It’s a baseball cliché that pitching wins in the playoffs, but sometimes clichés exist for a reason.
The first three games of the NLDS matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves was a showcase of the quality of both teams’ pitching staffs. In game one, Tarik Skubal was dominant for Los Angeles, though was nearly matched by the Atlanta bullpen. The Dodgers took control later in the game, but went hitless with runners in scoring position Wednesday despite the 5-3 win.
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Game 2 was even better. Atlanta scratched across three runs against a shaky Blake Snell and a parade of Dodgers relievers, while Ray Kerr and Didier Fuentes, among others, held the powerful LA lineup to just two. That seemed to shift the series advantage toward the Braves, with Chris Sale scheduled to start Game 3 at home.
DODGERS HIT TWO HOMERS OFF CHRIS SALE TO STEAL GAME THREE OF NLDS BEHIND YOSHINOBU YAMAMOTO
Kike Hernandez and Freddie Freeman touched up Sale for two homers in the fourth inning, but again, LA couldn’t score against the Braves relievers. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts got a shaky ninth inning from closer Edwin Diaz to finish it out after a leadoff double. Another low-scoring, 3-1 game between the two teams. Three games, just 17 combined runs.
Game 4? More of the same.
Tyler Glasnow started for Los Angeles, coming off a solid, but injury-plagued season. Atlanta countered with Tyler Mahle, who, out of nowhere, had the lowest ERA of any starter traded at this year’s deadline. Yes, even better than Tarik Skubal. Significantly so, in fact. And once again, despite the talent in both lineups, runs were hard to come by.
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Atlanta jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first thanks mostly to the speed and baseball IQ of Michael Harris II. Harris singled to lead off the game, got a running jump to steal second, advanced to third on a grounder, then scored when Glasnow bounced a breaking ball and LA catcher Will Smith couldn’t find the ball in time to make a play.
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The Dodgers tied it through, well, shockingly similar circumstances. In the top of the second, Shohei Ohtani walked to lead off the inning, then stole second as Teoscar Hernandez swung through strike three. Catcher Sean Murphy’s throw got into center, letting Ohtani advance to third. Max Muncy seemingly popped up to short left center, but Mauricio Dubon, one night after robbing Freddie Freeman of a home run, just…dropped it.
Ohtani came in to score, tying the game at one apiece.
It would stay that way for a long, long time.
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Glasnow was effectively wild, walking five hitters through 4 2/3 innings, but never allowing Atlanta to break through with a big hit. While Ozzie Albies led off the sixth with a double for the Braves, Alex Vesia and Edgardo Henriquez got Drake Baldwin, Lane Thomas, and Mauricio Dubon to end the threat.
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Finally, in the seventh, LA got to the Braves bullpen. Fuentes, virtually unhittable in game two in LA, couldn’t find the strike zone after a Teoscar Hernandez single chased Mahle from the game. Rookie pinch hitter Josue De Paula walked with two outs, with Kyle Tucker following with one of his own. Braves manager Walt Weiss went to veteran Robert Suarez to face Andy Pages. But Pages, after starting the count 3-0, laced a line drive single up the middle on 3-2 to score two.
Henriquez pitched a scoreless bottom of the seventh, getting Ronald Acuna Jr. to ground out after Michael Harris II doubled with two outs. Tanner Scott got the heart of the Atlanta lineup in the eighth, sandwiching a grounder from Ozzie Albies around strikeouts of Olson and Drake Baldwin.
In the ninth, Max Muncy provided some further insurance with a long homer to right to stretch the lead to 4-1.
Roberts once again turned to Edwin Diaz to close, despite the veteran closer’s awful, injury-filled regular season. But Diaz had a drama-free ninth, striking out Rowdy Tellez looking, getting Dubon and Austin Riley to fly out to right to clinch it.
For all the talk about LA’s star-filled lineup, with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Kyle Tucker, it was Kike Hernandez, Andy Pages, and Max Muncy who helped carry the limited offense and the Dodgers’ pitching that helped secure the series. The Dodgers had just one hit with runners in scoring position all series, but did just enough to support their starters and relievers.
The Dodgers have reached their third straight NLCS, after winning championships in 2024 and 2025. They’ll face the winner of the Milwaukee Brewers-San Diego Padres series, and with the Brewers up 2-1 in that series, it could set up a matchup of the only two teams to win 100 games in the regular season. And if Milwaukee can avoid using Jacob Misiorowski in the remainder of the series, they’ll be able to line him up for two starts in the NLCS, plus a likely relief appearance.
For Atlanta, it’s another disappointing postseason exit after their title in 2021. The Braves lineup, even with Harris, Acuna, Olson, Baldwin, Albies, and Riley, had just 18 hits in 124 at-bats. That’s a .145 batting average, and that’s not nearly enough to win a postseason series. They scored eight runs in four games and never could find the big hit they needed to build a big inning against Yamamoto or Glasnow.
Once again, sometimes those clichés about pitching turn out to be true.
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