Well the Braves won a playoff series and exorcised some demons of recent postseasons past in the process this week against the Phillies. Their reward is facing the death-star Dodgers in a best-of-5 series with a spot in the NLCS on the line.
Game 1 will be perhaps the most challenging, with the Braves opting for a bullpen game and the Dodgers being able to throw a fresh Tarik Skubal on the other side. The Dodgers will be heavily favored in this game and for good reason. The Braves faced Skubal once
this season and were able to score two runs off him over 7.0 innings, with a home run coming from Ozzie Albies. To be honest, that is an outcome I would take if you offered it to me right now for how the Braves perform against him today. The big lefty has been incredible for 4 seasons now, with very strong strikeout numbers, an extremely low walk rate, and a solid ground ball rate. His FIP and xFIP have hovered in the mid-2 range since the beginning of 2023. His well-shaped upper-90s fastball from the left side leads his arsenal, with a hard changeup and slider, as well as a sinker make up the vast majority of his remaining pitches. There isn’t a real weakness for Skubal. The Braves will need some luck and a big moment or two against him to put up some runs. Getting him out of the game early sure would help as well.
Meanwhile, the Braves have a talented bullpen to face the Dodgers’ lineup that was second-best in wRC+ in baseball this year. That said, covering 9.0 innings means that we will likely get bulk innings from non-high-leverage options. We will have to hope they can get through those innings without that potent Dodgers offense putting up crooked numbers left and right.
Game Info
Game Time: Saturday, October 3, 4:00 pm EDT
Location: UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA
Watch: FOX
Radio/Audio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan, La Mejor 1600/1460/1130 AM, ESPN Radio
