HOUSTON — Atlanta had just stumbled again, losing its seventh straight attempt to reach .500.

“This isn’t going to define our season, this series,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said that night at New York’s Citi Field.

Little did he know.

Two days later, general manager Alex Anthopoulos obtained outfielders Eddie Rosario, Adam Duvall and Jorge Soler along with reliever Richard Rodríguez in four swaps in the hours before the July 30 trade deadline, adding to the acquisition of outfielder Joc Pederson two weeks earlier.

Rosario, Duvall and Pederson combined to drive in 17 of Atlanta’s 28 runs in its six-game NL Championship Series win over the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Rosario was selected MVP as the Braves advanced to a World Series matchup against the Houston Astros starting Tuesday night.

Pederson especially has been a pearl of an addition. Even before the Braves tried to earn the team’s first World Series championship rings since the Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Chipper Jones club of 1995, he became known for perhaps the most-seen strand of pearls since Jackie O’s.

“I just saw the pearls and I was, like, you know what? That looks cool,” Pederson said. “I’ve done the black chain and the gold chain and all those different ones and — I think a lot of other players have. But I don’t know, kind of caught my eye. I was, like, you know, those look good.”

Anthopoulos, a 44-year-old Canadian hired as general manager in November 2017 and promoted to president of baseball operations last year, had to remake his outfield in midseason.

Opening day center fielder Cristian Pache injured his right hamstring in May and didn’t have another big league at-bat until October.