Atlanta Braves Unlikely Road to a 2021 World Series Championship

Randall Blum is a Dallas, Texas-based consultant who helps companies design their workplaces with millennial employees in mind. Active in the Amateur Athletic Union, Randall (Randy) Blum follows sports in his free time and enjoys collegiate and professional baseball.

One of Randall Blum's favorite stories of Major League Baseball in 2021 was the Atlanta Braves rise as contenders. Lacking recognized aces on the mound and star offensive threat Ronald Acuna Jr. out with an injury, the Braves made it to the postseason with only 88 wins.

Led by manager Brian Snitker, the Braves' Freddie Freeman was their most recognized veteran, backed by emerging talent such as Dansby Swanson and Jorge Soler. The scrappy team, lacking a consistent pitching roster, clawed its way up step by step, rising from a sub .500 record in early August to a playoff berth. From the outset of the postseason, the Braves faced additional hurdles, including Soler’s positive test for the coronavirus and a broken leg by starting pitcher Charlie Morton in the first game of the World Series.

After tense duels with Houston in the first five games of the World Series, the decisive Game Six was in many ways a culmination of the Braves' accomplishments. En route to a 7-0 victory, Freeman, Soler, and Swanson contributed home runs while starting pitcher Max Fried was dominant on the mound, notching six strikeouts in six shutout innings. As Freddie Freeman described it after the championship victory, the 2021 Braves “hit every pothole, every bump you could hit this year” but somehow found a way to win their fourth World Series, the first since 1995.