Walt Weiss ran a bullpen game against the defending champions and won it. The Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 on Sunday to tie the National League Division Series at 1-1, and the move looks smarter by the hour.
Six Arms, One Plan
Ray Kerr opened for the second time in four days and gave Atlanta 2 2/3 scoreless innings. The 32-year-old lefty did it on short rest, per MLB.com. Then 21-year-old Didier Fuentes took over and covered 3 2/3 innings, allowing one run.
Fuentes averaged 97.3 mph with his fastball in the regular season and sat at 99.4 in this game, according to MLB.com. “It was super emotional and very exciting,” he said. “So I just give thanks to God for the help.” Weiss used six pitchers in all, and the Braves allowed just two runs, both on solo homers by Max Muncy and Freddie Freeman.
Snell Never Found It
The Dodgers’ own plan came apart early. Blake Snell had thrown only five innings over two and a half weeks because of left groin tightness, and it showed. He walked five, including two in the first that helped load the bases, and Mauricio Dubon singled in a run with two outs.
Snell lasted 3 2/3 innings and 90 pitches. Dave Roberts needed six relievers behind him. Starting a pitcher who has barely worked in weeks in a playoff game is a gamble, and Los Angeles lost it.
Freeman’s fourth-inning homer tied the game. It was his first extra-base hit since September 2, which says plenty about where the Dodgers lineup is right now.
Harris Makes the Difference
Michael Harris II was the best player on the field. His fifth-inning triple, helped along by a misplay from Teoscar Hernandez, set up the go-ahead run on a wild pitch. He added an RBI double in the seventh.
The Dodgers went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven. A lineup with that much talent should not be held to two solo shots by a patchwork pitching staff.
Now the series flips to Truist Park on Tuesday with Yoshinobu Yamamoto facing Chris Sale. Atlanta kept its best arm rested while stealing a game in Los Angeles, and that is the entire point of a bullpen game. According to MLB.com, teams that split the first two games on the road in the 2-2-1 format have won the series 61 percent of the time.
The Braves are not just surviving this series. Weiss is managing it, and Roberts is reacting.
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.