Dodgers walked off for the second straight night

ATLANTA — Okay. Now, I’m worried. For the second straight night, the Dodgers lost a lead in a very winnable game and got walked off in the bottom of the ninth. Leading 4-2 in the eighth, Julio Urias gave up two runs in relief and then Brusdar Graterol and Kenley Jansen couldn’t hold the Braves in the ninth. This time, it was Eddie Rosario who smoked a two-out single under the glove of Corey Seager for the walk-off winner in a 5-4 Braves victory. And now, the Dodgers are in deep, deep, trouble.

Mookie and Corey get it going in the first

It didn’t seem like it would come down to the bottom of the ninth in the early going. The Dodgers did everything they needed to do in this one. They put runs on the board early and chased starter Ian Anderson out of the game after just three innings. The runs came in the first two hitters of the the evening. Mookie Betts started the game with a wounded duck single to left just out of the reach of shortstop Dansby Swanson. Then Corey Seager came to the plate and got the Dodgers on the board. The first pitch he saw from Anderson was a get-me-over breaking ball that was way too meaty. Seager mashed the pitch to deep right field and it landed well in the stands for a two-run home run.

More LOB

Nice as the dinger was, the Dodgers had a chance to add on in the inning. Will Smith and Chris Taylor both walked in between a couple of outs, so the Dodgers had some action going for Cody Bellinger. However, Bellinger flied to center this time, and the inning was over. It was the start of an evening of frustration for the Dodgers, as time and time again they failed to get a clutch hit when it was needed. Just like last night, it felt like this one could have been blown open early and wasn’t. In all, the Dodgers would hit 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and strand ten runners on base. Not great.

Mad Max sharp early

The Dodgers’ starter was Max Scherzer and he was mowing them down early. He looked to have no lingering effects of his relief appearance as he moved the first time through the Braves’ batting order. Through the first three innings, Scherzer was spotting his pitches well, and though he gave up a couple of singles in there, he struck out five. Things seemed to be cruising along for the Dodgers’ ace.

Joctober strikes back

For years, the Dodgers have been the beneficiaries of “Joctober”, the habit of former Dodger Joc Pederson to mash in the postseason. Unfortunately, this year, they were on the receiving end of the phenomenon. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Max Scherzer gave up a one-out walk to hot-hitting Austin Riley and up came Joctober himself, rocking that string of pearls. Scherzer started him off with a cutter that was off the plate for ball one. At least the Dodgers knew enough not to give Pederson his favorite food of fastballs. Trying some more breaking stuff, Scherzer came back with a curve that was a little too tasty.

Pederson absolutely pulverized the pitch, sending it over 450 feet into the Georgia night. It landed deep in the stands in right field for a two-run, game-tying home run. With one swing of the bat, the Dodgers’ early momentum had been erased, and we were back to square one in this game.

Dodgers fail to capitalize on wildness from Atlanta pitching

The Braves pitchers were having trouble finding the plate all night. In all, they gave up nine walks and one hit batsman, so there were all kinds of ducks on the pond for the Dodgers in this one. However, nobody could come through with that one key hit. In fact, they had trouble coming up with any hits at all. Other than the two hits that led off the game, they only got two other knocks the whole night. That’s just not going to get it done in the postseason, even when the other team is dead set on giving you free baserunners.

Scherzer’s night ends early, but bullpen arms hold the line

This was another night in which Max Scherzer was pulled pretty early. After just 79 pitches, Dave Roberts took the ball in the bottom of the fifth with one out and one on. After a bullpen game on Saturday, it was asking a lot to get another 14 outs out of the pen in this one.

However, for the most part, the relief corps stepped up and did their job. Alex Vesia came on and finished off the fifth with two straight strikeouts. However, using Vesia in this spot meant he was unavailable later in the game. And that decision came back to work against the Dodgers later in the game. In the sixth, Joe Kelly was terrific again, getting a strikeout of Austin Riley and a couple of routine outs on balls in play. So, Roberts and his pen had taken the game into the seventh with the score still tied at two.

Finlly, a clutch hit!

In the top of the seventh, the Dodgers got only one hit, but it was a big one. Mookie Betts led off against reliever Tyler Matzek, and ground out a ten-pitch at-bat for a walk. With Corey Seager batting, Betts stole second, but Seager struck out on the ball. However, there was one out and a runner in scoring position yet again for the Dodgers. When Trea Turner struck out for the second out of the inning, it looked like the Dodgers might squander yet another opportunity.

However, Braves skipper Brian Snitker employed some strategy of his own that blew up in his face. Will Smith was intentionally walked. Dave Roberts countered by calling on Justin Turner (on the bench with a slight neck injury) to hit for Gavin Lux. Snitker punched back by bringing in reliever Luke Jackson to pitch and outfielder Guillermo Heredia to replace Adam Duvall in center as part of a double switch. The end result of all these wheels in motion was that Jackson promptly plunked Justin Turner in forearm on the third pitch he threw. The bases were now loaded up the bases for Chris Taylor.

