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With home runs by Cuban Jorge Soler, Freddie Freeman and Dansby Swanson, the Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros 7×0 this Tuesday and were proclaimed champions of the Baseball World Series by closing the score at 4-2.
Houston (United States) (AFP)
The Braves were crowned in a World Series for the first time since 1995, when they beat the Cleveland Indians.
This was also the Braves’ fourth World Series trophy in addition to those achieved in 1957 when they were based in Milwaukee and in 1914 when Boston was their home.
For their part, the Astros, who are in a World Series for the third time in five years, only took the trophy in 2017.
The Cuban Soler was chosen the MVP of the Series, to become the second Cuban to achieve it. The other Cuban was Liván Hernández in 1997 with the then Florida Marlins.
“Very excited and happy to be the second Cuban MVP in the World Series,” said Soler, who hit three homers with six RBIs, two of the homers to give the team the win.
“Very proud of the whole team, in the way we play. When I got here instead in July together with other players we started to win and we realized that we could be champions,” he added.
The feast of the Braves
The Braves started the party early, since in the same first inning they manufactured three runs per long homer by Cuban Jorge Soler against Venezuelan starter Luis García (0-1), finally defeated.
The entry was started by Ozzie Albies from Curaçao with a single, followed by a ticket to Puerto Rican Eddie Rosario and Soler’s home run, his third in this Fall Classic, the last two to win the game.
The star Cuban slugger not only took the fence but also blew up the left field bleachers in a huge hit, one of the biggest hit at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
Soler tied Hank Aaron (1957), Lonnie Smith (1991) and Ryan Klesko (1995) as the Braves players with three home runs in a single World Series.
This is the Cuban’s second ring as he saves the 2016 World Series win with the Chicago Cubs, who beat the Cleveland Indians.
In the fifth, the Braves crossed the plate twice more with another homer near shortstop Swanson with Albies in circulation by walking, to put the scoreboard 5×0 at the time.
Immediately afterwards, the Cuban Soler received a walk and the slugger Freeman followed him with a double against the fences of the left field and the Antillean registered the sixth race of the team.
The Braves scored yet another in the seventh on Freeman’s homer and Atlanta increased their lead to 7×0. Freeman now has nine career postseason home runs and five of them came in these 2021 playoffs. Now with those five he tied Fred McGriff for the most in franchise postseason history.
“Everyone is very happy. We have been waiting for a championship in this city for a long time and I am glad to finally have achieved it,” said Freeman, who considered that “the records are good, but winning the Series is great.”
“All kinds of things that could go wrong, went wrong and we got through each and every one of those things. This group came every day and worked and worked and worked, and now we are World Series champions.”
The Braves removed starter Max Fried, who was dominating, but was replaced by Tyler Matzek.
Matzek was greeted with an unstoppable hit by Cuban Yordan Alvarez, but fellow Cuban Yuli Gurriel and Kyle Tucker were pulled into the outfield and Alex Bregman fanned.
Fried (1-1) pitched six scoreless innings with four hits allowed and six strikeouts.
“I had to dig deep,” Fried pointed out. “I knew how much they believed in me and I had to go out and make a decent start. I couldn’t be happier to do it together with this group of guys.”
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