3 reasons the Atlanta Braves will win the World Series

The Braves are in the NLCS for the first time in 19 years, but they have the talent to go even further in the postseason

The Atlanta Braves, behind stellar pitching and timely hitting, made quick work of the Miami Marlins in the National League Division Series.

The Braves shut out the Marlins for the second straight game on Thursday, winning Game 3 7-0 to sweep the series and advance to the NLCS for the first time since 2001. It was their fourth shutout in five games played so far this postseason.

Atlanta will play either the Los Angeles Dodgers or the San Diego Padres in the NLCS, beginning next week in Arlington, Texas. But this team won’t be satisfied with just making it this far. The Braves are built to win in October and are capable of going all the way and winning the World Series for only the second time since moving to Atlanta.

Here are three reasons why the Braves should be considered serious contenders to win the World Series.

1) Dominant pitching

Minus their No. 1 starter, the Braves pitching staff is rolling on toward the NLCS.

The starting rotation was a sore point for the Braves ever since Mike Soroka was lost for the season in early-August. So far in the postseason, though, their young arms are carrying the club.

The Braves shut out of the Marlins in Game 3 on Thursday was their fourth in five games this postseason. It’s the first time the Braves have recorded four shutouts in a five-game span since Sept. 30-Oct. 4, 2015, and only the third time for the franchise in the last 100 years.

The Braves have played 49 innings so far this postseason; they’ve allowed no runs in 46 of them. Only the 1905 New York Giants and the 1983 Baltimore Orioles have allowed five or fewer runs through the first five postseason games. The Braves team ERA is 0.92, the second-best through five games in the Live Ball Era behind only that Orioles team that went on to win the World Series. Their bullpen has given up just one run in 11.1 innings.

Four of the Marlins runs in this series came off Max Fried, who supplanted Soroka as the Braves’ ace, back in Game 1. The rest of the pitching staff combined to give up one run over the last 23 innings.

2) A super-deep lineup

It’s a testament to the strength of the Braves lineup that Adam Duvall, who had two three-home run games this season and led the Majors in home runs in September, batted seventh on Thursday.

The Braves batting order is filled with players that deserve the attention of opposing pitchers. Freddie Freeman, the probable National League MVP this season, went 0-8 in the first two games against the Marlins, but the Braves still scored 11 runs and won both. Catcher Travis d’Arnaud batted in seven runs in the three games against Miami, the most ever by a catcher in a Division Series. Only seven catchers ever had more RBI in a postseason series than d’Arnaud, but all of them did it in seven games.

He broke open the game on Thursday, hitting a 95-mph fastball from Marlins starter Sixto Sanchez off the wall in right-field to drive in two runs and make the score 3-0 for the Braves. With homers in the first two games of the series, d’Arnaud just missed making it three straight when he lined an inside slider from Brad Boxberger just foul down the left-field line in the eighth inning.

The Braves are advancing to the NLCS despite the fact Freeman and Ronald Acuña, their top-two hitters, still haven’t gotten hot yet. But they have the type of lineup that can more than compensate for a cold stretch by some of their hitters; they still have Duvall, d’Arnaud, Dansby Swanson, and Marcell Ozuna, the NL leader with 18 home runs in the regular season.

Whoever the Braves play in the next round, they’ll have their hands full finding a way to navigate through this lineup.

3) Postseason swagger

The Braves haven’t been this far into the postseason in 19 years, but they’re not acting like it. They’re young, brash, and confident, intangibles that more than make up for their relative lack of experience playing deep into October.

In Game 2 against the Marlins, the Braves sent out 22-year-old starter Ian Anderson, who’s made all of six regular-season starts in his career. Anderson shut out Miami for 5.2 innings, his second straight start this postseason without allowing a run. He’s only the third pitcher in postseason history to begin his career with back-to-back starts of at least 5.2 IP and no runs allowed before the age of 23, joining Hall of Famer Waite Hoyt (1921) and former Brave Steve Avery (1991).

Kyle Wright, 25, hadn’t pitched in 13 days but got the ball for the clinching game on Thursday and threw six shutout innings. Fried, their staff ace, is still just 26 and hadn’t started a postseason game before this season.

The 22-year-old Acuña kicks things off for the Braves from the leadoff spot and exemplifies the confidence they have in themselves. In Game 1, on the second pitch thrown to them this series, Acuña hit a leadoff home run in the first inning, a 428-foot shot to the opposite field. Two innings later, Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara came back and hit him with a pitch, leading to an altercation on the field.

Following the game, Acuña took to social media to show he’s not afraid of this moment and won’t back down from anyone. “I’d like to take this time to apologize to absolutely NOBODY,” he wrote.

The Braves are heading to the NLCS for the first time since 2001. Freeman, who’s spent his entire 11-year career in a Braves uniform, has never been this far. Back in July, he was lying in bed with a 104.5-degree fever thinking he was about to die from COVID-19. He returned to play all 60 games and set career-highs in batting average (.341) and OPS (1.102).

Freeman’s health scare reveals the strangeness of the 2020 MLB season. Another factor confirming this is no ordinary year: the Braves will play a club in the next round, either the Dodgers or Padres, whom they didn’t play at all in the regular season.