There’s no real answer here. Coverage of Game 2 will also start quite soon. Have at it if you want, or just wait around for actual game-related stuff.
I will say that even though it was super-awesome, Austin Riley’s three-run go-ahead blast didn’t actually register that high on cWPA. Even among the current Braves run from 2018-on, it was barely within the top 25 (23rd) in cWPA, worth about four percent of title likelihood. It wasn’t even that big of a deal for Riley, as he’s had seven bigger hits.
His biggest was the single in Game 4 of the World Series that brought the Braves to within a run and put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, but the Braves actually failed to score more there and needed the later back-to-back homers to pull ahead. Nor was it his biggest homer, as that goes to the tiebreaking shot in Game 1 of the 2020 NLCS.
But, this is about how you feel about Riley’s season — before yesterday’s eighth inning, and now.
