By admin 
LOS ANGELES – Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he got the word from his Atlanta Braves counterpart on Sunday morning – the Braves would be going with another bullpen game in Game 2 of their National League Division Series and the Dodgers wouldn’t see ace Chris Sale until Tuesday in Atlanta.
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As many times as Roberts has had to be on the other end of that text in Octobers past, his Rice Krispies must have had an extra snap, crackle and pop after that. Roberts had another one of his four aces lined up to start Sunday night.
But Blake Snell didn’t pitch like an ace. He threw 90 pitches to get only 10 outs, lasting just two outs longer than the Braves’ opener (left-hander Ray Kerr) and Roberts found himself in the same boat as Walt Weiss. The two managers cycled through 12 pitchers in all.
It took a village, but the Braves evened the best-of-five series with a 3-2 victory in Game 2.
Game 3 will be at Truist Park on Tuesday with Yoshinobu Yamamoto scheduled to start against the late-arriving Sale.
Snell was moved ahead of Yamamoto in the NLDS rotation despite having pitched just five innings in a little over three weeks – one inning before leaving his Sept. 16 start with a groin muscle issue and four in his final regular-season start on Sept. 26. He did face hitters during an intrasquad game on Wednesday.
The inactivity showed as Snell reverted to an early-career version of himself – running deep counts and walking batters.
He walked two in the first inning and gave up a run on an infield single. He walked another with two outs in the second and two more in the fourth, bringing Roberts out of the dugout to end Snell’s struggles.
The Dodgers’ offense had its own struggles against the five relievers Weiss called upon.
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Freddie Freeman regained his power stroke with a home run off Grand Holmes leading off the fourth inning. It was his first homer since Sept. 2 and only his second since – yes, this is not a misprint – July 4, a stretch of 283 plate appearances.
But the Dodgers wasted a leadoff double by Miguel Rojas in the third inning, stranded two runners in the fourth after Freeman’s homer, put the first two on base in the fifth and did nothing with it.
They Dodgers went 0 for 8 with seven runners left on base in the first five innings – then Didier Fuentes entered the group chat.
Fuentes entered the game in the sixth inning and retired 11 straight Dodgers until he gave up a solo home run to Max Muncy in the ninth.
No one from the Dodgers’ army of relievers was able to step up like that.
Roberts turned to lefty Kris Bubic in the fifth inning. He retired the first two batters, but Michael Harris II reached out to get a pitch well off the plate and send a drive into the left-field corner. Teoscar Hernandez did not play it well, didn’t get there in time then let it get by him after the ball bounced off the wall.
Harris rode all the way to third for a triple and scored when Bubic sailed a pitch high and away to Mauricio Dubón. The ball clipped Will Smith’s glove and went to the backstop.
In the seventh, Edgardo Henriquez made his first appearance since Sept. 13 (due to a lower back injury). He gave up a one-out single to Matt Olson then Harris got him as well, one-hopping a two-out RBI double off the wall in right-center field.
Muncy’s home run made it a one-run game and Roberts sent rookie Josue De Paula to the plate to face Braves closer Raisel Iglesias. He popped out to end the game.
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More to come on this story.
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