For the first time since 1999, the Atlanta Braves are in the Fall Classic.
The Braves knocked out the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series by a score of 4-2 on Saturday. The series had been a rematch from last season, when the Dodgers came back from a 3-1 game deficit to beat the Braves and go on to win the 2020 World Series.
The Braves will face the American League champion Houston Astros, who defeated the Boston Red Sox in six games Friday.
Atlanta jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the 1st inning after Austin Riley’s ground-rule double brought home Ozzie Albies from second.
The Dodgers evened the score in the 4th with a Cody Bellinger single that scored Trea Turner.
Yet the game broke open later in the inning with a home run from this postseason’s new star, Eddie Rosario, whose three-run blast put the Braves up 4-1.
It was the biggest of Rosario’s 14 hits in the series, tying a record for most hits in an MLB postseason series.
Los Angeles scored in the 7th to make it 4-2, but left runners on second and third with no outs stranded after pitcher Tyler Matzek was brought in to escape the jam.
The Braves will be competing for their first World Series title since 1995, the only championship for the franchise while in Atlanta.
In April, MLB decided to relocate July’s All-Star game and draft out of Atlanta. The move was in response to a sweeping new Georgia law that limits ballot boxes, grants the state legislature more power over the state board of elections and makes it a misdemeanor to approach voters as they wait in line with food and water.
