Braves can’t survive this bullpen game, lose 5-3 to Dodgers

LOS ANGELES — The Braves’ bullpen couldn’t survive this time, and the Dodgers easily took Game 1 of the National League Division Series with a 5-3 win Saturday at Dodger Stadium.

On Thursday, the Braves used six relief pitchers, including left-hander Ray Kerr to start the game, and beat the Phillies 6-2 at Truist Park. Their lack of starting pitching options forced them to go that route again Saturday — but the Dodgers are not the Phillies.

They hit three home runs against Braves relievers from the fourth inning on to break open a close game. Game 2 is scheduled for 8 p.m. Sunday.

“It’s a challenge. Even today, (it) was going to be tough for us to chase from behind because of how we emptied the tank on Thursday night,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “We weren’t going to pitch (Didier) Fuentes from behind. It would have been four out of five (days). Then he’s at risk (Sunday) in a game that we’re up. Robert Suárez was down because of the elbow, missing three months (with injury). We weren’t going to use him at all.

“So it was going to be really tough to chase from behind today. But you know what? I’d sign up for that every time to win the previous series.”

Left-handed reliever Dylan Dodd did give the Braves a glimmer of hope at the outset that they might be able to steal another win.

Dodd threw a season-high 47 pitches over three scoreless innings. Shohei Ohtani hit a one-out, line-drive single in the first and Mookie Betts blooped a single into shallow right in the third — and those were the only two base runners Dodd allowed. Dodd struck out four, including the side in the second, and Ohtani’s single was the lone hard-hit ball against him.

“What an experience to be able to get the ball and to start the series,” Dodd said. “Unfortunate kind of how the game ended up. But I’m gonna remember that for probably the rest of my life.”

But Dodd’s good work went by the wayside in a fourth-inning flash when Teoscar Hernández hit a mammoth two-run home run off Braves’ righty Víctor Mederos. Mederos had walked Freddie Freeman on four pitches before throwing a 1-1 cutter that didn’t cut, and Hernández hit it 431 feet into the left field seats.

That sent the 50,194 in attendance, braving the 103-degree heat, into a frenzy.

“Just kind of left a cutter down the middle. He cashed in and made me pay for it,” Mederos said. “We’re an aggressive team, and when you face another team that’s aggressive in hard parts of the zone, they’re gonna cash in. Us as pitchers, our job is to go out there and throw a ball in the zone, try to stay aggressive in the zone, but understand that you can’t be middle of the zone.”

It looked like that would be more than enough for lefty Tarik Skubal, a trade deadline score for the Dodgers who was pitching like the Cy Young Award winner he has been. But after allowing just one hit and striking out seven through five innings, Braves catcher Sean Murphy hit the third pitch of the sixth, a 99-mph sinker, 421 feet to center field for a solo home run.

It was Murphy’s third career postseason homer and first since 2020 as a member of the Athletics.

Later in that same inning, with two on and two out, Skubal threw a 100-mph fastball, his 94th pitch of the day, that Matt Olson skied to left for the final out.

That proved crucial, because in the bottom of the inning, Kyle Tucker followed a one-out single by Hernández by mashing a fastball from AJ Smith-Shawver out to right for a two-run homer.

And then with two outs in the inning, Max Muncy put a deep fly ball into the seats down the right field line, making it 5-1.

“I thought for sure the fastball (to Tucker was a bad pitch). I was trying to get like a little more up, and then I left it a little low. And he handles pitches in that zone well,” Smith-Shawver said. “And then Muncy with the splitter, I don’t hate the pitch that much. It’s just kind of in a zone where he handles stuff well. But I think it’s a good pitch, and I think he just put a good swing on, hit it to a good spot of the field and it worked out for him.

“But more so, the heater’s definitely where I have a regret on it. And just something that you look at, just part of baseball happens. Sometimes you get away with ‘em, sometimes you don’t. Just unfortunate. But I’ll be back and hopefully help this team.”