LOS ANGELES — Turns out, Sunday was a bullpen game for both teams at Dodger Stadium, whether by design or not. But the Dodgers managed only two runs against six Braves pitchers in a slog of a game and a 3-2 loss to even the National League Division Series at one game apiece.
Blake Snell did not have it in his start, and in retrospect it was a minor miracle he left with only one run against his ledger. His first inning took 27 pitches with two singles, two walks, and a run, but he escaped with by striking
out Sean Murphy.
After allowing two-out baserunners in the second and third innings with no damage, Snell regressed in the fourth with two more walks, giving him a season-high five walks on the evening. It’s the most walks by Snell in a start since August 24, 2024, when he walked six while with the San Francisco Giants.
But all that traffic meant 90 pitches for Snell to get just 11 outs, with nearly as many balls (43) as strikes (47).
Brock Stewart got the final out of the fourth inning to strand those two runners left by Snell. That started the bullpen game that the Dodgers very much were not expecting.
A rarity
Left-hander Kris Bubic, acquired at the trade deadline from the Kansas City Royals while on the 60-day injured list, is a starting pitcher and former All-Star who has pitched in relief through his rehab assignment and into the majors because that’s where the need arose in Los Angeles. It has mostly worked swimmingly, through six rehab outings in Triple-A and five games with the Dodgers down the stretch.
Bubic’s 12th appearance in the organization came to start the fifth inning, and he got the first two outs before Michael Harris II hit a ball into the left field corner that Teoscar Hernández played into a triple. That was the first extra-base hit Bubic allowed during those 12 games, with Harris his 43rd batter faced. Nobody had yet scored against Bubic either in 11 innings, until he uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Harris to scamper home with the go-ahead run.
Déjà vu
For the second straight game, the Dodgers failed to score against the first pitcher in a Braves bullpen game. After Dylan Dodd pitched three scoreless innings to open Game 1, fellow southpaw Ray Kerr got the first eight outs on Sunday and kept the Dodgers from scoring.
Miguel Rojas, who hit .293/.240/.469 with a 121 wRC+ against left-handers this season, got the start at third base and paid dividends in the form of a leadoff double off Kerr in the third inning. But that rally was neutered by Tommy Edman, a switch-hitter with a career 118 wRC+ against southpaws, attempted a bunt for some reason but instead popped out to Austin Riley at third base. Then Shohei Ohtani continued his expedition outside the strike zone before popping out weakly.
Kerr shook hands with Braves manager Walt Weiss after an impressive extended outing for the second time in four days, and former Dodgers first-round draft pick Grant Holmes needed only one pitch to induce a Will Smith ground out to strand the two runners left behind by Kerr.
Finding his swing?
Once again, the Dodgers scored against the first Braves reliever, and did so again via the long ball. Freddie Freeman took Holmes deep in the fourth to tie the game at 1-1, Freeman’s first home run since September 2, snapping a skid of 85 plate appearances without one. Before that, Freeman went 47 full games and 196 plate appearances without a homer. A good chunk of that time had Freeman plagued by a right knee injury, though Freeman over the final week of the season insisted the knee got healthy, but he had developed bad habits with his swing that he tried to correct over the five days off before the NLDS.
Through two games of the NLDS, Freeman has gotten three hits, and scored in each contest.
Rough first game back
Edgardo Henriquez was one of the Dodgers’ best relievers this season, but he spent the last two weeks of the regular season on the injured list with lower back discomfort. He entered the seventh inning on Sunday with the Dodgers trailing 2-1. The stuff looked good in Henriquez’s first game in three weeks, well into triple digits with his fastball, but lefties Matt Olson got and Harris tagged Henriquez for hits, with Harris delivering a two-out double to score Olson from first base, widening Atlanta’s advantage to 3-1.
Starring performance
The Dodgers had their chances on offense, putting eight runners on base in the first five innings. But only one of them scored, thanks to seven hitless at-bats with runners in scoring position. 21-year-old Braves right-hander Didier Fuentes simply fixed that glitch for Atlanta, and didn’t permit any Dodgers to reach base at all in his first three innings, and even pitched into the ninth, getting two more outs. Then he gave up a home run to Max Muncy, pulling the Dodgers within one and pulling Fuentes from the game, robbing the world of the second four-inning save of this postseason.
Fuentes threw 47 pitches to record his 11 outs and struck out three Dodgers, after a 31-percent strikeout rate to fuel his 2.45 ERA in 73 1/3 innings during the regular season.
Meanwhile, 15 Braves reached base on Sunday, including eight walks by Dodgers pitchers, just the eighth game in Dodgers postseason history with at least eight walks.
Last-ditch effort
Muncy’s home run brought in Raisel Iglesias, the Braves’ closer, and brought pinch-hitter Josue De Paula to the plate as the potential tying run. It was the first major league postseason at-bat for the 21-year-old De Paula, but he popped out in four territory to end the game with the Dodgers just short.
NLDS Game 2 particulars
Home run: Freddie Freeman (1), Max Muncy (2)
WP — Dylan Lee (2-0): 2/3 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, 1 strikeout
LP — Kris Bubic (0-1): 2/3 IP, 1 hit, 1 run, 1 walk
Sv — Raisel Iglesias (2): 1 up, 1 down
Up next
The Dodgers turn to Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 3 in Atlanta on Tuesday night (3:08 p.m. PT, FS1), while the Braves will have ace Chris Sale rested and ready to start after a pair of Atlanta bullpen games to open the series.
