Atlanta Braves podcast S2E36: World Series review; post-season preview

Here’s our chance to give our take on how the Atlanta Braves pulled off the improbable in beating three favored teams in the 2021 post-season.

There are still people out there believing that their team was better in the playoffs… just that the Atlanta Braves got lucky, or got hot at the right time, or (insert your favorite excuse here).

I have some sympathy for this position. After all, those of us who remember the 1996 Atlanta Braves still feel like they were (a) better than their 1995 counterparts who actually won the Series; and (b) that they let the Yankees snatch the momentum from them despite dominating the first 2 games of that series, and most of Game 4.

There is always going to be one pitch, one play, one call, one at bat, one catch that doesn’t go your way in a series of games pitting the best against the best.

In the end, it’s about which team can overcome these moments and win despite them.

The Atlanta Braves lost their very first playoff game this year… a 2-1 heart-breaker in which all runs were scored in the last 3 innings after Charlie Morton left a pitch to Rowdy Tellez in his happy zone.

Joc Pederson brought the team back within 1, but that game ended with runners on 1st and 3rd.

After that homer, Milwaukee didn’t score for the next 23 innings as the Braves pitching took control.  Freddie Freeman gets credit for the clinching RBI, but it was the pitching that stopped Milwaukee cold and turned everything around.

In the NLCS, Atlanta took full advantage of their home field games, and beat back a Dodgers offense that lead the NL in run-scoring by a significant margin.

In that series, it was a 4-run outburst in the bottom of the 8th of Game 3 — highlighted by a Cody Bellinger homer — that seemingly brought the Dodgers back from the ashes and made their fans believe that a turn-around was inevitable.

Not so fast:  the next day saw Atlanta bust out with a 9-run response to take a 3-games-to-1 lead that ultimately proved insurmountable.

In the World Series, Astros fans would like to note that they had lost their best starter pitcher, Lance McCullers.

Atlanta understands… they lost Charlie Morton on a freak play taking him out after facing just 10 batters… and with no time to plan for his departure.

No matter… this vaunted Houston offense — the highest scorers in MLB — had blown out the White Sox in 4 games, scoring no less than 6 runs in any game.

Then they faced Boston and scored less than 5 only once in six games.

So what happened against Atlanta?  In their 4 losses, they scored 2 runs twice, and were shutout twice.

These weren’t flukes… these were games won by superior pitching.  Maybe the Brewers didn’t have the kind of offense as LA or Houston, but the results were the same.

Perhaps I could make a case for the Braves of ’96 getting ambushed:  their losses in Games 4 through 6 all came either in extra innings or via 1-run victories by the Yankees after a big start by Atlanta.

But you do have to finish, and that’s exactly what these 2021 Atlanta Braves learned so well from their experience in 2020.  A 3-1 series lead isn’t enough.  That hard lesson stuck.

So did this team pay its dues?  Yes.  Did it earn the title.  Absolutely.  They will now wear it with pride in 2022 as Underdogs No Longer.  Every other club will be gunning for what they now have.

A World Series title.

So here’s our podcast, reviewing the series briefly before getting into some early thoughts on how this compressed off-season will go.

As always…

• The direct download link is available here.
• Your favorite podcast subscription site probably has let you know that the episode is available… if you’ve subscribed!
• For your convenience, you can play it straight from this player…

It was a magical season.  One in which we saw a team that simply refused to quit.  Now the challenge will be all about how to put together another club to chase the dream again in 2022.

Congratulations to our Atlanta Braves.  Brian Snitker said it well:  you are champions forever!