Red-hot Atlanta Braves cool off the red-hot Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-1

Major League Baseball Atlanta Braves that were once the Boston Red Caps, the Boston Beaneaters, the Boston Doves, the Boston Rattlers, the Boston Rustlers, and the Boston Braves before relocating to Milwaukee as the Braves and then to Atlanta.

Now they are in quest of their third World Series championship, the last in 1995 over the Cleveland Indians, after winning once with the Red Caps in 1888 and then in Milwaukee in 1958. But although they dominated the National League 100 years later, they still hunt for only their second title in that span.

And upon arriving at Globe Life Park, the home of the Texas Rangers, the news shifted to the Los Angeles Dodgers despite the Braves winning eight-straight on a run of pitching and hitting and fielding. But LA is favored to win the whole thing, its first since 1988 over the Oakland Athletics. They claim the number one pitching, the number one hitting, the number one fielding, and the number one record in the regular season.

But Atlanta continued its amazing streak after eliminating the Cincinnati Reds in the best-of-two wild card, the Miami Marlins in the best-of-three division series, and upping its streak to 9-0 by cooling off the Dodgers, 5-1, in game one Monday of the National League best-of-seven Championship Series.

It was all Braves in this one, clouting three home runs off Dodger pitching, turning a 1-1 deadlock in the eighth inning to a 4-run advantage in the bottom of the ninth on a solo shot from third baseman Austin Riley and a 3-run home run from second sacker  baseman Ossie Albies, with the initial Atlanta run coming on a first-inning blast off the bat of catcher Travis d’Arnaud. The Dodgers tied it in the third on an RBI double from Mookie Betts to score Cory Bellinger.

On the mound, the Braves started Max Fried, he lasted four innings, and then the Atlanta bullpen took over. For LA, Walker Buehler started and struck out nine before leaving after seven innings. For today’s game two, Los Angeles has scratched starter Clayton Kershaw because of back spasms and will send rookie lefthander to the hill versus Atlanta rookie Ian Anderson.

The Dodgers won their first World Series in 1959 over the New York Yankees while in Brooklyn, and then won in Los Angeles in 1963, 1965 and 1981 and ’88. They hope to have Kershaw perhaps starting game four.