LOS ANGELES \u2014 The Dodgers are now in Atlanta in what his whittled to a best-of-3 National League Division Series, with the Braves suddenly in the driver\u2019s seat as the home team on Tuesday and Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The Dodgers starting rotation is their biggest advantage<\/a>, which is one reason Sunday night was so frustrating. Blake Snell was up against a bullpen game, but flung the Dodgers into their own relief parade with a slog of a start, wading through the muck with five walks and 90 pitched in only 3 2\/3 innings<\/a>. That was undoubtedly bad, but also the Dodgers as a team only allowed three runs in Game 2, the same as they allowed in Game 1\u2019s win<\/a>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a winnable game, but the offense wasn\u2019t up to the task, facing a slew of Atlanta relievers with standout performances over the two days.<\/p>\n Prior to Game 1, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was asked how the Dodgers could capitalize on facing a slew of Braves relievers instead of starting pitchers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe advantage for us is we have an opportunity to not let their pitching staff come up for air, and how do you do that? You have to exhaust the starter. You have to get in their pen, and you have to have them deploy arms as soon as possible and get that carousel going and continue to beat starters. Then you can suffocate them,\u201d Roberts said Friday. \u201cWe have an opportunity to really expose them if we take the right at-bats and the right approach.\u201d<\/p>\n Atlanta used bullpen games in each of the first two games but the Dodgers haven\u2019t faced any of the 10 Braves pitchers in more than one appearance yet, so the exposure hasn\u2019t yet materialized. But they did get shut down by three different Braves pitchers over extended stretches on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n Let-hander Dylan Dodd pitched three scoreless innings to start Game 1, and struck out four of his 11 batters faced. Dodd totaled 49 2\/3 innings in his 48 appearances this season, and the three innings matched his career high, also done on April 12 and May 23.<\/p>\n Ray Kerr, another left-hander, has impressed mightily since returning to the Braves in August, after missing over two years following Tommy John surgery. Kerr got 10 outs to start Atlanta\u2019s wild card closeout win over the Phillies on Thursday, then followed up with 2 2\/3 innings to start Game 2 against the Dodgers. Kerr left with two runners on base in the third inning, but Will Smith followed with a first-pitch groundout against Grant Holmes to end the inning, part of the Dodgers\u2019 0-for-8 performance with runners in scoring position.<\/p>\n None of those runners in scoring position came against Didier Fuentes, who retired 11 Dodgers in a row before Max Muncy homered against him with two outs in the ninth inning, pulling the Dodgers to within a run. They did not bring across the equalizer.<\/p>\n The only exposure the Dodgers got were within the same game of these bulk outings, as Dodd and Kerr each faced 11 batters and Fuentes faced 12. In the seven combined plate appearances the second time seeing these pitchers, the Dodgers got two hits (Mookie Betts single off Dodd in Game 1, Muncy home run) and a walk (Betts in Game 2 against Kerr).<\/p>\n The specter of Chris Sale loomed over this series from the start, even though he hasn\u2019t yet thrown a pitch. The Braves 37-year-old ace pitched into the seventh inning in Game 1 of the Braves\u2019 wild card series on Tuesday \u2014 and was on the hook for a loss before Austin Riley rescued Atlanta with a three-run homer \u2014 and then got four outs on Thursday in Game 3 to close out the Phillies.<\/p>\n Sale starting in Game 2 against the Dodgers was a possibility, however remote, because the left-hander going in Game 2 could also conceivably start again in Game 5 on four days rest. A Game 2 start would have also been on four days rest, in a loose definition considering he got four outs on a \u201cthrow day\u201d on Thursday in between. Sale hasn\u2019t pitched on four days rest since April.<\/p>\n \u201cI know him at 80 percent is really good, but that\u2019s what it came down to,\u201d Braves manager Walt Weiss said Sunday afternoon. \u201cWe\u2019ve given him extra rest all year, and it\u2019s served him very well. It allowed him to do what he did the other night, I think all the extra rest he\u2019d gotten.\u201d<\/p>\n Sale started on five days rest 13 times this season, and with six or more days rest 12 more times. In those 25 starts, the left-hander had a paltry 1.89 ERA and 31.3-percent strikeout rate. The Dodgers are well aware of Sale\u2019s prowess, having faced him twice this season.<\/p>\n Los Angeles actually beat Sale on May 8 at Dodger Stadium, with run-scoring hits by three different left-handed batters, which felt like cashing in a winning lottery ticket. Freddie Freeman, who homered off Sale that night, captured the conundrum that comes with facing the 6\u20196 lefty.<\/p>\n \u201cI would have taken a broken-bat bloop against Chris,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the toughest left-handed pitchers you can face. He\u2019s coming from behind you.\u201d<\/p>\n That was the Dodgers\u2019 only regular season win against the Braves, with Atlanta winning each of the next five matchups, including three one-run wins in Atlanta three and a half months later. On August 27, Sale turned back to the clock to hit triple digits on the radar gun while shutting out the Dodgers with 11 strikeouts<\/a> for his first complete game in seven years.<\/p>\n Yoshinobu Yamamoto was on the tough-luck end of that Sale shutout, having only allowed a solo home run to Drake Baldwin to open the game, but otherwise kept the Braves off the board into the seventh inning. That same pitching matchup returns in the pivotal Game 3 at Truist Park on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n The Braves entered the postseason in the position some semi-recent Dodgers teams have endured, simply running out of healthy and effective starting pitchers by the end of September, and into October. Right now, Atlanta essentially has two starting pitchers in Sale and Tyler Mahle, the latter an acquisition from the San Francisco Giants at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n