Atlanta did something smart in Game 2. It won with a bullpen game, which meant it never had to use Chris Sale, which means Sale starts Game 3 at home on six days of rest.
The NLDS is tied 1-1 heading to Truist Park on Tuesday night, Yoshinobu Yamamoto against Sale at 6 p.m. ET.
Skubal Was Untouchable in Game 1
The Dodgers won the opener 5-3 at Dodger Stadium in 100-degree heat, and Tarik Skubal made his first playoff start in Los Angeles look routine: six innings, two hits, one run and none earned, two walks, seven strikeouts, with 15 straight Braves retired at one point.
Teoscar Hernandez hit a 431-foot two-run homer in the fourth after a Freddie Freeman walk, Kyle Tucker added a two-run shot in the sixth and Max Muncy went solo. Sean Murphy and Ozzie Albies homered for Atlanta, at 421 and 432 feet. Braves starter Dylan Dodd gave three scoreless innings.
Game 2 Belonged to a Guy Who Found Out That Morning
Atlanta won 3-2 with Ray Kerr, 32, opening. He learned he was starting the morning of the game, three days after pitching in the wild card clincher, and threw two and two-thirds scoreless innings with four strikeouts before handing over a 1-0 lead.
Blake Snell could not match it. He went three and two-thirds on 90 pitches with five walks, coming off a late-season groin injury that had limited him to five innings over the final two weeks. “He just wasn’t sharp tonight,” Dave Roberts said.
Michael Harris II went 3-for-4 with a triple and drove in the go-ahead run on a wild pitch. “I knew I didn’t fully get it … I just had to keep digging,” he said. Freeman homered off Grant Holmes in the fourth, his first since Sept. 2, and is 3-for-7 with a home run in the series. “I feel good, so I think we can be done with those questions,” he said.
The Ohtani Problem
Shohei Ohtani spent half of September on the injured list. He is carrying a .569 OPS across the first two games of this series plus the last four games of the 2025 World Series.
That is a small sample and it is also eight meaningful games of nothing from the best hitter alive. Los Angeles is trying to win a third straight title after 2024 and 2025, and it cannot do that with Ohtani as a passenger.
Why Sale Is Not a Guaranteed Edge
Sale won the 2024 NL Cy Young. He also owns a 5.83 career postseason ERA, which is one of the great disconnects in modern baseball.
Atlanta finished 94-68 and won the NL East under Walt Weiss, who replaced Brian Snitker and is managing his first postseason in Atlanta. The Braves got here by beating Philadelphia in the wild card round, using six pitchers in the deciding game. Los Angeles finished 100-62 and won the NL West.
Atlanta’s last title was 2021, and this franchise has lost a pile of Division Series since. Weiss already made the right call once in this series by refusing to burn his best arm in a game he could win with volunteers. Now he finds out whether the reward is worth it.
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.