{"id":485534,"date":"2026-10-05T07:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T07:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/485534\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T07:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T07:28:14","slug":"dodgers-blow-chance-to-seize-control-of-nlds-fall-to-braves-in-game-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/485534\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers blow chance to seize control of NLDS, fall to Braves in Game 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The inning could have \u2014 arguably should have \u2014 been over already. But instead, the Atlanta Braves<\/a>\u2019 Michael Harris II stood 90 feet away from scoring the go-ahead run.<\/p>\n

And the Dodgers<\/a>, who failed to take care of the little things Sunday night, handed the lead back to the Braves.<\/p>\n

Left-handed reliever Kris Bubic<\/a> lost control of a sweeper. And it flew high and outside, off the end of catcher Will Smith<\/a>\u2019s glove and to the edge of the grass behind home plate.<\/p>\n

Harris scored standing up. And the Dodgers trailed for the final five innings of Game 2 of the National League Division Series, ultimately a 3-2 loss, evening the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to give in there,\u201d said Bubic, who was trying to throw that slider for strike in a 2-and-0 count to Mauricio Dub\u00f3n. \u201cBut that\u2019s the last thing you want to do there.\u201d<\/p>\n

That wild pitch was one of many Dodgers missteps Sunday.<\/p>\n

They entered Game 2 with a long list of advantages: The Dodgers were playing at home, they had momentum from the win the day before, they had one of best starting pitchers on the mound to counter a second straight Braves bullpen game. <\/p>\n

They gave away every edge they had.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all knew it was going to be a good series,\u201d veteran first baseman Freddie Freeman<\/a> said. \u201cJust two really good teams going at it. Pitching\u2019s been really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Braves left-hander Ray Kerr, who excelled down the stretch as a long reliever, served as the opener Sunday. And the Braves used six pitchers, leaning on right-hander Didier Fuentes for 3\u2154 innings, to hold the Dodgers to two solo homers.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers, despite starting two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell<\/a>, used seven pitchers. So much for that advantage.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The Dodgers managed just two hits off Kerr, each to open an inning. Freeman lined a single into right field to kick off the second. And Miguel Rojas sent a double into the left-field corner to begin the third.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers stranded both \u2014 in sequences that included a pop-out bunt from Tommy Edman. Shohei Ohtani was the last batter Kerr faced, and with two runners on and one out, Ohtani popped up a high cutter in a full count.<\/p>\n

Snell lasted only one inning more than Kerr.<\/p>\n

Snell\u2019s first frame easily could have spiraled. With one out, he gave up a single to Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. and walked Matt Olson and Ozzie Albies to load the bases. But Snell escaped with just one run scored, on a grounder up the middle from Dub\u00f3n. Shortstop Mookie Betts made a diving stop but had no chance at throwing out Dub\u00f3n.<\/p>\n

Snell then struck out Sean Murphy to end the inning, finishing the at-bat with three straight curveballs for strikes.<\/p>\n

The one-run deficit could be erased. But the damage on his pitch count, up to 27 in that first inning, was done.<\/p>\n

Snell surrendered just one more hit, but when he issued his fifth walk with two outs in the fourth inning, his pitch count was up to 90. Manager Dave Roberts strode from the dugout to pull him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just was fighting himself with his delivery all game,\u201d Roberts said, saying the groin injury that limited Snell in late September had not resurfaced. \u201cI think in total, didn\u2019t have fastball command, didn\u2019t have slider command, and the changeup wasn\u2019t there. He was pulling it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the bottom half of the inning, Freeman, who was optimistic that he could shake off his September slump over the bye week, tied the score with a homer. But sloppy play extended the fifth inning and put the Dodgers in a hole again.<\/p>\n

With two outs, in an 0-and-2 count, Bubic got Harris to chase an outside sweeper moving away from him. Harris leaned over to get his bat out to it and sent a line drive into the left field corner.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers\u2019 Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a> took a circuitous route to the ball and still missed by only inches. It caromed off the wall, allowing Harris to reach third base, in position to score on Bubic\u2019s wild pitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think he hit it that good,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cI didn\u2019t break in, but I broke to the side, and then when I realized, it was too late. Maybe I had a shot on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers had a chance at a comeback as soon as they were at bat again. But after they got two runners on against left-hander Dylan Lee, the Braves turned to Robert Suarez. He and Fuentes combined to retire 14 straight \u2014 a streak Max Muncy finally broke by hitting a homer with two outs in the ninth inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt showed that they\u2019re going to use any pitcher, try to get every matchup possible,\u201d Roberts said. \u201c Obviously them pushing Fuentes to almost four innings, 40-something pitches, shows they\u2019re going to ride certain guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Muncy celebrates while crossing home plate after a solo home run during the ninth inning Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

While the Dodgers have a deeper rotation, the bullpen advantage goes to the Braves.<\/p>\n

The Braves expanded their lead in the seventh inning against hard-throwing right-hander Edgardo Henriquez, who gave up a single to Olson and an RBI double to Harris.<\/p>\n

Then right-hander Roki Sasaki got himself into a bases-loaded situation in the eighth, with Acu\u00f1a at the plate, but got out of it with a double play. Sasaki then retired the side in order in the ninth.<\/p>\n

Next, the series heads to Atlanta for two games. And Game 3 will be a matchup of two aces, Chris Sale for the Braves and Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the Dodgers.<\/p>\n

No longer is everything stacked in the Dodgers\u2019 favor.<\/p>\n

Said Hern\u00e1ndez: \u201cWe\u2019ve been in tougher spots than this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The inning could have \u2014 arguably should have \u2014 been over already. But instead, the Atlanta Braves\u2019 Michael…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[41016,4472,10445,19222,426,423,11471,120948,4468,48,52,51,5814,47,50,49,113043,2967,18649,425,4467],"class_list":["post-485534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-advantage","tag-ball","tag-braves","tag-control","tag-dodgers","tag-game","tag-harris","tag-home-plate","tag-inning","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lead","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-matt-olson","tag-out","tag-pitch-count","tag-series","tag-snell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}