In October, elite starting pitching wins postseason games.
For the Atlanta Braves, it was a bullpen game, while the Los Angeles Dodgers sent out two-time American League Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal. On Saturday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, the elite starting pitcher led the way. Skubal was dominant, striking out seven hitters while allowing one run on two hits and two walks over six innings of work in the Dodgers’ 5-3 Game 1 NLDS win.
The Dodgers began their quest for a third straight World Series title with a statement win over the Braves, but the game didn’t start off smoothly.
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Dylan Dodd was the Braves’ starter, and he was fantastic over three scoreless innings, allowing just two hits. In the fourth inning, manager Walt Weiss turned to Victor Mederos, and things quickly went awry.
Mederos got catcher Will Smith to fly out but then walked star first baseman Freddie Freeman. With a runner on first and one out, Mederos threw a 92.3 mph cutter right over the middle of the plate, and left fielder Teoscar Hernández didn’t miss it.
The ball came off Hernández’s bat at 109.9 mph as he demolished it 431 feet into the left-field bleachers, giving the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. The outfielder admired his blast, remaining in the batter’s box for a few moments before turning and firing his bat toward the Dodgers’ dugout.
Dodgers right fielder Kyle Tucker followed Hernández’s blast with a bloop single to left field, and Weiss had seen enough, removing Mederos from the game.
Weiss turned to A.J. Smith-Shawver to try to settle things down, which he did by retiring the next two batters.
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Skubal, on the other hand, retired 15 straight batters after allowing a leadoff single to All-Star designated hitter Drake Baldwin.
However, the scoreless streak ended when catcher Sean Murphy got a hold of Skubal’s 1-2, 99 mph fastball and sent it 421 feet over the left-center-field wall for a solo home run, cutting the lead to 2-1 in the top of the sixth inning.
After Murphy’s leadoff blast, the Braves’ lineup didn’t quit, as shortstop Ha-Seong Kim and second baseman Ozzie Albies sandwiched walks around two outs, bringing first baseman Matt Olson to the plate with two runners on and two outs. Yet Skubal avoided further damage by inducing a weak fly ball to left field from the All-Star first baseman, leaving the score at 2-1.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Dodgers immediately picked up Skubal. With one out, Hernández laced a single up the middle and Tucker followed up by depositing Smith-Shawver’s 97-mph fastball 408 feet over the right field wall to give the Dodgers a 4-1 lead.
Two batters after Tucker’s blast, third baseman Max Muncy joined the home run club with a solo shot off Smith-Shawver to make it 5-1.
With their bullpen depleted after a three-game Wild Card Series win over the Philadelphia Phillies, the Braves were forced to stick with Smith-Shawver to preserve their remaining arms.
In the top of the ninth inning, Ronald Acuña Jr. walked and second baseman Ozzie Albies smacked a two-run home run off Tanner Scott to make it a 5-3 game. However, Scott put the next two batters away. Manager Dave Roberts turned to Evan Phillips to record the final out of the game.
Phillips first walked Mauricio Dubón, sending up Austin Riley as the tying run, but got the Braves third baseman to ground out to Betts to close it out.
The Dodgers will look to build on their Game 1 win when they face the Braves on Sunday in Game 2.
