanwhile, the 107-win Giants and 106-win Dodgers squared off on the other end of the bracket. The Dodgers prevailed, setting up an NLCS rematch from a year ago, when the Braves blew a 3-1 lead to Los Angeles at the neutral Texas site then. The Dodgers went on to win their first title since 1988.
These Braves proved they’re better than the team before them. They had home-field advantage, a benefit awarded to division winners — which the Dodgers weren’t — and won the first two games on walk-off hits.
That sent them to Los Angeles, a house of horrors over the past decade. The theme continued in Game 3, when the Braves blew a 5-2 lead late and saw a team “dead in the water,” according to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, suddenly find life. It appeared they could be in danger of doing what Atlanta teams often do.
As these Braves have shown, they can’t be compared with any other club. They responded to their missed opportunity in Game 3 by walloping the Dodgers in Game 4. The Dodgers, as one would expect from the champions, didn’t go quietly. They crushed the Braves, 11-2, in Game 5, forcing the series back to Atlanta.
“#KillTheNarrative,” the Braves tweeted. They embraced Atlanta sports’ track record, then backed up their words. This time, the Braves didn’t blow a 3-1 lead. They didn’t even let it reach a Game 7.
Ian Anderson, who started Game 7 against the Dodgers last year, allowed one run over four innings. His offense backed him up and he won the latest biggest game in his career this time. Anderson started the team’s division-clinching win and Game 7 this season.
Rosario was named NLCS MVP. His 14 hits included three home runs, and he had nine RBIs. He homered twice in Game 4, helping the Braves gain a 3-1 series advantage. His home run Saturday was the difference in the deciding contest.
The Dodgers’ best scoring chance was the seventh. The Dodgers had three consecutive hits off Luke Jackson, cutting their deficit to 4-2 with runners at second and third. Enter Tyler Matzek, who struck out Albert Pujols, Steven Souza and Mookie Betts. Matzek has come through countless times during the Braves’ run — eight of his nine postseason appearances were scoreless and he’s appeared in all but one contest — but none were more crucial than Saturday.
That this Braves team, flawed, frustrated, and wounded for so much of the year, was the one to achieve what so many before it couldn’t, is a testament to baseball’s beauty and randomness. As AJC columnist Mark Bradley worded it: This isn’t the best Braves team, but it might be the right one.
No Acuna. No Ozuna. No Soroka. None of the Braves’ starting outfielders in the NLCS were on their opening-day roster. The makeshift group is now four wins from immortality.
