Saturday, October 3, 2026

Copyrighted by Sarah Morris, 2026

One down, ten to go.

Teoscar Hernández, Kyle Tucker, and Max Muncy homered, and Tarik Skubal was fantastic for six innings.

On an extremely hot Saturday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Atlanta Braves, 5–3, in Game 1 of the best-of-five NLDS.

The Braves had a hard Wild Card series against the Philadelphia Phillies. They couldn’t start their ace, Chris Sale, who pitched twice in the Wild Card series. They are very home run-reliant, and they had two on Saturday. They didn’t have much traffic on the bases, nor did they work the counts.

Skubal showed why the Dodgers obtained him from the Detroit Tigers on July 31. He had a dominating mound presence for six innings. After allowing a leadoff single, he retired fifteen straight batters by using his fastball high in the strike zone and changeup low in the zone. Before the sixth inning, his command was perfect, but he lost his release point, causing him to allow a solo home run to Sean Murphy and two walks.

However, Skubal gave the Dodgers exactly what they needed: a brilliant six-inning outing with seven strikeouts and two walks.

Brock Stewart and Alex Vesia were brilliant in relief.

Tanner Scott began the ninth inning, allowing a single and a two-run homer to Ozzie Albies, but then he retired the next two outs. Trying to play the matchups and preserve Scott for Sunday, Dave Roberts went to Evan Phillips to get the last out. After Phillips walked the first batter he faced, he retired the last batter of the game.

The Dodgers’ defense was brilliant. Tommy Edman kept two balls on the infield and turned them into outs, and they would have been singles. Muncy made several nice plays at third base.

The Dodgers’ offense still remains a concern even though the team scored five runs. However, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman had singles. Teoscar Hernández and Tucker had two hits apiece.

On Sunday, with Blake Snell on the mound, the Dodgers will try to continue taking advantage of a Braves’ weary pitching staff. The Braves don’t know which pitcher will start.