Complex sentence: As soon as catcher Mike LaValliere received the ball, he desperately lunged toward the plate to tag Bream out, but Bream was able to slide just underneath the tag to score the winning run and send the Braves to the World Series for the second consecutive year.
Split into simpler sentences: As soon as catcher Mike LaValliere received the ball, he desperately lunged toward the plate to tag Bream out. Thus Bream scored the winning run and sent the Braves to the World Series for the second consecutive year.