Opener Ray Kerr gave the Braves 2 2/3 scoreless innings and Didier Fuentes came a strike away from closing out the Dodgers with 4 perfect innings, while Michael Harris II went 3 – 5 and accounted for the Braves final 2 runs. The series comes to Atlanta tied at one.
The Dodgers had one bragging point tonight – their opener lasted longer than our opener, they just didn’t know they were using one. Blake Snell was pulled after 3 2/3 innings and 90 pitches, allowing 3 hits and walking 5. Two of the hits and 2 of the walks came in the 1st, with the Braves taking a 1 – 0 lead on Mauricio Dubon‘s 2-out infield single.
Harris’s 2-out triple in the 5th, and a subsequent wild pitch gave the Braves their 2nd run. Atlanta scored their final run in the 7th, with Harris striking again with 2 outs. Michael’s double scored Matt Olson, who had singled, from first.
After bailing Kerr out of a 1st and 2nd, 2-out situation in the 3rd, Grant Holmes allowed a homer to Freddie Freeman to tie the game in the 4th, then left Dylan Lee to deal with his own 1st and 2nd situation, this time with only 1 out. Lee bailed Holmes out of that situation, only for him to leave Robert Suarez with a 1st and 2nd, 0-out situation in the 5th. Here’s to the bullpen – the cause of, and the solution to, all life’s problems.
As it would have been impossible for Suarez to leave his successor with a 1st and 2nd, -1 out situation, Robert just skipped that part and did only the bailing out. Two fly balls and a strikeout brought Fuentes on to start the 6th.
Didier was amazing, retiring 11 straight Dodgers before Max Muncy homered on a 3 – 2 pitch with 2 out in the 9th. Raisel Iglesias then came on for the 3-pitch save. Win, win, win.
Monday off, then Tuesday in Atlanta at 6:00pm Eastern, Chris Sale and Yoshinobu Yamamoto scheduled.
Of all the guys on the Dodger staff, I think Yamamoto’s the one I respect the most – even with Skubal being Skubal, what Yamamoto did in the World Series last year was really something else.
But Chris Sale is every bit as good, and it’s going to come down to which veterans can maintain a better plate approach to knock the starter out of the game and get back into the bullpens. Should be a heck of a game.
Terry McGuirk is the real winner. He gets at least five home playoff games and saved the Profar money. Liberty will be giving him a big bonus this Christmas.
😂 you’re aces
Facts right here.
I know pretty much every knowledgeable person on this board has explained to you how every part of this narrative is false but you keep the dream alive like state legislatures devising rules against trans athletes that mostly don’t exist. I must admire game!
Pointless, silly and stupid game, but you be you.
We suspended the No Politics rule for a week once, and it got so contentious that one of our most frequent commenters and contributors got himself banned. My initial reaction is that it would be more in line with the spirit of the blog to come back with a different analogy.
I was being facetious.
There’s no reason to think that the probabilities of a split in Atlanta aren’t close to 50 percent, with maybe a slightly higher chance (say 28%) of two Atlanta wins and a corresponding (say 22%) chance of two Dodger wins, corresponding to the modest advantage home field gives you and the fact that on current form, neither Sale/Yamamoto nor Mahle/Glasnow is an outright mismatch. If you can convince me (and you can) that the Braves would have anywhere near a 50% chance in yet another bullpen game in LA against Skubal then this is about as crapshooty as it gets. And I’m good with that.
It’s pretty clear that we don’t have even a 3rd starter right now, and that seems like it will be a problem eventually.
It’ll be a gigantic problem when the 2027 season starts. Until then, next man up. The off days are a huge help, since nobody has to pitch more than two days in a row in the playoffs after the Wild Card round.
That said, if either Martin Perez or Bryce Elder were suddenly available, I’d use them… but they’d be on the same short leashes as everybody else in the bullpen, so it really just expands the usable roster in what will still be in effect bullpen games.
I am a terribly optimistic person and I am very careful to never turn on my cold hard calculation hat when I’m thinking about the Braves.
So I’m pretty sure we’re at approximately 50% to win the series in Atlanta.
I think Roberts was counting on the Braves weakness against lefties, but they scored on both Skubal and Snell. Note that the Braves have already beaten Skubal (when he was with Detroit), Snell, Yamamoto, Glasnow, and Sasaki this year so anything is possible. We need to score some runs.
The Dodgers weakness against lefties is worse. Did they score anything off of Kerr, Dodd, Lee, or Suter? The Braves scored all but one of their runs against lefties.
Since we’re all in the mood to play “if you’d told me”…
If you’d told me that our top 3 in the order would have a .483, .485, and .543 OPS in the playoffs, I would assume we got bounced by the Phillies, but I’d never think we’d be in the driver’s seat coming home against the Dodgers. They basically all became Nick Allen, and somehow we’re 3-2. The good news is they’re DUE.
Dodger OPS: Smith .000, Ohtani .500, Betts .700, Freddie 1.357
Sadly, I had to miss the game last night. I was a little dubious pushing Sale back (again my fear from game 3 wild card game.) Happy was I to be wrong. Stealing 1 from them in LA was crucial. With 2 actual starting pitchers going next, we could use that top of the order. Acuna isn’t getting a lot of at hits, but he is at least on base.
I imagine it’s been a while since anyone has intentionally walked another batter to load the bases for RAJ. It may just be coincidence, but he was very hot for most of September and then hasn’t hit much since fouling the ball off his leg in the regular season’s last week.
I thought that too. They had a righty pitching, and so decided they’d rather he face a righty than the lefty Baldwin. Odd.
Snowshine, let’s not go political.
I thought the McGuirk line was funny.
Just bought my ticket for tomorrow. Go Braves!
I do subscribe to the “worry about tomorrow, tomorrow” camp. Tomorrow you might score 10 runs. But, presumably in a 7-game series we’ll have Sale and Mahle 4 times, and that’s a lot of tomorrows if it goes that far.
I like this 10-run strategy. Let’s give it a test run today and perfect it for tomorrow.
Nothing 10 runs won’t cure.
Co-signed.
Look, I’m kind of greedy, so I’d like 15 runs. I will settle for 10, though, to keep peace and harmony here.
For any aviation buffs, here’s the flight path the Braves took yesterday: https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL8877/history/20261005/1810Z/KLAX/KATL/route.
Some interesting waypoints the flight passed through:
HOMER, MADDX, GLAVN, and SWEPT
That’s a little like this one: https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N1810R/history/20260805/1525Z/KVBT/KVBT
Not to mention RUTTH and JKSON and HAYNK.
And the reference to baseball’s first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
The Braves lineup against Yamamoto doesn’t make sense. I hope WW is playng chess with Kim and only lets him hit if a sacbunt is needed. Elsewise he can PH Thomas on the first AB and move Dubon to SS. And Murphy against Yamamoto instead of Yaz? That doesn’t sound right unless Murphy has Yamamoto’s number. And Albies hitting 4th against righty vs. Harris hitting 5th? Something sounds hinkey….
Kim went 1 for 3 against Yamamoto when Sale pitched his CG shutout and Yaz went 0 for 3 (by the way Thomas went 0 for 2.) Can’t say it is the right decision, but so far WW has pulled the right strings. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
Yamamoto has reverse splits – OPS allowed to righties is 120 points higher for his career, and 75 points higher this year. That doesn’t exactly explain Ozzie hitting ahead of Harris, but they’ve both been hot lately (and so has Walt).
OK, already a lineup change with Acuna at DH, Thomas in RF, and Murphy out. A little better.
At least Muncy is not in.
Game thread posted