Oct 26, 2021; Houston, Texas, USA; Atlanta Braves center fielder Adam Duvall (14) and left fielder Eddie Rosario (8) and center fielder Guillermo Heredia (38) celebrate the win over the Houston Astros in game one of the 2021 World Series at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
MLBBy Matt Clapp on

The Atlanta Braves took down the Houston Astros 6-2 in Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park. Here are our main takeaways from the Braves’ victory:

Braves’ offense wastes no time

The Atlanta Braves — winners of “only” 88 games in the 2021 regular season — took down the juggernaut Los Angeles Dodgers convincingly in the NLCS, and they continued to stay red-hot on literally their first swing of the World Series.

Jorge Soler became the first player in MLB history to homer in the first plate appearance of the World Series. He did so on the first strike he saw.

Later in the inning, Austin Riley hit an RBI double to make it 2-0 Braves.

And in the top of the third inning, Adam Duvall hit a two-run blast to give Atlanta a 5-0 lead.

Atlanta became the first team in MLB history to score in each of the first three innings of Game 1.

The Braves pummeled Houston starter Framber Valdez, who allowed six earned five earned runs, eight hits, and one walk over two innings.

Charlie Morton is done for the World Series

While the Braves will gladly take a victory to start the best-of-seven series, they lost starting pitcher Charlie Morton to a right fibula fracture. Morton exited the game with one out in the third inning after looking uncomfortable on a pitch.

He suffered the injury after taking a comebacker off his leg in the second inning.

He threw another full inning — with two strikeouts — after that! Incredible.

But it’s a massive loss for Atlanta. Morton is arguably their ace and has been excellent all season. The Braves will certainly have to get creative with their staff over the remainder of the series, and they’ll need some other pitchers to step up.

Braves’ bullpen terrific in relief of Morton

Well, other Braves pitchers immediately stepped up in this one! A.J. Minter replaced Morton and proceeded to throw a career-high 43 pitches, allowing one run over 2 2/3 innings.

Minter was followed by a scoreless inning from Luke Jackson, one earned run over 1 1/3 innings from Tyler Matzek, and a scoreless inning from Will Smith to close it out.

Getting the 2 2/3 innings from Minter was particularly huge, and while he’ll surely be down for Game 2, the Braves’ bullpen should otherwise be in fine shape.

The series going forward

Max Fried (3.04 ERA in 165 2/3 regular-season innings; 3.78 ERA in 16 2/3 posteason innings) will go for Atlanta against Houston’s José Urquidy (3.62 ERA in 107 regular-season innings; 27.00 ERA in 1 2/3 postseason innings) in Game 2.

Each team should view this as a pretty crucial game.

For the Braves, going up 2-0 with three home games (if necessary) still to come would be huge- and especially when they know that they don’t have Morton for the rest of the series. They’d feel good about their chances to mix and match, be creative with the staff, find a way to win two games in five potential tries.

And on the other side, the Astros of course don’t want to fall behind 2-0 and lose home-field advantage. If they’re able to even up the series, they’ll feel pretty good about that with the Braves’ pitching situation. Then again, (ahead of this series) the Astros also lost stud starting pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. to a forearm injury, so they’re in a similar spot with needing to be creative with the staff.

It’s going to be a really interesting series, and these teams are right back at it in on Wednesday night for Game 2 in Houston.

About Matt Clapp

Matt is an editor at The Comeback. He attended Colorado State University, wishes he was Saved by the Bell's Zack Morris, and idolizes Larry David. And loves pizza and dogs because obviously.

He can be followed on Twitter at @Matt2Clapp (also @TheBlogfines for Cubs/MLB tweets and @DaBearNecess for Bears/NFL tweets), and can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.

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