Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw seven innings, struck out 10 and gave up one run Tuesday night at Truist Park, and the Dodgers beat the Braves 3-1 to take a 2-1 lead in the National League Division Series. Atlanta now has to win two straight to survive.
Ten strikeouts is a career postseason high for Yamamoto. He had nine in Game 2 of the 2025 National League Wild Card Series. This was also his first appearance since he closed out Game 7 of the 2025 World Series, which is a sentence that tells you what the Dodgers think of him in October.
He needed 98 pitches. The inning-by-inning count was 15, 17, 12, 13, 18, 12, 11. That is not a pitcher grinding through traffic. That is a pitcher who knew exactly what he wanted to throw.
What the numbers actually mean
No Dodger had put up a postseason start of at least seven innings with 10 or more strikeouts and one run or fewer since Blake Snell did it in Game 1 of the 2025 National League Wild Card Series. Yamamoto is also the third Japanese-born pitcher with a double-digit-strikeout postseason game, joining Shohei Ohtani in the 2025 NLCS and Hiroki Kuroda in the 2012 ALCS.
Dave Roberts has said he trusts Yamamoto completely and would give him every chance to finish what he starts. Based on Tuesday, that is not blind loyalty.
All of it happened in two swings
The Dodgers scored every run in a two-batter span in the fourth. Enrique Hernandez hit a two-run homer to left on a Chris Sale changeup, measured at 406 feet. Freddie Freeman followed with a solo shot to right. Sale had been untouchable before that and was fine after it.
Atlanta’s only run came in the fifth, bases loaded, when Drake Baldwin grounded into a force play on a first-pitch sinker and Mauricio Dubon scored. That was the whole offensive output. The Braves went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left six on base.
The Braves lineup is the problem, not the pitching
Atlanta’s bullpen threw four scoreless innings behind Sale. Dylan Dodd, Dylan Lee, Brent Suter and Raisel Iglesias handed over nothing. The pitching staff is doing its job.
The middle of the order is not. Ronald Acuna Jr. is 3-for-21 through six playoff games. Baldwin is 3-for-23 with six strikeouts. Matt Olson is 4-for-23 with nine strikeouts and one home run. Those three are supposed to be the reason Atlanta scores, and right now they are the reason it does not.
Walt Weiss is backing them publicly. He called his hitters “aircraft carriers” who are always one at-bat from changing a game, and said that every time one of them steps in the box he thinks something good is going to happen. Austin Riley was a little more direct about Sale, saying “he’s human” and adding that the team has “got to score some runs.”
Game 4 is the whole season
Tyler Mahle starts Game 4 for Atlanta at Truist Park. He has a 1.99 ERA in nine starts since the Braves acquired him on August 2, after a 5.13 ERA in 18 starts with San Francisco. He threw seven scoreless at the Dodgers on April 22, his only look at them this year.
Weiss called Mahle “unbelievable” and admitted the team “could never have anticipated he would be this good.” Tyler Glasnow is the probable for Los Angeles.
Mahle has earned the start. The question is whether anyone behind him will hit.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.