ATLANTA — Okay, so, Sunday night turned out not to be the night for the Braves.
It sure looked like it for a second – Adam Duvall’s grand slam would have featured quite nicely in a montage of World Series winning moments.
But the Astros hitters weren’t about to go down without a fight, and the Braves pitchers couldn’t shut them down.
But here we are, with Game 6 in Houston a fresh chance for the Braves to clinch their first World Series championship in 26 years.
As the Braves take on the Astros in Houston, we will be tracking the major developments of the night in this article.
Note that this is not meant to be structured as a live blog, exactly – for true live updates we would recommend the Twitter feeds of our reporters Maria Martin and Reggie Chatman – but rather a space for the biggest moments and highlights that occur tonight.
You can find our updates below:
THEY DID IT
The Braves are World Series champions. Can you believe that???????????
THREE OUTS TO GO
Tyler Matzek worked through the eighth, and now the Braves find themselves just three outs away from their first World Series championship since 1995.
FREDDIE
Another home run!
No need to get ahead of ourselves here, but… a 7-0 lead in the seventh inning is a good position to be in. Let’s just put it like that.
Lead keeps growing
The fifth inning isn’t over – Freddie Freeman’s double makes it 6-0.
Adding to the lead!
Dansby has gone way yard in the top of the fifth, and it’s now 5-0 Braves.
Let’s try this again
So, you know, last game the Braves hit an early grand slam and things looked great… until they quickly did not.
Well, Jorge Soler’s third-inning home run just put us in basically the same scenario. 3-0 Braves.
First inning in the books
Despite getting into a jam because of this bizarre play, Max Fried worked out of a scoreless first inning.
Pregame
Here are the basics, which should be fairly familiar by now to Braves fans:
Start time is 8:09 p.m. ET (it’s 7:09 p.m. locally in Houston, where it is Central Time). The game tonight, like all the ones before it, will be televised on FOX.
The big news for the Braves ahead of the game is that Ozzie Albies has been dropped in the lineup after struggling throughout the World Series.
Usually one of the team’s top hitters in the lineup, the second baseman will be batting seventh – the lowest he’s been placed in a lineup since Sept. 18, 2020.