LOS ANGELES – The Braves have fared almost as poorly at Dodger Stadium in recent years as they have in San Diego, and a former Dodger did nothing to stop the trend Friday night in his first start against his old team.
Brandon McCarthy gave up a season-high three homers and allowed four runs in 4 2/3 innings of a 7-3 series-opening loss to the Dodgers, the 13th for the Braves in their past 16 games at Dodger Stadium including two postseason losses.
They’ve been outscored 90-57 in that stretch, which began with Braves losses in the third and fourth games of the 2013 division series.
After losing two of three against the Padres to begin a six-game Southern California trip, the Braves had a day off Thursday in Los Angeles while the Dodgers were wrapping up a series at Pittsburgh. The Braves were rested but Dodgers bats continued to sizzle with a season-high five home runs, giving them a majors-leading 22 homers in seven June games.
They hit four homers in the first five innings including two Yasmani Grandal homers off McCarthy in the second and fourth innings and back-to-back two-out jacks in the fifth inning by Joc Pederson off McCarthy and Max Muncy off reliever Sam Freeman. That pushed the lead back to 5-1 after the Braves scored in the top of the fifth.
Pederson has six homers over his past six games after hitting one homer in his first 53 games
McCarthy, who pitched for the Dodgers during the previous three seasons, gave up five hits, four runs and one walk in 4 2/3 innings and has allowed 36 earned runs and 12 homers in 62 2/3 innings over his past 12 starts (5.17 ERA).
Dodgers starter Walker Buehler was perfect through four innings before Nick Markakis led off the fifth with a single and Kurt Suzuki followed with an RBI double off the left-center field wall.
Buehler retired the next four batters before leaving the game with rib soreness from where he was hit by a comebacker recently. He gave up two hits, one run and no walks in 5 1/3 innings and has Clayton Kershaw-like numbers at Dodger Stadium, where Buehler has allowed five runs in five home starts with 31 strikeouts and three walks in 30 1/3 innings.
The Braves added a run against the bullpen in the sixth on consecutive two-out doubles by Dansby Swanson and Freddie Freeman to cut the lead to 5-2, but Muncy’s RBI double off Shane Carle in the seventh pushed the margin back to four runs before a Johan Camargo homer in the Braves’ eighth.
Cody Bellinger’s long eighth-inning homer off Jesse Biddle was the Dodgers’ fifth and gave Bellinger homers in four consecutive games.
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