City on edge: Braves squander chance for hometown party

ATLANTA (AP) — The place was rocking, the pearl-clad fans sensing this truly was going to be a special night, the kind they'd been hopefully marking on the calendar for more than a quarter-century.

Surely after Adam Duvall launched one into the tabled seats in right field for a grand slam in the very first inning, the Atlanta Braves would be celebrating their first World Series title since 1995.

On their home field, no less, the 5-year-old stadium-slash-shopping mall where they'd been unbeatable through seven postseason games.

Then, Halloween took a frightening turn.

All tricks and no treats.

Now, an entire city is on edge again.

Needing one win to finish off the Houston Astros, the Braves squandered the early 4-0 lead provided by Duvall and lost 9-5 in Game 5 on Sunday night, a listless performance that left Truist Field so quiet you could hear a pearl drop.

The rookie starting pitcher couldn’t throw a strike. The defense looked shaky. The vaunted bullpen was lit up. Even the fashion craze sparked by Joc Pederson's pearl necklace lost its luster.

“It’s a nine-inning ballgame,” Duvall said. “We got excited, and that’s what you do when you hit home runs, but it’s a long game. That happened in the bottom of the first. It’s a nine-inning game, and they didn’t quit. They kept fighting.”

By the end, Duvall's first-inning slam seemed a lifetime ago. The night trudged to a merciless ending exactly four hours after it started, with Game 4 hero Jorge Soler whiffing on the final pitch.

The shell-shocked fans headed out into the Battery shopping mall in no mood to party like they had the previous two nights.

Check, please.

“We weren’t able to get it going again and keep the pressure on, and that’s hats off to their pitchers,”...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/City-on-edge-Braves-squander-chance-for-hometown-16581029.php