Baseball, one of the most popular sports in the US, is heading towards the conclusion of the 2021 season.
The Atlanta Braves are off the World Series after winning the NL Pennant for the first time since 1999. They will meet the AL champion, the Houston Astros, who are fighting for their third title series in the past five years.
During the 1990s, the Braves played 29 World Series games, which was more than double the No.2 NY Yankees, with 14. But since 2000, Atlanta has been one of ten teams not to reach the finals.
The team did not reach the .500 mark until Aug 8th, the latest date any team bound to the World Series has surpassed that.
Atlanta’s playoff run started with beating the Milwaukee Brewers in four games and taking down the 2020 champion and one of the wealthiest teams, the LA Dodgers, in six.
Similarly, Houston got to the World Series by beating the Chicago White Sox in four games and the Boston Red Sox in six.
The two teams had not met since 2017, when Houston went 4-0. The series will start on Tuesday, Oct 26th. Since the Astros had a better regular-season record (95-67) than the Braves (88-74), they will have the home-field advantage.
The series schedule is set as follows:
- Game 1: Tue, Oct 26th, 8:09p
- Game 2: Wed, Oct 27th, 8:09p
- Game 3: Fri, Oct 29th, 8:09p
- Game 4: Sat, Oct 30th, 8:09p
- Game 5 (if necessary:) Sun, Oct 31st, 8:15p
- Game 6 (if necessary:) Tue, Nov 2nd, 8:09p
- Game 7 (if necessary:) Wed, Nov 3rd, 8:09p
At the time of writing, the Astros (-145) are the favorite. The Braves are given +125
For the MVP race, José Altuve (+900) leads, followed by Yordan Álvarez (+1000,) Freddie Freeman (+1000), Alex Bregman (+1000), Carlos Correa (+1100), and Michael Brantley (+1100).
