As the Dodgers and Braves headed to the bottom of the seventh inning, Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts waved the white flag. He removed stars Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts from the lineup. He also put in a new pitcher.
Shortstop Miguel Rojas.
Yes, Roberts used a position player on the mound – in the seventh inning! This is something that almost exclusively happens in the eighth or ninth.
But this is a perfect encapsulation of how this game went. The Braves dominated the Dodgers, who are in first place in the National League West.
The Braves blew out Los Angeles, 10-1, on Saturday at Truist Park. Atlanta has won the first two games of this four-game set and is in position to win, or even sweep, the series.
Oh, and with the win, the Braves tied the Mets for the third and final wild-card spot in the National League.
Five observations:
1. For the sixth time this season, a manager used a position player on the mound in the seventh inning. The Dodgers are responsible for two of them – they also did it on July 9 in Philadelphia. All six instances were done by visiting teams.
Technically, the Dodgers only used a position player for two innings.
Still, you rarely see it that early – and it’s a sign of the damage Atlanta did over these first two games.
On Friday, Landon Knack lasted only two innings. On Saturday, Jack Flaherty completed only three innings.
Combined, the Braves scored nine runs on those two over the five innings. Not only have the Braves jumped out to early leads, but they’ve also forced Los Angeles into heavy bullpen usage – which isn’t ideal over a four-game series on the road.
“You gotta tip your cap to our offense there,” Braves starter Chris Sale said. “That’s just relentless from us in just getting after it and not backing down. This was a close game early on. The first few innings were. Even (a) 4-1 (lead), against this team, that’s not, by any means, where you just kind of let off the gas or anything and start coasting. We just kept the hammer down. Tonight was all about offense, for sure.”
As Sale said, the Braves led, 4-1, after three innings. A six-run sixth inning turned it into a blowout.
In the seventh, the Dodgers conceded defeat when they put a shortstop on the mound.
“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve seen that before,” Matt Olson said of a position player pitching in the seventh inning. “But getting into the bullpen kind of early the last couple nights, I’m sure they’re trying to save a couple arms. I guess it’s a good sign.”
2. The big hit came from Orlando Arcia, who drove Flaherty’s fastball away into the right-center field gap for a bases-clearing double. It sent the crowd into a frenzy in the third inning. It gave the Braves the lead after the score was tied.
It set the tone for another great offensive night.
By the time Atlanta scored six in the sixth, it had hung 16 runs on the Dodgers in the first 14 offensive innings of the series.
“Well, yeah, when we hit like that, we’re capable of a lot, obviously,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “You just kind of get cautiously optimistic that we’re gonna get on a run. Because we’re getting a lot from everybody again, which is really good.”
In this win, everyone in the Braves’ starting lineup scored a run. The bottom of the lineup – Arcia, Gio Urshela and Whit Merrifield – has performed in these two games. They’ve been joined by Olson, who has hit run-scoring doubles to begin the scoring both nights.
In the sixth inning, Roberts went to Evan Phillips, who’s one of his high-leverage arms. He only got one out, and was eventually charged with five runs. Facing the reliever who followed Phillips, Olson smoked a bases-clearing double.
The Braves led by eight runs. Now they could breathe – something they didn’t allow themselves to do until they added onto their lead.
“Because you don’t ever feel safe,” Snitker said. “I didn’t feel safe at six runs, with what they can do and how quick they can strike and how powerful those guys are. Yeah, you never let your guard down against a team like this, because they can come back and turn the tide really, really quick.”
It all began with Arcia’s massive double in the third.
“Yeah, super happy, obviously,” Arcia said through interpreter Franco García about his knock. “And I think I’m just really happy the way things have been going for the club lately. As a team, we go out every day and we go out to enjoy ourselves, but we go out to just do the same thing – work hard and just try to win every single game. So, it was nice that we were able to go out there and do that tonight.”
3. Even if the offense struggles again, the Braves have given you a legitimate reason to believe they could go deep in the postseason: Their starting pitching is excellent. And their ace, the National League Cy Young frontrunner, hasn’t slowed.
They’ll be facing terrific lineups if they make it to October. But they have the weapons to counter those – especially in Sale.
Sale on Saturday allowed one run over six innings. He stymied a powerful lineup as his own offense poured it on against Dodgers pitching.
“He’s done that to everybody that he’s (faced),” Snitker said. “I mean, his season has been, just, man – and to experience it and see it and all the jams that he’s worked out of and the situations that he’s helped us win games in, and (in really tough situations, not allowing the dam to break. Bases loaded, nobody out, first and third, nobody out early in a game – they’re just so big. You go back and you dissect his games, then the Cy Young talk is so warranted.”
The Braves’ starters in this series thus far: Three runs over 12 innings. Compare that to what the Dodgers’ starters have done.
Barring anything unforeseen, Sale will likely take home the NL Cy Young Award. And if the season ended now, he would win a pitching triple crown because he leads the NL in wins (17), ERA (2.35) and strikeouts (219).
He just keeps dazzling. You expect it.
“Yeah, I think you do take it for granted, a little bit,” Olson said. “It’s obviously one of the best lineups in baseball over there. You just come to expect him to come out and have a good start. We appreciate it. It’s not like we’re sitting here expecting it, but he’s been amazing. He’s been the same guy every day, he’s a bulldog on the mound, he prepares the right way, he pitches his (rear) off.”
4. Could the Braves be heating up? We’ve asked this so many times. But these two games have been encouraging.
“I think these last couple of nights have kind of (been) what we’ve expected from ourselves,” Sale said. “Obviously, the fans are in it, this has been a great atmosphere. We kind of knew that coming into this one, with the Dodgers coming to town and who they have and what this series means. But this has been a good couple of games for us for sure.”
Sale credited the offense.
But how good was Sale? Well, take it from Betts, his teammate in Boston.
“I mean, he’s kind of first in the league for the Cy Young,” Betts told reporters after the game. “You know it’s gonna be a tough battle. But I just saw him being Chris Sale, making it tough. Just didn’t really apply much pressure on him. Just continuously getting out of innings and making pitches.”
How close is this version of Sale to the Boston one?
“I mean it’s the same,” Betts said. “It’s kind of what you expect out of Chris Sale, especially when he’s healthy. I don’t think this is something new to anybody, and if it is you probably didn’t know who Chris Sale was.”
5. Usher, Atlanta’s own, threw out the first pitch at Saturday’s game. And at the end of his postgame press conference, Sale referenced that.
“By the way, we need Usher back at the next game,” Sale said. “He got things going for the boys, we’ll just put it there.”
Asked about this, a smiling Olson said: “He did.”
Olson said Usher came through the clubhouse for a second.
“It was cool,” Olson said. “Being an Atlanta guy, grew up listening to all his stuff. That’s an A-list celebrity there and an Atlanta icon, so it was cool to have him be around here.”
Stat to know
14 - The Braves’ victory moved them to 14 games over .500 for the first time this season. They’re 81-67. They’d been 13 games over .500 seven different times before this.
Quotable
“The energy in the stadium was great. You know when you got the Dodgers coming into town, I don’t even know how many games we have left, but all these games now we have to win. We know where we’re at in the standings, we know who we’re up against and what the deal is, right? From here on out, all these games are must-win.” - Sale
Up next
On Sunday, Charlie Morton will face Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler. The game is on ESPN and it begins at 7:10 p.m.
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