Atlanta Blasts Its Way to a Win, but Loses an Ace

Part of the recipe for that success was employed here in Game 1. Atlanta has regularly ambushed opponents in first innings, racking up 110 runs during the regular season, sixth-most in the majors. Soler’s homer continued that onslaught, then d’Arnaud scored on Soler’s fielder’s choice smash to shortstop in the second. Duvall blasted a two-run homer to left field in the third.

It was Duvall’s homer that sent Valdez to the showers, and it was hardly a surprise when it happened. Valdez produced the majors’ highest ground ball percentage (70.3 percent) in 2021 but obtained only two ground ball outs out of 15 batters faced. Every Atlanta hard line drive and smashed fly ball served as a warning that trouble was brewing. When Valdez left, the average exit velocity against him was 99.3 miles per hour.

“I wouldn’t say it was nerves too much as it was just the emotion of the situation, being the starter for Game 1 of the World Series, being the starter for the Astros in the World Series,” Valdez said through the translator Andrew Dunn-Bauman. “I think it was that more than anything else. It was maybe trying to do a bit too much, throwing a bit too hard. I was in the zone but not exactly where I wanted it to be. Not where the catcher wanted it, either.”

Atlanta teed off on Valdez for eight hits and five runs over 15 batters. Though Atlanta struck out 12 times, every batter in the lineup had a hit. Atlanta became the first team to have all nine starting players collect at least one hit in a World Series game since Kansas City in Game 6 in 2014. Though it was the 25th time in World Series play that a team accomplished the feat, like Soler’s leadoff homer, it was the first time it happened in a Game 1.