Thursday, August 27, 2026

Copyrighted by Sarah Morris, 2026

For the first time since the 1800s, the Atlanta Braves won a game by hitting a solo home run in the first inning. The Dodgers couldn’t do anything with Chris Sale, who pitched his first shutout since 2019. Yoshinobu Yamamoto deserved better; yet again, the Dodgers didn’t give him any offensive support.

The Atlanta Braves swept the Los Angeles Dodgers. On a hot Thursday night at Truist Park, the Braves defeated the Dodgers, 1–0.

The Dodgers couldn’t do anything with Sale. They had four scoring opportunities, and they couldn’t even advance the runner with fewer than two outs. Sale had eleven strikeouts and no walks. He could dot his fastball and had an unhittable slider. The Dodgers had more hits than the Braves.

Freddie Freeman singled to begin the ninth inning. Alek Thomas pinch-ran for Freeman, but he was a statue. Miguel Rojas hit into a force play. Kyle Tucker ran for Rojas and again didn’t go anywhere. Why didn’t Dave Roberts try to use a hit-and-run play?

Yoshinobu Yamamoto was fantastic without his customary splitter. He tried to throw a splitter to start the game, but Drake Baldwin put it into the seat. He dotted his four-seam fastball everywhere in the strike zone. He used his wonderful curveball and great cutter to baffle the Braves. In his 6.1 innings, he struck out eight while walking the last batter he faced.

Jack Dreyer came into the seventh inning with two runners and coaxed the Braves to hit into a double play. Eduardo Henriquez was sharp in the eighth inning.

Dave Roberts said, “Yoshi was great. We ran into a buzzsaw. We gotta flush it.”

On Friday, Tarik Skubal returns to Detroit for the first time since being traded. The Dodgers will try to start a winning streak.