Braves 2-0 Astros, bottom 1 Alvarez is ahead 3-0 and it doesn’t look like Morton wants anything to do with Alvarez. But now there’s a 98mph pitch in there for a strike on the inner-half of the zone. The 3-1 is offering is inside, ball four. Two on for Carlos Correa. Braves 2-0 Astros, bottom 1 Morton falls behind 3-0, which you don’t want to do with Bregman. A slider on the inside corner to the right handed Bregman makes it 3-1 and a fastball at 96mph over the polat makes it a full count. Crowd is up in Houston as Bregman fouls one away. Brantley was running on that pitch by the way. Now Bregman swings and bounces to second - Freeman is there, he tosses to Morton for the out and now there’s two down. Brantley moved to third. It’s up to ALCS MVP Yordan Alvarez. Braves 2-0 Astros, bottom 1 So here’s Altuve facing Morton. He’s ahead 0-2 after Jose fouls off the first two offerings. Meanwhile, FOX TV in the US says Morton has four wins in winner-take-all games. That’s not tonight of course, but he could get three starts in this series. Morton, with what looks like a back door slider, freezes Altuve and he’s down on strikes. Brantley is next and he takes the first pitch, past the shift and into right field for a base hit. A one out baserunner for Alex Bregman... Braves 2-0 Astros, top 1 Brent Strom, the Astros pitching coach, came out to chat with Valdez before he faced Rosario and whatever he said worked. After getting Rosario with the hook, Duvall skies out to the corner in deep right, and that’s the inning. A good one for Atlanta, wouldn’t you say? Here come the Astros. Braves 2-0 Astros, top 1 So a lot of action early on here, a little too much for Astros fans. Valdez calms their nerves, getting NLCS MVP Eddie Rosario to chase a breaking ball away. Two outs, runner on second, and here’s Adam Duvall. Braves 2-0 Astros, top 1 RUN! Austin Riley smacks a ball into the gap in right filed! Here comes Albies and the Braves, right out of the box take a two run lead. Yes, they’re taking this World Series thing quite seriously. Braves 1-0 Astros, top 1 Albies hits a little nubber near the mound, Valdez pounces on it like a cat and makes the throw to first, not in time. Albies is just too speedy up the first base line and beat the throw. Now Atlanta has a one out baserunner for Austin Riley. Wait...there goes Albies and he’s stolen second! that means everyone in the United States gets a free taco at a certain taco chain (participating restaurants only. Apologies to those ex-USA. Braves 1-0 Astros, top 1 Now Jose Altuve makes a backhanded stab on a Freddie Freeman ground ball on the grass in short right field, getting the Braves first baseman just in time. What a play by Altuve, whose defense isn’t exactly top notch. Braves 1-0 Astros, top 1 HOME RUN! Well if we were wondering how Soler would be after a time on the Covid list, it’s with a home run to left! Wow! And we are defitely under way now! Whoa! First pitch... ...and game one the 117th World Series in under way! Framber Valdez fires a sinker low and inside at Jorge Soler to get the festivities going! How will it end? Tom Dart reporting Our man in Houston writes: Because it’s important, I tried to count how many volunteers it took to unfurl, hold and rustle the Stars and Stripes that was on the field for the national anthem. I lost count after getting to 120, though. Either way, the appearance of a flag so large it filled practically the entire outfield has hyped up the crowd and the roof being closed only enhances the decibel level. I guess we’ll never know the answer to the joke, “how many Houstonians does it take to unfurl a giant flag?” National Anthem Jonny Gould, one-time co-host of the UK’s live MLB coverage and now co-host of the Jonny and Josh podcast chimes in on the national anthem, giving it a 7.5/10. I think he cheated Keke personally. Prediction time It’s painful, and we know there’s no option for a tie, sadly. So I’m going with the Braves in seven games. If you’re wondering why it doesn’t match with our Guardian preview - that was a little itty-bitty typo. What say you? Get on the record now! Tweet me your prediction in before it’s too late. First pitch is coming up! National Anthem Classic. Straightforward. Very few bells and whistles, which I like! This is what you want, unless you’re going to do something way way out there, which I am also fine with. That’s an 8/10. Well done Keke! On the field right now... They are announcing the starting lineup to cheesy big orchestral music. And now it’s time for the national anthem. It’s Emmy award winning actress and singer Keke Palmer - stand by for my official rating! Astros starter Framber Valdez was basically the onluy Houston starter that brought any sort of quality, specifically game six, pitching 10.2 innings overall and giving up just three earned runs. Like Morton, he also has a mean curveball, striking out 149 via the breaking pitch the last two seasons, while Morton struck out 151. And don’t forget, he didn’t start pitching until he was 16, 11 years ago. Now he is starting game one of the World Series. Not bad! Uncle Charlie Baseball fans know “Uncle Charlie” is another word(s) for breaking pitches, and the Braves’ starter tonight, Charlie Morton, has plenty of that in his arsenal. I think he has a great chance to shut down his ex-teammates tonight. For a little preview of the hooks he throws, here’s twitters Pitching Ninja. Oh come on Hunter, we’re trying to pretend this isn’t the worst possible World Series match-up ever. Get with the program! Quirky fun Astros Did you know there is actually something fun about