Braves 1-1 Astros, Top 2nd Dansby Swanson hits a single but luckily for Houston, Rosario hits a liner to first to end the inning. Still, we’re tied-up already. Something tells me that this is not going to be the last home run of the game. Home run! (Braves) Braves 1-1 Astros, Top 2nd Urquidy gets ahead of Travis d’Arnaud 0-2 but, the eighth-hitting catcher works a full count and then ties up the whole thing with one home run swing. Tied game! Maybe this isn’t going quickly after all. Braves 0-1 Astros, Top 2nd Adam Duvall promptly lines out. Well this is going rather quickly so far. Braves 0-1 Astros, Top 2nd Joc Pederson—who wears a pearl necklace for reasons that have yet to be fully explained—is up next. He quickly becomes Urquidy’s fourth strikeout victim. Braves 0-1 Astros, Bottom 1st Two down, bases newly empty for Yordan Alvarez who takes two balls and then grounds out. Run! (Houston Astros) Braves 0-1 Astros, Bottom 1st Alex Bregman, who needs to start producing if the Astros are going to win this series, is up next and he actually does some nifty situational hitting to drive in Altuve with a long lazy fly. The Astros have a lead! Braves 0-0 Astros, Bottom 1st Michael Brantley hits a long flyball out that certainly looks like multiple bases off the bat. Nope. Still, it gets Altuve to third and there is only one out. Houston has a perfect situation here to take the first lead of the World Series. Braves 0-0 Astros, Bottom 1st Max Fried, whose last name is not pronounced as the adjective (alas), is up against Jose Altuve who hits a ringing double that gets everyone at Minute Maid excited. Email from Kurt Perleberg: Who will win the most medals in next February’s Beijing Winter Olympics? Maybe I should have been a tad more specific here: please send in your baseball-related questions for today’s World Series liveblog. Braves 0-0 Astros, Top 1st It’s okay, he manages to get Jorge Soler to strike out. That’s three strikeouts, two infield hits, no runs allowed. Not a bad start. Braves 0-0 Astros, Top 1st Austin Riley falls behind 0-2 an then makes weak contact that somehow ends up a base hit as he aims it where the fielder’s aren’t. Urquidy is making great pitches, he’s just getting unlucky here. The Braves now have two, two-out baserunners. Braves 0-0 Astros, top 1st Ozzie Albies is up net to try to get anything going against Urquidy. He falls behind, but somehow manages to get on first on a slowly-hit, swinging bunt. So we have our first Braves baserunner. Braves 0-0 Astros, top 1st Freddie Freeman, the alliterative wonder, is up next. He works a full count, but eventually he also strikes out. A better start for Houston pitching than yesterday. First pitch Braves 0-0 Astros, top 1st Jose Urquidy’s first pitch is swung at by Rosario, who also swings at pitch 2. So, the Braves leadoff man is already down 0-2 against Urquidy. He manages to foul off a few more offerings before striking out. The roof is open at Minute Maid Park, because the Astros generally perform better out in the open air. They’re looking for every edge they can get to even out this series. Ooh, the actual game is about to start now! Joe Buck and John Smoltz are tonight’s broadcasters. “Jeopardy”’s gain is our loss. National anthem Alright, I missed the name of today’s singer by not switching to the pregame fast enough but she gives a fantastic rendition. 9/10. The Tomahawk Chop Controversy If you were expecting the league or networks to de-emphasize the Tomahawk Chop went the series shifts to Atlanta well… MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred seems very intent on preserving it. It seems like an odd decision until you realize that Manfred being in favor of anything that makes games potentially more unwatchable is very much on track for him. Predictions Listen, nothing about this series suggests that it won’t expand to take up as much time as possible. If you combine that with the fact that if the Braves win today they will start this series with a 2-0 lead before heading back home with a chance to clinch… If that happens, it becomes increasingly doubtful that this series will go much beyond the minimum. So, I am saying that the Astros win today in an actually somewhat dramatic fashion. Maybe a 6-7 win with the two teams pinballing back and forth until the final inning. I’m ready for a white-knuckle save, at least. This