LOS ANGELES – After losing the first two games of their series against the Dodgers, the Braves had the unenviable task of facing the ace of aces, Clayton Kershaw, in Thursday night's finale. Things went as you might have anticipated, although the Braves gave him a better fight than most teams this season.
The Dodgers scored two runs in the first three innings — including a homer by Braves nemesis Yasiel Puig — and held on for a 2-1 win to complete a series sweep as Kershaw won his 10th consecutive decision with his fifth complete game in that span.
The Braves scratched across a run on three hits in the ninth before Evan Gattis grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the game with two runners on base.
“We put together some hits, we just didn’t put together innings,” said Justin Upton, who had the last hit of the game, a two-out infield single in the ninth that cut the lead to a run. “Obviously we put ourselves in position where we got runners on a couple of times and he diffused that. So … it’s still not a win.”
Julio Teheran (10-7) pitched well enough to win most nights, allowing two runs, five hits and three walks with nine strikeouts, and retiring 17 of 20 batters after Puig’s third-inning homer.
But most nights don’t include those when the counterpart is Kershaw (13-2), the majors’ hottest pitcher, who’s well on his way to what would be a third National League Cy Young award in four seasons. Kershaw scattered nine hits with no walks and nine strikeouts to improve to 10-0 with an 0.94 ERA in his past 11 starts.
“I think it was a great game,” Teheran said. “I had my best today. Couple of mistakes, like a regular game, and they got two runs with that…. It wasn’t that easy to face (Kershaw). I feel like we had a real battle out there. I was trying to do my best in that battle. I wanted my team to win this game.”
The Braves got consecutive one-out singles from B.J. Upton and Tommy La Stella in the ninth inning, and after Freddie Freeman struck out, Justin Upton drove in a run with another ball that didn’t leave the infield.
“He’s got great stuff, and he’s able to throw it all in any count,” said Braves rookie La Stella, who was 0-f0r-3 with two strikeouts before his ninth-inning single. “But he’s definitely got some funk to his delivery. He’s a little bit tough to pick the ball up off of.”
With runners on the corners in the ninth after La Stella’s hit, a crowd of 51,163 turned up the noise as Kershaw struck out Freddie Freeman for the second out. Justin Upton then grounded to third base and beat out the throw to first to drive in a run.
It was a close play and Dodgers manager Don Mattingly appealed. After review, the play was upheld, the shutout was gone and the Braves had the potential tying and go-ahead runs on second and first with Gattis up. He grounded to shortstop Hanley Ramirez, who tossed to second base for the game-ending out.
“That’s the guys you want up, you want Justin Upton and Freeman and Gattis and them,” said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose Braves bused to San Diego Thursday night and will open a three-game series against the Padres on Friday.
“Tommy La Stella had one heck of an at-bat against maybe the premier left-hander, the premier pitcher in the major leagues, to get a single there and go first-and-third. But he made his pitches when he had to.”
The Braves are 9-13 in their past 22 games including 0-7 in games decided by one run, two of which came the past two nights against Zack Greinke and Kershaw.
After going 6-5 in a homestand against the Phillies, Marlins and Padres coming out of the All-Star break, they started an eight-game West Coast trip getting swept by the West-leading Dodgers, who’ve won six in a row including a sweep of the Giants to regain first place.
“We played good baseball, and they’re playing better baseball,” Gonzalez said. “I don’t know how much better we can pitch. You’ve still got three L’s going to San Diego, but you feel pretty good, and I’m real proud of our club the way we kept battling.”
The Braves’ five hits through the first five innings were more than Kershaw had allowed in six of his past 10 starts, but all five were singles and the only runner to advance past first base in that stretch occurred when Gattis and Ryan Doumit had consecutive singles to start the fifth.
Gattis reached second, then was out when the next batter, Andrelton Simmons, grounded to third to start a 5-4 double play.
Kershaw won his sixth consecutive home start and moved to 6-1 with a 1.57 ERA in eight starts this season at Dodger Stadium, where he’s collected 82 strikeouts with just five walks in 63 innings.
“We out-hit them,” Gonzalez said. “Kershaw was able to turn three double-plays, I think. We pushed one across in the ninth, but he’s tough. And Julio was really good. That’s two nights in a row where our starters have given us terrific outings. Usually when you only give up two runs, you’ve got a real good chance to win ballgames.
“We didn’t the last couple, but really, really solid outing by Julio and also by Woody (Alex Wood in Wednesday’s 3-2 loss).”
Kershaw had no decisions in four previous regular-season starts against Braves – all in 2009-2011 — despite .189 opponents’ average and 2.45 ERA in those. Before Thursday, they were the only National League team he hadn’t gotten a win against. In fact, he has multiple wins against every other NL team.
But the lefty went 1-0 with a 0.69 ERA and .130 opponents’ average in two starts against the Braves in the 2013 division series. Kershaw had 12 strikeouts in seven innings of a Game 1 win, then got no decision when he pitched six innings on short rest in Game 4, allowing three hits and two unearned runs in that Dodgers clinching win.
Teheran gave up a run before recording his second out in the game, never a good thing when facing Kershaw. Dee Gordon led off with a single and Puig walked before Adrian Gonzalez doubled to the right-center gap for a 1-0 lead.
Right fielder Jason Heyward missed his third consecutive start with back stiffness, and his absence was felt when replacement Doumit fielded the double and bounced a throw to cutoff man Andrelton Simmons, whose throw to the plate still was in time for a close play if Gattis hadn’t dropped it.
Puig’s third-inning homer on a 1-and-2 slider with one out pushed the lead to 2-0. He also walked and hit a line-drive double off the center field wall, giving Puig a .511 average (23-for-45) with eight extra-base hits (three homers) and eight RBIs in 11 regular-season and playoff games vs. Braves, including at least one hit in each game.
The Braves had a scoring chance in the fourth after B.J. Upton’s leadoff single, but it didn’t last long. Upton stole second base but was tagged out when his momentum took him past the base and his foot briefly came off the bag as Ramirez kept the tag applied. It was the second time this season that Upton was caught stealing in that manner, otherwise he’d have 20 stolen bases.
