The Braves entered the 2021 postseason with the fewest wins of any playoff teams. One month later, they stand alone atop Major League Baseball.
Behind a stellar pitching performance and a barrage of home runs, the Braves beat the Astros, 7-0, in Tuesday night's Game 6 to win their first World Series championship since 1995. It's the franchise's fourth title overall and just its second since moving to Atlanta in 1966.
As they have all series, the Braves bombarded Houston's pitching with the long ball. Atlanta out-homered the Astros 11 to two over six games, including three on Tuesday night. Jorge Soler got the party started with a mammoth three-run blast in the third inning that landed on the train tracks in left field, followed by a two-run homer from Dansby Swanson in the fifth inning and a solo shot by Freddie Freeman in the seventh.
The home run by Freeman was his fifth of the postseason, tying a franchise record set by Fred McGriff in 1996.
That was more than enough run support for lefthander Max Fried, who turned in his best performance of the postseason at the most important time. Fried cruised through six shutout innings, allowing just four hits (all singles) with no walks and six strikeouts on 74 pitches. Two of those hits never left the infield.
Fried gave way to Tyler Matzek, who allowed one hit and no walks with four strikeouts over two shutout innings. Will Smith pitched a perfect ninth inning to finish the game and kick off the celebration.
The Braves are the 15th different MLB franchise to win a World Series in the last 21 years.
