It's Time for Atlanta to Finish One

It would have been easy to watch Game 5 of the World Series, either as an Atlanta Braves fan or a neutral observer, and have that feeling creep in again. Up 3-1 in the series with a chance to win a World Championship at home, Adam Duvall launched a first inning grand slam which felt at the time like it might be the death knell for the Astros.

Instead, it was Houston which scored nine of the last 10 runs in the game to stay alive and take the series back to Minute Maid Park. Even after this same scenario happened in this year's NLCS — Braves up 3-1, Dodgers win Game 5 — and Atlanta closed the series out in six games, last year wasn't all that long ago. Neither was 2019 or any other year this century featuring a Braves Postseason disaster.

So I'm saying I don't blame anyone who has had that feeling creep back into the recesses of their mind in the last 36 hours. You'd be ignoring all lived experience to not have it. But we've said all Postseason this team was different. That's still true.

Taking down the Astros in five games would have been a truly monumental accomplishment. They're a great baseball team. That's not to say the Braves couldn't or shouldn't have done it, but it was asking a lot. If you would have told any Braves fan at any point this season that this team would be going back to Houston up 3-2 in the World Series with Max Fried pitching Game 6, they would have been ecstatic.

That's happening.

If this Braves team had any logo other than a tomahawk across its jersey, anybody who had watched it throughout the Postseason and in this World Series would still pick it to win. The history that's giving everyone trepidation is much further in the past than the history the Braves have made during the last month.

We've seen it all. If you're from Atlanta, you know all the games I'm talking about. I don't need to list them again. So let's just go ahead and finish this one. We have the team to do it and that team is one win away from a World Series title.

If the Astros win on Tuesday night to force a Game 7 at home, that's when you can maybe panic a little bit. But as things stand right now, the Braves need one win in two tries and Houston needs two. I wasn't a math major, but I'll take my chances with those odds every time.

This team has answered the bell every single time it's faced adversity this season. Now it's time to answer one more time. Let's finish this one.