ATLANTA -- Travis d¡¯Arnaud began Friday morning by ordering a box of 15 doughnuts with his family. There were chocolate twists, cinnamon rolls and apple fritters among the assortment. He finished Friday night by playing a major role in the Braves¡¯ World Series Game 3 win over the Astros, calling a near-no-hitter and pummeling an eighth-inning home run.

¡°I was feeling pretty good from when I woke up,¡± d¡¯Arnaud said following Atlanta's 2-0 victory, which gave it a 2-1 Series lead. ¡°I just tried to stay calm the whole day until the game started. There's a lot of pressure that could come just thinking that you're in a World Series game, so I just try to stay calm and take it pitch by pitch.¡±

For some catchers, calling a no-hit bid into the eighth inning -- including rookie Ian Anderson¡¯s impressive five-frame start -- would have been enough to deem a game a notable success. d¡¯Arnaud then bounced back from two tough at-bats to deliver a game-sealing solo homer and make the night that much more memorable.

The Braves' offense got going in the third, when Austin Riley plated the game's first run with a double to left field. They had an opportunity to extend their lead, but d¡¯Arnaud struck out swinging with the bases loaded to end the inning. Two frames later, he left two runners on with a groundout to first base.

d¡¯Arnaud put all that behind him in the eighth, when insurance runs were at a premium after the Astros had broken up the no-hit bid and were looking to erase Atlanta's 1-0 lead. With Joc Pederson¡¯s bat in hand, d'Arnaud hammered a Statcast-projected 437-foot homer off Kendall Graveman to center field, his second home run of the World Series. It was the first homer Graveman has given up to a right-handed hitter all season.

¡°He's a great fastball hitter, and that was big,¡± Riley said of d'Arnaud. ¡°It kind of gave [closer] Will [Smith] a little bit of comfort, that extra run, because like I said, it's a good ball club. They can hit ... it's a lot like our lineup. It can change the game in one swing of a bat, so that was a big at-bat by him.¡±

d'Arnaud, a nine-year MLB veteran, is again thriving on the postseason stage, where he memorably walloped a solo home run in Game 1 of the 2015 National League Championship Series in which his Mets swept the Cubs. After hitting .220 during a '21 regular season limited by a thumb injury, d¡¯Arnaud is batting .256 in the postseason and is 5-for-12 against the Astros in the World Series.

¡°That home run in the eighth helped,¡± Astros manager Dusty Baker said. ¡°d'Arnaud's been a pain in our side this whole Series, and he was kind of a pain against other teams I was on. They played a good game tonight. There's nothing you can say about it. It's not what we didn't do. It's what they did do.¡±

If d¡¯Arnaud¡¯s game-calling and home run end up helping the Braves go on to win the World Series, that box of doughnuts could be considered the breakfast of champions.