LOS ANGELES — Dodger Stadium is one of those ballparks that sits in the middle of a vast parking lot. It’s an old, huge, no-frills venue that stands out during this era of smaller and newer stadiums with nicer amenities. When I come here I can’t help but think about the ugly part of the stadium’s history: hundreds of families, most of them Mexican-American, violently displaced and Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley eventually getting land earmarked for public purpose for cheap.
I shouldn’t like Dodger Stadium for those reasons, but honestly, I’ve always loved this place. The Braves apparently do not like Dodger Stadium, even though they should. It’s a place that favors pitching, which long has been the foundation for the Braves. Yet for so long the Braves have come here and lost to the Dodgers, whether they got good pitching or not.
They were so close to changing that on Tuesday. The Braves were five outs away from taking a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series. Historically, that’s a near-insurmountable lead. Then Cody Bellinger belted a three-run homer off Luke Jackson to tie the score in the eighth inning, and Mookie Betts hit a two-out, RBI double to send the Dodgers to a 6-5 victory.
The Braves still lead the series 2-1, but the rejuvenated Dodgers can draw on good history. They came back to beat the Braves in last year’s NLCS after trailing 2-0 and 3-1. They’ve now won eight consecutive games and 11 of 12 (including playoffs) against the Braves at Dodger Stadium. And they get two more chances to do it again before the series returns to Atlanta.
Last year’s NLCS was played on a neutral field in Texas. The return to stadiums with partisan supporters helped the Braves win Games 1 and 2 at Truist Park. The Dodgers got a similar boost while taking a 2-0 lead in the first inning of Game 3. The Braves quieted their fans by taking leads of 4-2 in the fourth and 5-2 in the fifth.
“We were dead in the water,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
They suddenly came alive against Jackson in the eighth. Will Smith led off with a single and AJ Pollock got a hit with one out. Bellinger scored them by belting Jackson’s 1-2 pitch out to right-center field. Chris Taylor followed with a single before Jesse Chavez replaced Jackson. Chavez gave up the RBI double to Betts.
What a crushing loss for the Braves. Starting pitcher Charlie Morton had added another effective postseason outing to a resume full of them. In Games 1 and 2, the Braves got little production from All-Star Freddie Freeman or the bottom half of the order. In Game 4, Freeman had three hits and a walk while No. 6 hitter Adam Duvall and No. 8 Dansby Swanson provided pop.
None of that ended up mattering because Jackson couldn’t hold the lead. His fastball to Bellinger was above the strike zone.
“It hurts,” Jackson said. “We lost the game because I made a couple bad pitches that some days are outs, and some days they’re home runs. (But) to feel like this is like a dagger, no, this is just a speed bump in the road.”
It could turn out that way for the Braves. Or it could be that they’ve once again let the Dodgers off the mat after they’d knocked them down.
The Dodgers took a 2-0 lead on Corey Seager’s two-run homer in the first inning. They stranded runners on base in every subsequent inning except the seventh. Bellinger finally cashed in with his homer.
Dodgers fans who were dormant seeing all those scoring chances squandered erupted as their team once again bested the Braves in this stadium.
“That’s as loud as I’ve heard Dodger Stadium,” Roberts said.
The Braves didn’t have to win this game. They don’t need to win any of the three games here to advance to the World Series for the first time since 1999. But winning Game 3 would have drastically improved their outlook even beyond the historical probabilities: 38 of 39 MLB teams that have led a series 3-0 lead went on to win.
Braves manager Brian Snitker is planning a so-called bullpen game for Game 4 on Wednesday. That would have been a less-worrisome proposition with a 3-0 lead. The Braves have tough lefty Max Fried lined up for Game 5. Now they’ll have to win Game 4 to have a chance to clinch with him starting.
The Braves took control of Game 3 after it started off looking like another letdown for them in Los Angeles. Their first two batters, Eddie Rosario and Freeman, reached on singles and Ozzie Albies smacked a line drive that was tailing away from Gavin Lux. But the center fielder snagged the ball and doubled up Rosario, who inexplicably was about two-thirds of the way to third base.
That was a potential run the Braves could have used later. Austin Riley struck out to end the Braves’ first inning, so they didn’t score after putting their first two runners on base. That sequence energized Dodgers fans. They were further invigorated by a stirring performance by a mariachi band paying homage to Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly.
The party kept going in the bottom of the inning. Morton walked Betts, the first batter, before Seager launched a hanging curveball an estimated 444 feet to center field. The Braves were down 2-0 to the Dodgers, same as in Game 2. It could have been worse: Morton issued three consecutive walks with two outs to load the bases before Taylor lined out softly.
The Braves came back in the fourth inning, same as in Game 2. Freeman led off with a single and, with one out, Riley smacked right-hander Walker Buehler’s fastball high and deep to right-center field. Lux got twisted up tracking the ball — maybe he lost it in the sun — and dropped it near the wall.
The play was ruled a double for Riley. Instead of a runner at first with two outs, the Braves had runners at second and third with one out. That was the beginning of Buehler’s unraveling.
Pederson hit a hard single to score Freeman — home plate umpire Jerry Meals called a ball on what looked like strike three — and Duvall’s broken-bat hit brought home Riley. Buehler walked Travis d’Arnaud on four pitches before Swanson hit a sizzling ground ball that glanced off shortstop Seager’s glove for an RBI single.
Buehler walked Rosario to score another run. Roberts pulled Buehler for Alex Vesia, who got Freeman to fly out to end the Braves’ fourth. The Braves added another run in the fifth. Albies led off with a single against Corey Knebel and the next batter, Riley, walked. Phil Bickford replaced Knebel and surrendered an RBI single to Duvall.
Those runs weren’t enough for the Braves to finally win a big game at Dodger Stadium. If there can be silver lining in the loss, it’s that the Dodgers used nine pitchers. They are set to start Julio Urias in Game 4 after he blew a save chance as a reliever in Game 2.
The Braves still lead the series and they still can take it home with them. They have two more chances to win here, but first they’ll have to get over blowing this one.
“They will be fine,” Snitker said of his players. They will come out (and) they will be ready to play. They’re going to prepare as always. We have lost tough games before and bounced back and done really good things.”
They just haven’t done it for a long time in Dodger Stadium, their L.A. house of horrors.
About the Author