one is going at least six games, I think. Maybe this is wishful thinking. If you have your own opinion, feel free to chime in. As mentioned earlier, you can either email Hunter.Felt.Freelance@theguardian.com or tweet @HunterFelt. Houston Astros starting lineup 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. Jose Siri, CF 9. Martin Maldonado, C RHP Jose Urquidy Atlanta Braves starting lineup 1. Eddie Rosario, LF 2. Freddie Freeman, 1B 3. Ozzie Albies, 2B 4. Austin Riley, 3B 5. Jorge Soler, DH 6. Joc Pederson, RF 7. Adam Duvall, CF 8. Travis d’Arnaud, C 9. Dansby Swanson, SS Starting pitcher; Max Fried, LHP Email from Roger Kirkby: Subject line; Some baseball humour with a lot of swearing. Hi Hunter, here’s Lewis Black’s take on baseball, very sweary, but funny. I don’t have time to watch this, but I have fond memories of Lewis Black back in the golden era of “The Daily Show” so I will trust you on this one. I am not going to suggest that this is going to be on par with Charlie Morton pitching through a broken leg, but I will say that I am going to be blogging through a horrifically chipped tooth. Granted, this is more of a hockey-style injury but I do just want to make the statement that the willingness to play through injury isn’t just a trait found in athletes. (My roommates call this “stubborness” on my part, but we can quibble about definitions later.) Preamble Hello, welcome all to Game 2 of the World Series between the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros… Wait, wait, come back! We promise that things will get more interesting from here if solely because there’s nowhere to go but up after a Game 1 snoozefest that couldn’t have satisfied anybody but Braves fans. It’s never great when the most notable highlight of your game is a starting pitcher attempting to battle through a fractured fibula. Game 1 starter Charlie Morton actually was recording outs before his body fully registered the seriousness of his injury and he had to be lifted. He is now out for the remainder of the series, a huge blow for Atlanta in what otherwise would have been a perfect evening. In fact, it felt like the game was decided in Atlanta’s favor after the Braves took a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth. This, unfortunately, made the subsequent 2 ½ hours feel entirely unnecessary. Despite a few brief flashes of a potential Houston comeback, the game puttered on slowly without much drama until the end of regulation, where the Braves held on to a 6-2 final score. If you’re still on the fence about who to root for here considering that this is a battle between two of MLB’s most problematic teams... well, I’m afraid I can’t help you there. As your official baseball chronicler today, I’m just rooting for a fast-paced, interesting game. Heck, even super-long playoff games can be fun as heck when there’s drama. It is our hope that this starts today as the Astros attempt to even out this World Series at 1-1. If you want to contribute to the liveblog, send us your comments, questions, predictions and so forth and we’ll include them throughout these next few hours. If you’re on Twitter you can send them to @HunterFelt and if not (this is very understandable) just email us at Hunter.Felt.Freelance@theguardian.com. It’s Game 2 of the 2021 World Series between the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros at Houston’s Minute Maid Park. First pitch is scheduled at 8:09 pm EST, but we’ll be back well before then. Hunter will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s how Game 1 went down: A healthy swing by Jorge Soler powered the Atlanta Braves to a smashing start in the World Series. Making his first start since testing positive for Covid-19, Soler became the first player to begin a World Series with a home run and the Braves, despite the loss of pitcher Charlie Morton to a broken leg, hushed the Houston Astros 6-2 Tuesday night in Game 1. Boosted by a strong bullpen effort, a two-run homer by Adam Duvall and a late sacrifice fly from Freddie Freeman, the Braves coasted in their first Series appearance since Chipper Jones and their Big Three aces ascended in 1999. Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and the Astros mostly looked lost at the plate. This is their third World Series in five seasons – and first since their illegal sign-stealing scheme was revealed.