Baseball Mlb: Atlanta beats Houston and wins the World Series

Twenty-six years is a long time. Not an eternity, not as much as the 86 of the Red Sox or the 108 of the Cubs. But anyone under thirty had hardly ever seen his Atlanta Braves win the World Series. Until last night, when in race-6 the team of manager Brian Snitker dominated the Astros at their home, an unappealable 7-0 that ended the series giving the Georgia franchise the second title since moving to Atlanta from Milwaukee in 1965. Two great protagonists of the triumph: on the mountain the starter Max Fried and the flat winger Jorge Soler.

pitcher

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Fried, mistreated by the Houston clubs in Game-2 (6 points awarded in 5 rounds), was dominant: 6 innings, 4 hits, zero base balls and 6 strikeouts. Soler, who joined the Braves from the Royals in late July and already champion with the Cubs in 2016, with his 3-point home run in the 3rd inning immediately steered the match in the right direction for the Braves. With 3 home runs and 6 valid in the series, he deserved the mvp prize. The 4-0 came in 5th with another home run, signed by Dansby Swanson, a boy from Georgia who has been a fan of the Braves since childhood. The icing on the cake was then put by Freddie Freeman, with a point beaten at home always in 5th and a homer in 7th. Freeman, in his eleventh season in the majors, all with the Braves, has been the flag of the franchise for years. Free agent at the end of the year, he could leave Georgia. If so, he will do it as a champion.

wait

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The Braves had returned from 16 appearances in the playoffs without bringing home the trophy and in August they seemed destined not even to make it to the postseason, having lost fundamental pieces like Marcell Ozuna, arrested in May for domestic violence, then in June the pitcher Mike Sorotka for the rupture of an Achilles tendon and in July the superstar Ronald Acuna Jr. for the rupture of the crusader. The arrival of Soler, however, has relaunched them.

Winning 36 of their last 55 regular season games, the Braves have conquered the Division, beating first the Brewers and then the all-time favorite Dodgers to the playoffs. Super sweet triumph also for the manager Snitker, with the Braves for 44 years, but only for 5 in the role of manager. For the Astros, in their third appearance at the Series in 5 years, another defeat in the final after that of 2019 with the Nationals (when they were ahead 3-2). With the “only” victory of 2017 stained by the scandal of signals stolen from rival pitchers.