Atlanta Beats L.A. to Gain Entry to World Series 2021 Versus Houston

By David A. Avila

The Atlanta Braves will meet the Houston Astros in the 2021 World Series after winning the National League Championship Series over the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games.

Houston had defeated the Boston Red Sox a day earlier to capture the American League Championship Series in six games.

One year after a shortened series due to the Covid-19 pandemic, an entire 162-game season was played out and the result was team after team enduring injuries and other results.

Even the deepest rosters were impacted.

The Los Angeles Dodgers had one of the deepest rosters ever compiled and included a pitching staff comprised of three Cy Young Award winners in Trevor Bauer, Clayton Kershaw and David Price. Remarkably, only one was available for the team’s final game and that was Price.

A trade to obtain another Cy Young Award winner in Max Scherzer along with eventual NL Batting Champion Trea Turner proved not enough to help the Dodgers beat Atlanta. Injuries to the Dodgers throughout the season were not enough to keep the L.A. team from winning 106 games during the season. But those injuries were enough to allow the Braves to defeat them in six games.

The Braves also lost key players such as all-star hitters like Ronald Acuna but a mid-season pick up of Eddie Rosario and Joc Pederson more than made up for his loss. Rosario turned out to be the Most Valuable Player in the NLCS.

Pitching proved to be the key for the Braves. Though they did not have the Cy Young Award winners on their staff, their pick-up of Charlie Morton through free agency to go along with young studs like Max Fried and Ian Anderson was plenty.

The Dodgers aces like Scherzer, Kershaw, and Price were unable to prove healthy enough to compete in the end. And their one younger ace Bauer was mired in legal problems and unavailable for most of the second half of the season.

Still, the Dodgers had plenty of depth on the field despite losses to Max Muncy and Justin Turner. In the end, it was the lack of depth with starting pitching that sunk the team after out-battling the San Francisco Giants in a back and forth donnybrook that went the full five games.

Perhaps the Dodgers loss of pitchers Max McGee and Alex Wood along with Joc Pederson and Kike Hernandez did cost them a chance to repeat as World Series champions.

Atlanta prevailed despite having the fewest wins of any team competing in the championship series.

Astros

Houston won their place in the World Series behind some young pitchers like Luis Garcia that nobody knew at the beginning of the series. The Venezuelan righthander shut down the Boston Red Sox to clinch the series in the sixth game.

The Astros taut young fireballers like Garcia, Framber Valdez and Jose Urquidy to go along with veterans Jake Odorizzi and Zack Greinke. They lost Justin Verlander for the whole season and recently lost Lance McCullers to injury.

Still, they have pitching depth and perhaps the best hitting team in all of baseball from one through nine when playing on American League fields.

Because the Astros had the better record of 95 wins, they will have homefield advantage against the Braves who won 88 games during the regular season. Opening game will start in Houston on Tuesday Oct. 26, at 5:09 p.m. PT.

Starting for Atlanta will be Charlie Morton and for Houston its Framber Valdez.

(Photo by Toledo Blade)