Mired in mid-season struggles, the Braves had a choice: retreat, or swing big. They swung, building an entirely new outfield – and now, as the dividends from those deals keep pouring in, they're three wins away from winning the World Series. (ShiDavidi)
TORONTO – Shortly after Jorge Soler hammered the third pitch of the World Series opener over the left-field wall, Fox Sports play-by-play announcer Joe Buck detailed Atlanta’s clever pre-deadline remake of its outfield.
Without doubt his four trades this summer were masterstrokes, all accomplished without spending any significant prospect capital: It’s exceptional work and the dividends continued pouring in during Game 1, when Soler’s homer set the tone, Pederson’s base hit helped set up Soler’s RBI groundout in the second and Duvall’s two-run homer in the third, immediately after a Rosario single, made it 5-0 and knocked out Valdez.
An epic 43-19 finish followed, rejuvenating a long moribund franchise, but the moves turned out to be the last of significance Anthopoulos would make in Toronto, as he left after the season, just as Mark Shapiro took over as president and CEO. With some better fortune, the 2015 Blue Jays would have faced the New York Mets in the World Series rather than the Royals, but it didn’t turn out that way for Anthopoulos in his first try at one of the best Julys a GM has ever had.• Game 1 came up Atlanta in so many ways, but the right fibula fracture suffered by ace Charlie Morton could play very big the longer this series goes.
• In terms of gutsy post-season moments, Morton shaking off the Yuli Gurriel second-inning comebacker that struck him in the leg to get two more outs that inning and another in the third before coming out of the game ranks right up there. He threw 16 pitches after the injury, eight of them at 94.2 m.p.h. or harder, topping out at 95.9. He’s expected to be ready for spring training next year.
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