the Astros? I didn’t either until my buddy Erik Janssen brought it to light on our Jonny and Josh Show podcast (little shameless plug there). It turns out that someone made a polka about Houston’s favorite second baseman, Jose Altuve. Who knew? Lineups The American League champion Houston Astros 1. Jose Altuve, 2B 2. Michael Brantley, LF 3. Alex Bregman, 3B 4. Yordan Alvarez, DH 5. Carlos Correa, SS 6. Kyle Tucker, RF 7. Yuli Gurriel, 1B 8. Chas McCormick, CF 9. Martin Maldonado, C Bregman, Altuve and Brantley really didn’t hit in the ALCS. They’ll need to because Atlanta has better pitching than the Red Sox had. Lineups You want them, we got them. The National League champion Atlanta Braves 1. Jorge Soler, DH 2. Freddie Freeman, 1B 3. Ozzie Albies, 2B 4. Austin Riley, RF 5. Eddie Rosario, LF 6. Adam Duvall, CF 7. Travis d’Arnaud, C 8. Joc Pederson, LF 9. Dansby Swanson, DH The key here is that Soler, back from Covid and straight into the DH slot. Sometimes NL teams don’t have a bat that seamlessly fits into the DH, and Atlanta does. Let’s see how quickly he can snap into form. We"re live! Hello folks and welcome to our coverage of the 117th World Series! It’s the one that nobody seems to have wanted, outside of, say, the Houston area, Cobb County Georgia, and maybe Atlanta. There’s an awful lot of haters out there, this we know, and I understand the disappointment. Many of us would have rejoiced at the prospect of LA’s Joe Kelly throwing at and behind Houston batters on baseball’s grandest stage. But alas, Kelly got injured, the Braves sent the Dodgers packing in the NLCS, and LA’s revenge tour is on hold for now. All is not lost however: let me pitch you on this World Series. The Braves are some fabulous underdogs here. Back in July, they lost all-world outfielder Ronald Ocuna to a season ending injury, and before that they lost another all-star outfielder, Marcell Ozuna after he was arrested for domestic violence. Knowing that the NL East was mediocre at best, Atlanta’s EVP Alex Anthopoulos didn’t give up on the season, but rather, got to work rebuilding this outfield. He acquired Adam Duvall, Joc Pederson, and NLCS MVP Eddie Rosario, who became the NLCS MVP. He also acquired Jorge Soler at the last second: he’s on the mend from Covid-19 and could figure in this series. Alex basically hit on all his trades, which is incredibly rare, and the Braves zipped past their rivals from third place and five games back at the deadline to a division title with just 88 wins. Then they wiped out the 106-win Dodgers, which is quite an achievement. Atlanta also has an old-school manager in Brian Snitker who meandered around the Braves organization for decades before getting his shot, (his son Troy is a hitting coach on the Astros!) and has a lovable all-star first baseman in Freddie Freeman. That’s probably a 7.5/10 on the likable chart: not bad! And Houston? Well, the Astros have Dusty Baker, who is 12th on the all-time manager win list, a group where the 11 in front of him all have rings. So we can all root for Dusty to get his rock, right? So let’s put all that Braves stadium white flight, and Atlanta’s questionable “chop” and the fact that they had an anti-vaxxer sing the national anthem before game six stuff behind us. And maybe let’s just, for now, forget about that little Astros cheating scandal, the way ownership dealt with it, and that little incident of an employee taunting a female journalist by celebrating a player on their roster charged with domestic violence, and get to this World Series, because it actually has great potential to light up the sport. Agreed? OK. So, having said all of that, please feel free to join our live blog via tweet or email, with predictions, thoughts, feelings, etc. I’m @lengeldavid on twitter and you can email me by clicking here. Get in the blog - I’ll make you famous! We’ll have a few light appetizers before first pitch, but for now, wherever you are, pop some corn, grab your seltzer of choice and get ready for the Fall Classic, coming at you soon. Stick with us! David will be here shortly. In the meantime, here are our writers’ picks for the series: Houston’s bats have been on fire this postseason. They’ve scored at least five runs in nine of 10 playoff games and are crushing even the best pitching. And it’s not like the postseason has been an anomaly; the Astros also led the American League in batting average, hits, and runs scored in the regular season. This is a deep powerhouse franchise that is stacked in almost every facet. Astros 4-2 Braves. Melissa Jacobs Circling back to the first question: in the absence of an obvious “good guy” here, we should be rooting for whatever causes the maximum amount of embarrassment to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. In this case, it would probably be the Astros coming back to win it all so swiftly after the sign-stealing scandal. The Astros also happen to have the more potent hitting lineup – they probably never really needed to cheat in the first place, which made the whole thing more frustratingly pointless – so let’s say they beat the Braves in six. Astros 4-2 Braves. Hunter Felt The Braves have mojo coming into this Fall Classic. They rebuilt their outfield during the season, hit on their deadline acquisitions, snuck into the playoffs with 88 wins and knocked off the 106-win Dodgers. There’s an old-school manager in Brian Snitker, who gets an old fashioned three World Series starts from Charlie Morton, and the result is Atlanta’s first title since 1995 and thousands of insufferable Braves fans. Braves 4-2 Astros. David Lengel