Dodgers come from behind to move into first place

LOS ANGELES — Finally!

Hello, first place. How we’ve missed you! After spending the four solid months looking up at the Giants in the standings, the Dodgers are now on top of the NL West, beating the Atlanta Braves 4-3 in dramatic fashion on Wednesday night, completing a sweep of their 2020 NLCS rivals. With the Dodgers’ win and the Giants’ loss to Milwaukee, the Dodgers are now in sole possession of first place.

Two solo shots get Dodgers up early

The Dodgers got on the board early on Wednesday night. After Dodgers starter Max Scherzer pitched a scoreless first, the Dodgers got to work in the bottom of the inning. Hitting second in the inning, Max Muncy took Braves starter Max Fried deep to right for a solo shot to break the ice on the evening. And this is probably the only paragraph I will ever write that will have three different guys named Max in it. Anyway, the Dodgers win the first by a score of two Maxes to one.

Then, in the third, catcher Austin Barnes hit a solo shot of his own. He took a Fried fastball over the left field fence to put the Dodgers up 2-0. It’s good to see that Barnes is continuing to come up with good at-bats, even though his starts have been few and far between since Clayton Kershaw went on the IL. However, if Barnsey is simpatico with Scherzer, I say keep it going and give the Fresh Prince some rest every five days.

Scherzer awesome, but exits early

Meanwhile, Max Scherzer had it going on tonight. Though he gave up three hits in his six innings of work, he was otherwise untouchable, pounding the zone with nasty stuff and getting whiffs galore. In all, Mad Max struck out nine Braves on the night. However, after six innings and only 76 pitches, Scherzer did not return to the mound to pitch the top of the seventh, setting Twitter ablaze decrying what a dope Dave Roberts was for yanking him too early. However, Scherzer revealed in a postgame interview that he was pitching through some tightness in his hamstring on Wednesday, and that he and Roberts didn’t want to push it too hard in that case. Still, tight hammy or no, Scherzer was dominant on this night: 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 9 K.

Bullpen gives up the lead

However, once Scherzer was out of the game, it was up to the bullpen to preserve the narrow 2-0 lead. And, almost immediately that didn’t happen. In the seventh, Brusdar Graterol surrendered a two-run oppo taco from Eddi Rosario, and in the eighth, usually steady Alex Vesia was touched for a homer in his second straight outing, giving up a big fly to prettyboy shortstop Dansby Swanson. Suddenly, after being in such control for most of the game, the Dodgers found themselves down 3-2 with only two innings to go.

Turner, Turner, and Pollock for the win

The bottom of the eighth was the key inning for the second straight night. With the Braves clinging to a one-run lead, the top of the Dodgers’ batting order stepped to the plate against reliever Chris (not the Coldplay guy) Martin. Trea Turner got the party started with a leadoff double, injecting some life into the Dodgers’ crowd. Max Muncy had a nice at-bat that resulted in an infield out which moved Turner to third. After a Mookie strikeout (his fourth on the night), Justin Turner stepped to the plate with a two-out RBI chance. Martin might have gotten squeezed on a pretty good looking pitch early in the count, but finally Turner got a pitch he could do something with. Turner bounced a ball to the hole on the left side and it bounded into left field to easily score Trea from third.

With the score now tied, Corey Seager was able to work a walk to put Justin Turner into scoring position. Enter AJ Pollock, no stranger to late-inning heroics of late. On the very first pitch he saw, AJ ripped a solid single into left, and Ol’ Man Turner was able to huff his way around the bases for the go-ahead run. So you see, it is possible to score runs without hitting homers. Good thing to keep in mind for future use.

The Joe Kelly experience in the ninth

With both Kenley Jansen and Blake Treinen unavailable on Wednesday, it fell on Joe Kelly to nail down the save. And, while Kelly has been known to be a lot more drama than necessary, in this game he was a business-like killer. He got three fairly easy ground ball outs to end the game. No fuss, no muss. Game over. Dodgers win 4-3.

On to San Francisco for epic matchup

In my wildest dreams, I thought that maybe the Dodgers could gain enough on the Giants to go into the series this weekend down a game or two. Never did I think that we’d be heading up north actually IN first place. But that is exactly what has happened. God bless, you, Milwaukee Brewers. We owe you a solid. Not during the playoffs or anything, but still.

Because of the odd choices for starters over the last few days, the only thing we know right now is that Urias will get the Saturday game and Buehler will be throwing on Sunday. Who will get the start on Friday after the off-day? Who knows? Maybe David Price? Maybe Andre Jackson? Maybe Mitch White? Maybe Johnny Wholestaff? We shall see soon enough. In the meantime, we can enjoy at least 48 hours of being the NL West Division leaders. Feels nice to say that.