ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Braves won Game 1 of the NLCS on a bottom-of-the-ninth game-winning clutch hit on Saturday. And as the club danced around the field in celebration, the frenzied crowd at Truist Park chanted "MVP! MVP!" at the game's hero.
If all you knew about Game 1 were those two facts, who would you guess had stroked the winning hit? Freddie Freeman, right? You know, the National League's MVP in 2020 and face of the Atlanta franchise.
But the correct answer is Austin Riley, whose emergence this season may just mean that Atlanta has a new MVP in town.