There were concerns about Braves starter Max Fried’s pitch count after he threw 28 pitches in the first inning.
However, Dodgers starter Walker Buehler’s pitch count quickly elevated, too, and Buehler didn’t exactly start smoothly when he gave up a home run to Freddie Freeman in the first inning. In the top of the ninth, the Dodgers' bullpen eventually bent enough for the Braves to take a 1-0 lead in the National League Championship Series with a 5-1 win Monday night.
“You’ve got to give Fried credit, he pitched well and their pen pitched well tonight,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
All in all, Buehler gave up one earned run on three hits in five innings, walking a season-high five and striking out seven. He threw a season-high 100 pitches and was pulled in the sixth in favor of Brusdar Graterol after giving up back-to-back singles to Travis d’Arnaud and Ozzie Albies. Buehler, who has been struggling with blisters on his right hand, continued his streak of striking out at least seven batters in postseason play — according to Elias Sports Bureau, Buehler has now struck out at least seven batters in each of his last nine postseason starts, which ties Randy Johnson’s streak from Oct. 5, 1997 to Nov. 3, 2001.
“I’ve got to stop walking guys and get deeper into games," Buehler said. "Nice to get up for the sixth, not nice to give up two hits in the sixth, but I physically feel good and was happy to get a little bit deeper into a game finally. But I have to do more.”
A little run support arrived in the bottom of the fifth via Kike Hernandez’s solo home run to make it 1-1, and as Fried was pulled for Chris Martin before the seventh (giving up four hits and one earned run in six innings, walking two and striking out nine), the game was left to be decided by two of the National League’s best bullpens. All in all, the Braves scored four runs off the Dodgers bullpen, while the Braves bullpen did not yield a run (or a hit or a walk, for that matter).
“Fried threw the ball really well and then they have a really good bullpen, just like we do," Hernandez said. "At the end of the day, we came up short because we didn’t put at-bats together and we didn’t get runners on base and we weren’t able to pass the baton like we did in the last series. Pitching did a great job, kept us in the game, all the way to the ninth inning. And when their guys are hitting the ball that well, we need to pick them up, and score some runs for them, and tonight we weren’t able to do that.”
In the regular season, Dodgers relievers had posted a 2.74 ERA entering Game 1, the best mark in the National League and second overall to the Athletics (2.72), holding opponents to a .207 average and 1.04 WHIP, both of which are No. 1 in the league (The Braves were No. 2 in the NL with a 3.50 ERA). The Dodgers' bullpen also had issued 2.57 walks per nine innings and had give up 0.82 home runs per nine innings, both of which lead the majors.
In the eighth inning, reliever Dustin May gave up a leadoff double to Marcell Ozuna and later intentionally walked Dansby Swanson. With two outs, May hit Pablo Sandoval with a pitch, which loaded the bases, and May was replaced with Victor Gonzalez. Gonzalez was able to get a pinch-hitting Charlie Culberson (who replaced Nick Markakis) out and retire the inning, bailing out May.
For the Braves, Will Smith tossed a scoreless eighth. The Braves finally had some success against Dodgers relievers in the top of the ninth, when Austin Riley hit a solo home run off Blake Treinen to make it 2-1, and they kept the pressure on.
Ronald Acuna followed it up with a double, and as Freddie Freeman flied out to center, Acuna advanced to third. A one-out, RBI double by Ozuna plated Acuna and gave the Braves a little breathing room, 3-1. After Jake McGee replaced Treinen, Albies hit a two-run homer to make it 5-1, and the Braves held on for the win.
The guy who caught Albies' home run from the bullpen, Braves closer Mark Melancon, ensured that.
“They have a really good team, you can’t take credit away from them," Hernandez said. "I think their energy was a little bit better than ours tonight. They came right out the gates, Freddie hit that ball really hard first inning and after that it kind of put us on our heels a little bit. But it’s baseball, it’s going to happen, we’re going to lose games, but you know what? Game 1 doesn’t mean anything if they don’t win four games this series. Whoever wins four first is the one that wins the series, so we’ll throw this one away and come back tomorrow with a fresh mind and do what we do.”
For Game 2, Braves starter Ian Anderson (2-0, 0.00) will match up with Clayton Kershaw (2-0, 1.93).
