Major League Baseball

World Series 2021: Astros ice Braves, send Series back to Houston with Game 5 triumph

Updated Nov. 1, 2021 12:06 p.m. ET

By Pedro Moura
FOX Sports MLB Writer

ATLANTA — About 360 bottles of Korbel Brut and 1,000 bottles of American adjunct lager waited, unopened, outside Truist Park’s home clubhouse in the early hours of Monday morning.

They were there in case the Braves wanted (needed?) to douse themselves in bubbly beverages amid a raucous championship celebration before their home fans.

Instead, they’ll probably sell those bottles here next year.

Rather than pour alcohol into their mouths and onto their persons, the Braves packed for a few more nights on the road. The Astros forced this World Series back to Houston with a 9-5 victory in a Game 5 that started Sunday night, Halloween, and lasted into the first morning of November.

Perhaps that’s fitting. All October, the Atlanta Braves’ play on the field had validated Brian Snitker’s every gut decision. Pull his starting pitcher after he recorded one out? Perfect. Move the world’s hottest hitter out of the leadoff spot in favor of a guy who has been sidelined with COVID-19? That’ll work.

But in Sunday’s Game 5, Snitker’s selections all went awry, best exemplified by Martín Maldonado's success.

With two outs and two runners in scoring position in the fifth and only a one-run lead in his grasp, Snitker signaled for A.J. Minter to intentionally walk Alex Bregman, the Houston third baseman who has so struggled that manager Dusty Baker dropped him four spots in the lineup Sunday. It was a defensible choice. Even in a down season, Bregman hit nearly 100 points better than Maldonado this season.

But Maldonado didn’t need to produce a hit to do his job. He just needed to not make an out. And he succeeded, waiting out five pitches from Minter and taking his base while tying the score.

Maldonado didn’t swing once. The closest he came was a 3-1 bunt deke, clearly meant to distract the pitcher. It worked.

"I wasn’t going to swing," Maldonado said, "until I got a strike."

Hours later, Carlos Correa was still marveling at how close to the plate Maldonado stood against Minter. He goaded the wild left-hander to hit him with a pitch, then tempted him to throw a strike. Minter managed neither.

"That," Correa said, "was sick."

After Maldonado’s heroic act of passivity, the game was tied — but not for long. Marwin Gonzalez blooped Minter’s next pitch into left for a two-run single. Maldonado and Correa padded the lead with additional run-scoring singles.

For Halloween, it was a beautiful night at the ballpark. Three days of rain gave way to sunshine and warmer weather. Both teams could take the field for unrushed games of catch and batting practice. This, the Astros posited, was part of the reason they came alive in Game 5.

"The others felt like we were coming out of the dungeon and just going out to play," Baker said.

Until now, the Braves have certainly been having more fun, with their mix of wise veterans and upstart novices. But on Sunday, the Astros’ experience won out, after the Braves became the first team to start three rookie pitchers in a World Series. In fact, they did so in three consecutive games. Game 5 went worse than the ones that preceded it, and Snitker was too slow to realize it.

At first, his starter, left-hander Tucker Davidson, who was not with the team as recently as last week, kept up the magic. He walked Michael Brantley but coaxed a two-strike double play out of Correa.

Then, leading off the Braves’ half of the first, Jorge Soler chopped a ball to third base. Bregman broke back for it, then tried to correct for an odd hop by charging forward. The ball soared past him. After two quick outs, Austin Riley slashed a single into left field, and Eddie Rosario drew a walk. Maldonado trudged to the mound to try to calm down Framber Valdez.

Whatever he said, it didn’t work. Adam Duvall smashed his next pitch into the first row of right-field seats. The Braves had a rare World Series grand slam and a 4-0 lead. They were 24 outs from history — close enough to taste it but far enough to fear it.

Snitker said he’d prefer a big hit later in the game, and Baker said he was happy it came when it did.

Surely, the rest of the game influenced their answers. The Astros halved Atlanta's lead in the second inning and evened the score in the third, after Snitker dared to extract more out of Davidson. That didn’t go well; both Astros he faced reached base, one on a Dansby Swanson error. Jesse Chavez, the night’s fireman, let both inherited runners but no one else score.

Freddie Freeman fought back to begin the bottom of the third, unloading on a sinker that caught too much of the plate. He sent it 460 feet and gently brought his bat to the ground before he took off on his trot. The Braves went down gently from there.

"It would’ve been great if we could’ve kept adding on to it," Snitker said. "It’s just hard to do that."

While the Braves floundered, the Astros glided. Baker tried everything, including Jose Urquidy, who had been lined up to start Game 6. He took down a smooth inning, and Houston will now pivot to rookie Luis Garcia, on short rest, in that game Tuesday in Houston. It was what Baker felt he had to do.

He could appreciate that his gambles paid off, even the unpredictable ones. In what might prove to be the last major-league game in which pitchers hit, the lone successful at-bat among the game’s five was only nominally a pitcher’s: Zack Greinke entered as a pinch hitter. He became the first — and likely last — American League pitcher to record a World Series pinch-hit in the designated-hitter era.

"A lot of stuff," Baker said, "worked tonight."

The Astros will need more good fortune. After two days of bullpen games, the Braves now possess the pitching advantage. Max Fried and Ian Anderson, both fully rested, are lined up for Games 6 and 7. The Astros won't have another fully rested starter available in 2021.

But they might once again have a bustling offense.

Pedro Moura is the national baseball writer for FOX Sports. He most recently covered the Dodgers for three seasons for The Athletic. Previously, he spent five years covering the Angels and Dodgers for the Orange County Register and L.A. Times. More previously, he covered his alma mater, USC, for ESPNLosAngeles.com. The son of Brazilian immigrants, he grew up in the Southern California suburbs. Follow him on Twitter @pedromoura.