The 2021 MLB World Series finally won and lost today, and the Atlanta Warriors showed excellent form at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and finally finished the Astros with a 7-0 score and won the first championship of the new century!
On this night that belongs to Atlanta, let's look back at the Warriors' road to victory!
An injury-ridden start
The three-year-old League East Champions finally entered the season with a healthy starting rotation, and the young Axe Gang thought they could make a smooth restart after last year's National League championship war, but it all went in the opposite direction that Warriors fans hoped.
According to the data model of baseball data website Fangraphs, the Atlanta Warriors who start the 2021 season have a 63.8% chance of qualifying for the playoffs. However, since the beginning of the season, the Warriors' form does not seem to be on track. With 12 wins and 14 losses in the first month, and only 30 wins and 35 losses on June 16, the Warriors' chances of qualifying for the playoffs are as low as 12%, let alone the probability of winning the World Series is only 0.7% of the draw.
The Axes' downturn in the opening season has a lot to do with injuries, with the three starters on the season opening roster: Ronald Acuna Jr, Marcell Ozuna and Cristian Pache, all with injuries large and small. Among them, Pache was twice on the 10-day injury list due to a leg injury, and Ozuna seriously injured his finger in a sliding base, leaving only the star Acuña to support the team's outfield output. Coupled with the starting receiver Travis d'Arnaud and the ace left throw Max Fried, who have also been absent for a long time, the Warriors who started the season can be said to be not going well.
July 10, 2021, was the most miserable day of the year for the Warriors. Despite winning 5-4 on the day, home star Acuña tore a torn ligament in his right knee during a flying ball chase! This is undoubtedly worse for the Warriors, who are short of manpower in the outfield.
Give it a go and win the National East Championship again
Despite this, by mid-July, the situation in the League East was not yet clear, and only about 5 games behind made the Warriors general manager decide to give it a go. So he first traded joc Pederson from the Cubs to fill the shortage of manpower in the outfield, and before the end of the month, he found his old friend Adam Duvall at marlins, then took advantage of the poor form of Jorge Soler at the Royals to buy, and finally used the Cleveland Indians to clear the salary space while trading Eddie, who was also in a low period Rosario）。
But those seemingly innocuous deals at the time didn't completely fill the void for Ronald Acuna Jr. But it is such a piece of incomplete puzzle pieces that support the Warriors' outfield roster for the second half of the season.
As several wounded soldiers gradually regained their form after their return, the new signings traded in the mid-season also regained their previous skills after changing the environment, and unconsciously the Warriors approached the throne of the League Of Nations East step by step. With a five-game difference from the trade deadline, they announced their return with an 18-8-8 August, and on August 15, they successfully ascended to the throne of the League of Nations East and never looked back.
With new signings and Austin Riley, who broke out this year, plus the usual steady 2020 League MVMs Freddie Freeman and Ozzie Albies, the Warriors' firepower output is always on. It is worth mentioning that the Warriors' own firepower is also the top level of the league, and the trouble in the first half of the season has always been on the pitcher group.
Being able to make a big splash after the halfway point of the season has a lot to do with the Warriors' stable pitcher base. Ranking 17th in the league with a 4.24 era in the first half of the season, plummeting to 3.44 in the third league after the second half of the season, several rotating pillars such as Fried and Charlie Morton have excellent performances in the second half of the season, which also allows the Warriors to soar after the star game to win a fourth consecutive National League East Championship!
A playoff fantasy tour
After qualifying for the playoffs, the Warriors ran into the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Division Series. In a 5-3-win series, the Warriors won easily 3-1, and with a key shot from Brewers Terminator Josh Hader in the bottom half of game 4 and 8, the Warriors quickly ended the divisional battle and ushered in the defending champion Dodgers who reversed them last year.
Dodgers ran out of steam in a die-to-die battle with rival San Francisco Giants in the Divisional Series, which left them unable to replicate last year's toughness. Although the playing line scored 27 points in six games, the chaotic scheduling problems left over from the previous series also affected the Dodgers pitcher base. Finally, with the help of a decisive three-point shot from MVP Rosario in the National League Championship, the Warriors won this year's National League championship with a big score of 4-2 and entered the World Series.
Facing the Houston Astros, the powerhouse of the twice-time World Series in the past three years, the Warriors have few players who have experienced the World Series. However, in the case of the loss of the ace Morton in the first game, the Warriors still used their lives, and the excellent play of the playing line helped to win the opening. The opposing Astros also lost the ace (small) Lance McCullers Jr, and the two teams can be said to be back on the same running line.
This time it was the Warriors' pitchers who won. Facing the same long-range astros firing, the Warriors' pitcher base successfully avoided the Astros' home run to score points, and only Jose Altuve hit two shots in the entire series, effectively suppressing the Astros' proud long-throw ability.
In contrast, the Warriors played the line, the world series MVP Soler who was traded to blast three home runs, the whole team sent a total of 11 small white balls out of the home run, coupled with the efficient performance of the support pitcher group in the series, and finally finished the Astros 7-0 in the sixth game, winning the 26-year World Series championship!
Throughout the season, from the start of the season all injured, to the mid-season bottom, to the mid-season reinforcements to play their own, the Warriors can be said to have completed a seemingly impossible counterattack.
The steady play of the team's main players such as Freeman, Fried and Morton; the emergence of young riley; coupled with several trades before the July trade deadline, it seemed that it was just a helpless move to fill the outfield, but it was not expected that these players would show their might in the most important playoffs. Each seemingly inconspicuous piece of the puzzle is put into the drawing board one by one, but the final result is the most beautiful picture, while lamenting the warrior general manager's divine operation, but also congratulations to the Atlanta Warriors, tonight, you are the champion!
What blessings do you have for the warriors who win the championship? Hurry up and leave a message in the comments section!