Ian Anderson — no, not the leader of Jethro Tull, the one who pitches for the Atlanta Braves — and the Braves bullpen held the Houston Astros to two hits in Game Three of the 2021 World Series. The Braves’ offense was able to provide enough support for them to win 2 to 1 in front of their home crowd, which was delirious but still drizzled. Two games lead by the Braves in this series.
Third inning: The Braves’ first run was scored by Astros starter Luis Garcia. Rosario stopped at the second base after Eddie Rosario began the inning drawing a walk. Freddie Freeman singled sharply to center. One out later, Austin Riley smoked a hot grounder down the left field line that ticked off Houston third baseman Alex Bregman’s glove and kept going, Rosario scoring standing up. Although the Braves appeared set for an exciting inning, with Riley at 2nd and Freeman at 3rd with one out, Garcia struck out the next two batters. The game was still at 1:0.
Anderson was a valuable player whose value had already been elevated beyond his current place in the Atlanta three-man starting pitching rotation. He allowed three walks and no hits in five innings. Braves bullpen continued to run at a wiffenpoof pace. Astros didn’t get their first base hit until 8th inning, when AledmysDiaz singled Tyler Matzek off the plate. Jose Siri, who pinch ran for Diaz, eventually made his way to third via a steal and throwing error by Atlanta catcher Travis d’Arnaud, but went no further. d’Arnaud atoned for his top of the inning mistake by homering in the bottom half of the frame, thus picking a most opportune time to hit his first home run at home in 2021. Will Smith earned the save after the Astros managed to score another run in the ninth.
A video tribute to Hank Aaron was shown before the game. His widow Billye received a standing ovation. Hank and Billye’s son Hank Jr. threw the ceremonial first pitch.
Tomorrow’s fourth game will feature Zach Greinke from Houston facing an unknown pitcher from Atlanta. It was originally believed that tomorrow would see the Braves play a bullpen game, where a series of starters from each team will be in the starting lineup for one or two innings. Then the following pitchers will take the mound. However, there is the possibility that Tucker Davidson, who was in Atlanta’s starting rotation at the beginning of the season before going on the shelf for much of the season with arm issues, will start. Davidson has taken Morton’s place on the Braves roster.
Trump will be attending the game as a special guest. He will be able to use a private room for the game. This will likely help the Secret Service agents who will also be there. We will see how Trump will be received by the fans if he is. (Wouldn’t a rousing round of “let’s go Brandon” be sweet?) Also of interest will be if Trump and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred meet one another, as Trump was openly critical of Manfred’s decision to move this year’s MLB All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver following the passage of Georgia’s voting reform law.
Game Four begins at 8:09 pm EDT. At game time, the weather forecast is for cloudy skies with showers occasionally and temperatures around 50 degrees.
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