LOS ANGELES \u2014 Tarik Skubal tossed six dominant innings in triple-digit heat, Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez, Kyle Tucker and Max Muncy homered, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 5-3 in Game 1 of their NL Division Series on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The game-time temperature of 100 degrees (38 Celsius) fell just short of equaling the Dodger Stadium record of 103 degrees at Game 1 of the 2017 World Series. The feels-like temperature was 105 degrees, with umpires chugging water between innings and fans shielding their heads with giveaway towels on a cloudless day.<\/p>\n
Skubal was cool, though.<\/p>\n
The two-time Cy Young Award winner allowed one run and two hits, struck out seven and walked two while starting a postseason game at home for the first time in his career. His previous playoff starts were all on the road for the Detroit Tigers, who traded him to the two-time defending World Series champions just before the Aug. 3 deadline.<\/p>\n
Skubal\u2019s 63 strikeouts are the second-most in a pitcher\u2019s first seven postseason appearances behind Bob Gibson\u2019s 74.<\/p>\n
Game 2 is Sunday evening at Dodger Stadium, when an extreme heat warning remains in effect.<\/p>\n
Hern\u00e1ndez and Tucker each hit a two-run homer against the Braves\u2019 bullpen. Atlanta\u2019s rotation got upended during its three-game NL Wild Card Series win over Philadelphia, with the Braves using ace Chris Sale in relief in the deciding game.<\/p>\n
The Braves managed just four hits. Sean Murphy\u2019s two-strike, 421-foot homer leading off the sixth left them trailing 2-1.<\/p>\n
Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. singled leading off the ninth against reliever Tanner Scott, who then served up a 432-foot homer to Ozzie Albies, cutting the lead to 5-3. Scott then got two outs before Evan Phillips induced a groundout by Austin Riley with a runner aboard to earn the save.<\/p>\n
Braves starter Dylan Dodd tossed three scoreless innings and gave up only singles to Shohei Ohtani in the first and Mookie Betts in the third.<\/p>\n
The Dodgers broke through against Atlanta\u2019s bullpen in the fourth. Losing pitcher Victor Mederos walked Freddie Freeman before serving up Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s 431-foot shot to left-center, making it 2-0.<\/p>\n
Still bothered by nagging arm and knee issues, Ohtani batted second behind Betts and lined to second with a runner on to end the third and flied out with a runner on in the fifth.<\/p>\n
Tucker went deep in the sixth and Muncy added a solo shot off AJ Smith-Shawver two batters later, extending the lead to 5-1.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
The Braves had yet to announce a starter for Game 2 on Sunday against Dodgers LHP Blake Snell, a two-time Cy Young Award winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Tarik Skubal tossed six dominant innings in triple-digit heat, Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez, Kyle Tucker and Max…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-919833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}