Dodgers 3, Braves 1: Yamamoto's 10 strikeouts and a three-run fourth take NLDS Game 3
Enrique Hernández and Freddie Freeman homered in the fourth inning and Yoshinobu Yamamoto did the rest, putting Los Angeles one win from the NLCS.
The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 3-1 at Truist Park on Tuesday night to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five National League Division Series. Los Angeles needed one inning to decide it and Yoshinobu Yamamoto to protect it.
The fourth inning
Neither side scored through three innings, though Atlanta starter Chris Sale had to work around traffic early, stranding six runners over the first three innings according to ABC7. The Braves also had a defensive highlight: in the third, Mauricio Dubón made a leaping catch at the left-field wall to rob Freddie Freeman, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Dodgers broke through in the fourth. Andy Pages singled, and Enrique Hernández followed with a two-run homer, a 406-foot shot into the left-field seats, per the AJC. One out later, Freeman hit a solo home run to right, his 18th career postseason homer according to ABC7, and it was 3-0.
Yamamoto holds the line
Yamamoto went seven innings, allowing four hits and a walk with 10 strikeouts and one run, according to ABC7, which notes the win moved him to 8-1 in his postseason career. The only trouble came in the fifth, when he allowed two singles and a walk to load the bases. Drake Baldwin grounded a first-pitch sinker slowly to first for Atlanta's only run, and Ronald Acuña Jr., playing designated hitter because of a sore right knee, grounded out to end the threat.
Sale left after five innings and 95 pitches, charged with three runs on seven hits. "Just one bad inning can kind of ruin a whole game," he said, as quoted by the AJC. Atlanta's bullpen then covered four scoreless innings.
The Braves' offence
Atlanta left six runners on base and went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, the AJC reported. The Braves are hitting .196 this postseason, and Acuña is 3-for-21 in the playoffs. Tanner Scott worked a scoreless eighth for Los Angeles, and in the ninth Ozzie Albies doubled off Edwin Díaz before Díaz retired the next three hitters to strand him.
What it means
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts moved Shohei Ohtani to fifth in the order because he was 3 for 15 against Sale, ABC7 reported; Ohtani struck out, reached on a catcher's-interference call and walked in the game. Los Angeles also lost shortstop Miguel Rojas in the eighth inning with a lower back injury, with Tommy Edman replacing him, per ABC7.
Game 4 was scheduled for Wednesday night, with Tyler Glasnow starting for Los Angeles and Tyler Mahle for Atlanta. A Dodgers win would send them to the NL Championship Series; a Braves win would force a decisive fifth game.