Braves v. Astros

Sports is in part an emotional thing. People find a reason to root for one side, even if objectively there is no real reason to be so passionate. In the case of the Astros (a sort of forgotten about very good team with only five less wins than the 100 win Rays, with two good divisional opponents) -- the 2021 World Series home team -- somewhat less so.

I did not pay much attention to the Astros cheating scandal, though Carlos Beltran's role did eventually affect the Mets. After their GM and manager was fired, they still managed to almost make it in the 2020 series. They also got a fine (5M? uh huh) and lost some draft picks. Their players were not penalized. They didn't have to give up their World Series trophy, aided by cheating. Yeah, it seems not enough.

The Braves only got over .500 mid-summer and still had a mediocre run in them. But, the division was worse. And, they had the luck of a weak hitting Brewers team and apparently a Dodgers team finally spent. The bullpen game strategy also seems to have helped, including overuse of Scherzer, which burnt them this series. Still, the Dodgers had second and third with no outs with the score 4-2 in the seventh. Three strike outs. Impressive.