The Win Column: Braves jolt Dodgers in Game 2

Good morning!

It’s me, Ken Sugiura, Tyler Estep wannabe and poseur contributor to The Win Column with Tyler away from his laptop this week.

I am writing to you from LAX, on my way home, having just witnessed and chronicled the Braves’ first two games of the National League Division Series.

We’ll give that its due mention (plus my encounter with a true baseball legend!) but there’s so much more going on in Atlanta that we need to get to.

A fun week ahead.

CAN THE BRAVES UPSET THE DODGERS?

You may have read my column before the series began about how the Braves could take down the mighty Dodgers of Los Angeles, and I encourage you to not read it because more or less nothing I suggested as possible paths to a Braves series win have come to bear. Worse, I even was dismissive of a Game 2 win via bullpen game (which is, of course, what happened).

But why can’t the Braves do it?

Two studs go at it Tuesday in Chris Sale and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

It says something that the Dodgers held back Yamamoto and chose lefties Tarik Skubal and Blake Snell to start Games 1 and 2, the wisdom being that the Braves’ lefty-stocked lineup would have a tougher time against lefties than the righty Yamamoto.

So, the Dodgers would see as more winnable for the Braves than the first two games, and that’s not even factoring Sale into it.

Something else interesting: Yamamoto hasn’t pitched since Sept. 23. That’s a long layoff. He had trouble in this situation previously, in 2024.

Regardless, this feels like a 2-1 game. Why couldn’t the Braves take that one, especially with Sale at full rest?

That’s one potential win.

Now you’ve got Tyler Mahle in Game 4 and another bullpen game in a possible Game 5, one that even Sale and Mahle could contribute to. It would help if the bats got going, but it’s hardly unreasonable to think the Braves could take one of those two and eliminate the Dodgers.

(Caveat emptor: I was optimistic about the Hawks’ chances after they took a 2-1 series lead over the Knicks.)

RAY KERR, NOW AND FOREVER

The Braves reliever has gone from being virtually anonymous to becoming the Atlanta athlete of the moment in less than a week. He did it again Sunday, keeping the Dodgers scoreless for the opening 2⅔ innings before handing the baton off to Grant Holmes.

Matt Olson: “This is high pressure, especially the other day but, man, you just got the feeling that he did what he expected to do. You can’t teach that.”

Kerr himself: “(The trust) feels good. I haven’t had that on a team except for with the players. The fans, they don’t know yet. So now they’re starting to realize that, yeah, I can hold it down, too. So I’m excited about that.”

MY BRUSH WITH GREATNESS

Sunday afternoon, deep within Dodger Stadium, I had just finished listening to Braves manager Walt Weiss explain why he was not going to pitch Chris Sale.

In a tunnel leading to the field, I was writing something up for the AJC when I heard an older gentleman showing a boy of about 10 and a person who appeared to be his mother some of the Dodgers photos along the walls.

I looked and it was … Sandy Koufax.

I’ve been around famous people before, but I don’t know if I’ve ever felt quite so starstruck. Part of it is his greatness as a Dodgers pitcher, obviously, but also that he has kept a low profile. Probably also that I wasn’t expecting to see him.

I thought about asking for a photo but didn’t want to bother him. We did exchange greetings, which was more than enough for me.

I’ll remember this part, too. He could well have pointed out all the pictures of himself, but the first photo he showed the boy was one of Jackie Robinson, followed by an explanation of his importance.

FALCONS IN NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

It was funny to me how quickly the temperature on the Falcons changed in one game, going from “This team is awful and they don’t have a quarterback” to “We believe in Michael Penix Jr.! I think we can make the playoffs.”

We’ll discover tonight what the next measured and thoughtful reaction will be: “Falcons letting us down again” or “Take your ‘Who Dat’ and shove it! Playoff drought is over!”

One of my favorite reads of the week was this one from young Daniel Flick on new Falcons defensive lineman Maason Smith. Daniel was typically thorough in his reporting, talking to at least five people to paint as full a picture as he could. You can learn a lot about Smith from reading it.

My two favorite tidbits might be that 1) Falcons defensive line coach Nate Ollie had been keen on him since his college days at LSU and; 2) that his first name has two A’s because he was born around the same time that a family friend had a child named Mason and they wanted to avoid duplicating.

I have to say, I think that’s a pretty generous thing to do. I’d be like, “Looks like we’ve got two Masons!”

DREAM STEPPING TO WNBA FINALS

A certain professional basketball outfit is knee deep in a best-of-five series of its own. The Dream took Game 1 of their WNBA semifinal series Sunday at State Farm Arena over the New York Liberty behind 25 points from Jordin Canada.

“It don’t matter about height,” said the 5-foot-6 Canada, a two-time WNBA champion. “It’s all about the heart that you have. So when I go out there, I know I’m one of the best players on the floor, and that’s how I act, and that’s how I’ve been acting consistently throughout this whole season.”