Sale struggles and bats cold as Braves fall to Dodgers

The Atlanta Braves took on the Dodgers tonight in a pivotal game that would give them the 2-1 lead in the NLDS. Chris Sale took on Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The last time these two faced of Sale pitched a complete game shutout and the Braves won 1-0.

The first inning looked great for Sale. He gave up a leadoff single to Betts and Ha-Seong Kim committed an error, but Sale struck out Freeman, Smith and Ohtani. Yamamoto answered with a great inning of his own, striking out the first two hitters and getting Olson to groundout.

In the second, Tucker singled and stole second, but Sale struck out every other hitter he faced. Harris singled in the second for the first base runner for the Braves, but it was the only offense. The third inning got dramatic. Betts singled, but then Dubón robbed Freddie Freeman of a HR.

After a Teoscar Hernández fly out, Smith singled and then Ohtani reached on catcher's interference to load the bases. Sale was able to get Rojas to line out to end the top of the inning with no damage done. The Braves had zero offense in the third.

The fourth is where it started to fall apart for Sale. Pages singled. Tucker lined out, but then postseason legend Enrique Hernández hit a two-run shot to give the Dodgers a lead. Betts grounded out, but then Freeman added a HR of his own to make the score 3-0. Fortunately, Teoscar Hernández had a 108.4 MPH fly out to end the top of the fourth. Matt Olson singled, but it was the only offense in the fourth for the Braves.

Sale stayed in to pitch the fifth and retired the side to include a strikeout of Will Smith. It looked like the Braves might get some momentum in the fifth with a Dubón single followed by a Thomas single. Riley struck out, but then Tellez pinch hit for Kim and walked to load the bases. Baldwin grounded out to score a run, but then Acuña grounded out himself to end the inning.

Dylan Dodd came in to pitch the sixth. Sale ended his start with 5.0 innings with three earned runs, seven hits, zero walks, and seven strikeouts. Pages had a single, but then Dodd sat down the rest to include two strikeouts. Unfortunately, the Braves did not do any better as they were retired in order.

Dylan Lee came in to pitch the seventh. He has been struggling lately, but it did make sense to bring him in here. He was able to retire the side to keep the game close. The bottom of the lineup looked like the bottom of the lineup for the Braves as they were sat down in order again in the seventh.

Brent Suter came in to pitch the eighth. An interesting choice. He walked Ohtani on seven pitches. Rojas then tweaked something and was replaced by Edman who popped up. Suter then prevented anymore offense. Tanner Scott then came in to replace Yamamoto. Hicklen struck out and Baldwin grounded out. Ronald Acuña then walked on five pitches. Olson was able to get Scott to pitch six pitches, but struck out. This left the Braves three outs to tie it up.

Raisel Iglesias came in to pitch the ninth. He was able to induce a pop up from Hernández after falling to a 3-0 count. He then struck out Mookie Betts on eight pitches. This brought up Freddie Freeman who walked on sox pitches. Max Muncy pinch hit for Teoscar Hernández. Muncy struck out on three pitches.

Edwin Díaz came in to pitch the ninth. Ozzie Albies has been one of the best hitters on the team this postseason and continued with a double to lead off the ninth. Harris made Díaz work, but ultimately grounded out on eight pitches and moved Albies to third. Mauricio Dubón flies out to right and it was not far enough to score the run. Mike Yastrzemski replaced Lane Thomas as the last chance. He then grounded out to end the game, putting the Braves at a big disadvantage moving forward.

Next game is at home with Tyler Mahle on the mound with a win or go home game. The bats were cold as ever, and will need to wake up against Glasnow to stay alive.