Taylor, who already had his share of big at-bat this post season, dug in for another. He took a four-seamer down the pipe from Jackson for strike one. Then he got a very similar pitch a little up in the zone and put a good swing it. It flared into centerfield and Heredia closed hard on the ball. However, he just wasn’t able to make up enough ground and the ball bounced and scooted under the centerfielder’s glove for a double. Two runs would score, and the Dodgers were in the lead with a 4-2 advantage.

With men still on second and third, the Braves gave an intentional pass to Cody Bellinger to load the bases for AJ Pollock. And in an at-bat that Pollock will be thinking about for a while, he struck out on four straight sliders, only one of which was in the zone. So, once again, the Dodgers had a chance to extend their lead, but could not do it. And once again, it would come back to haunt the Dodgers.

Weird use of Urias results in runs for the Braves

Though he still had a lot of bullpen pieces available to him for the eighth, Dave Roberts chose to pitch Julio Urias in the eighth inning as the bridge to Kenley Jansen in the ninth. On one hand it makes sense. There were a lot of lefthanders coming up in the eighth, and Alex Vesia had already been used in the fifth. However, it was only Game 2 of the series and Urias was going to be needed in Game 4. Anyway, on paper it wasn’t a horrible move if it had worked out.

But it didn’t. Leadoff man Eddie Rosario slapped an opposite field single past a drawn-in Corey Seager to get the Braves started in the inning. And then the Eddie Rosario Experience began. Freddie Freeman flew out to AJ Pollock, and in a very risky move, Rosario tried to tag up from first. If Pollock’s throw had been on the bag, Rosario was out, but Trea Turner had to step off the bag to field it, and Rosario slid under Turner’s tag.

With a runner in scoring position, Ozzie Albies singled to right, and third base coach Ron Washington got uber-aggressive with Rosario at second. He waved Rosario home, challenging defensive replacement Steven Souza Jr. to throw him out at the plate. It was a good throw, but Rosario took great path to home and just did touch the plate with his hand before catcher Will Smith could apply the tag. It was now 4-3 Dodgers.

With Albies on first, Saturday’s hero Austin Riley came up big again in this one. He ripped the first pitch he saw from Urias over the head of Mookie Betts in center for a double. Once again, Ron Washington smelled a run, and sent Albies home all the way from first. The relay got to the plate a split second too late and Albies slid home with tying run. Though Urias struck out the next two hitters, the damage had been done. Roberts’ Urias strategy blew up in his face and it will be hard to live this one down if the Dodgers don’t come back to win the series.

Graterol and Kenley give up the winning run

After the Dodgers could get nothing going in their half of the ninth, it was up to flamethrower Brusdar Graterol to get the game into extra frames. He came out smoking with his usually triple-digit stuff. In fact, he exploded Travis d’Arnaud‘s bat on the first swing of the inning. Unfortunately, d’Arnaud was able to get enough of the ball, broken bat and all, to muscle it into center for a leadoff single.

Dansby Swanson was next up, and tried to punch pinch runner Christian Pache to second. However, when you bunt a ball moving a hundred miles an hour, it comes off the bat quite a ways. It ended up being a come-backer to Graterol that he was able to throw to Corey Seager for a force out to keep the double play in order, and more importantly, keep the speedy Pache out of scoring position. The next hitter, Guillermo Heredia, looked completely overmatched against the Graterol sinker. But in the end, he was able to send a nubber down the third base line that Chris Taylor had only one play on. The runner ended up in scoring position after all.

Roberts got up and made another move. He called for Kenley Jansen to get the final out of the game. Jansen had been so good so far in the postseason, there was no reason why he couldn’t be expected to take care of Eddie Rosario in this one. That’s not the way it played out, though. Jansen started Rosario off with his bread-and-butter pitch, the cutter, but he caught a bit too much of the plate with it. Rosario smoked the pitch up the middle, right to a well-positioned Corey Seager. Seager went down to field the hot shot, but the ball just scooted under his glove and into centerfield for a single. Mookie Betts had no play on the ball, and Dansby Swanson came around to score easily. Once again. Game over. 5-4 Braves.

This one hurts

There is a lot to digest and talk about in these two games in Atlanta, but the main theme has to be said again and again. The Dodgers just aren’t getting timely hits up and down the lineup. If they don’t do something about that, and do something quickly, this could end up being a very short series indeed.

Travel day on Monday. The series resumes with a day game in LA on Tuesday. Walker Buehler vs. Charlie Morton. Time to man up boys. This series isn’t lost, but it is teetering. It’s up to the 2021 Dodgers to show what they’re made of.