Sunday, October 4, 2026

Copyrighted by Sarah Morris, 2026

Blake Snell set the tone. A bad one.

Before the game, everyone picked the Dodgers to win.

No!

Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy homered. But the Los Angeles Dodgers couldn’t take advantage of scoring opportunities.

On a hot Sunday night at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers lost to the Atlanta Braves, 3–2. The NLDS is knotted at one game apiece.

Blake Snell couldn’t command any of his pitches. His inability to have an easy inning forced the Dodgers to use seven pitchers. No reliever pitched poorly at all. The Braves took advantage of a wild pitch to score after a two-out triple, and Michael Harris III doubled with a runner on first.

The Braves had many opportunities to break the game open, but they didn’t. That was the contribution of the Dodgers’ pitching staff. Snell walked five in 3.2 innings, but he gave up only one run.

Roki Sasaki came into the game in the eighth inning and walked one and hit a batter. He took advantage of a sacrifice bunt to get the first out of the inning and then coaxed the Braves into a double play. He pitched a perfect ninth inning.

Edwin Díaz was brilliant in the sixth inning. After the game, Dave Roberts said that he could see Díaz closing out victories. This would let the Dodgers use Tanner Scott earlier in the game when the opposition could take a lead.

While the Braves took advantage of some of their scoring opportunities, the Dodgers couldn’t. Miguel Rojas had a leadoff double in the third inning but didn’t leave second base. To start the fifth inning, Mookie Betts walked and went to second on Shohei Ohtani’s single. They never advanced.

It’s difficult for any team to win a game when they have eleven consecutive outs. The Dodgers didn’t.

On Tuesday at Truist Park, the Dodgers will try to solve Chris Sale. In late August, Sale pitched a complete-game shutout against the Dodgers. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is pitching for the Dodgers, and the Braves had a problem solving him in August.