LOS ANGELES – The Dodgers' Juan Uribe facing a hard-throwing Atlanta reliever in the eighth inning produced poor results for the Braves again Wednesday. But Justin Upton tried to make sure things wouldn't end like they did on that night last October.
After Uribe bounced a two-out single up the middle against reliever Jordan Walden in the eighth to put the Dodgers ahead 2-1, Upton led off the ninth with a towering homer against Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen. It only delayed the agonizing outcome, however, as Matt Kemp’s single with none out in the 10th inning gave the Dodgers a 3-2 walk-off win.
“The home run put us back in it,” Upton said. “We felt like we had a chance. They came up with the big hit.”
Justin Turner led off the 10th with a single against Braves reliever David Hale, whose wild pitch advanced the runner into scoring position before Kemp’s game-ending single to left. Kemp had earlier hit his third homer in two nights, the only run allowed by Braves starter Alex Wood in seven strong innings.
“It’s disappointing,” said Wood, who allowed six hits, one run and two walks with eight strikeouts. “I thought we battled our butts off all night, and (Dodgers starter Zack) Greinke’s pretty impressive, man. You forget how good he is until you see him again.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to tip your cap. I was happy I was able to kind of go toe-to-toe with him for seven innings. It felt like a playoff atmosphere, it felt like we were back here in October like we were last year.”
It was Uribe who hit a two-run homer off reliever David Carpenter in the eighth inning of Game 4 of the Division Series in October, erasing the Braves’ one-run lead and lifting to the Dodgers to a series-clinching 4-3 win.
The Braves had a scoring opportunity in the 10th inning Wednesday after Jordan Schafer drew a leadoff walk and advanced on Ramiro Pena’s sacrifice. But Schafer got too big a lead off second base and left-hander J.P. Howell picked him off, which amounted to a cardinal sin for a base runner in that situation.
“We get picked off at second base there,” said Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez, not pleased by that play. “We were running; let’s not forget that. We were going to try to steal a bag there off of J.P., because you could. But the move there, it wasn’t one of the best inside (pickoff) moves I’ve seen. It was a bang-bang at second base, that’s why we challenged it. Nevertheless, I would have liked to take a shot at getting a base hit with a man on second base.”
Upton’s homer was his 19th and came on a hanging 2-2 slider — the kind of pitch that the Braves didn’t see for eight innings against Greinke.
Greinke had a season-high 13 strikeouts while allowing five hits and one run. He didn’t walk a batter until rookie Tommy La Stella drew a two-out walk in the eighth. Greinke was superb. Still, Wood held his own against the Dodgers All-Star.
“It was one of those old-fashioned pitching duels,” Gonzalez said. “He made some great pitches, and against a tough lineup, a predominately right-handed lineup. Every time he goes out he gives you a good opportunity. You see the competitive spirit in him, you see a guy making pitches, not wanting to come out of games. It’s nice to see that.”
On Uribe’s go-ahead RBI single, shortstop Andrelton Simmons made a leaping stop on the grass behind second base, but after scrambling to get up quickly, he wasn’t able to get the ball out of his glove cleanly and couldn’t plant his foot firmly enough to make a strong throw to keep Kemp from scoring from second base on the play.
Simmons was seen wincing and favoring his shoulder some after making that throw.
“Just a lot of effort (required on the throw),” the Gold Glove-winning shortstop said of his shoulder, which has been a little sore off and on for weeks. “It’s been a little annoying, where anything extra makes it … it lets me know when I try to put something extra on it.”
He downplayed the soreness and said he would be back in the lineup for Thursday’s series finale against Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, who has won two of the past three National League Cy Young awards.
“It’s July,” Simmons said. “Something’s going to be barking. (The shoulder) has been barking, but not anything major. After after that throw it kind of barked a little more. But it calmed down after that.”
After Wood’s seven gutty innings, Walden struck out the first two batters in the eighth before walking Kemp. Carl Crawford followed with a single before Uribe drove in the run.
In a game the Braves needed if they hoped to avoid losing the series – and before they face Kershaw in the finale — Wood came through with one of his best performances in a season that’s featured a few gems by the second-year left-hander.
Kemp’s leadoff homer in the second inning was his third in two games in the series, and erased the Braves’ 1-0 lead. But Wood went to work and wiggled out of some tight spots later against the heart of the Dodgers order.
“Awesome,” Simmons said of Wood. “He pitched. Like, some days guys have good games, but he battled, he pitched. He got some runners on and made pitches. He did everything. He pitched awesome.”
Greinke got no decision and is 6-1 with a 2.52 ERA in nine starts at Dodger Stadium, where he’s collected 81 strikeouts with 11 walks in 60 2/3 innings. He struck out major league strikeout leader B.J. Upton all four times he faced him, giving Upton seven strikeouts in his past eight plate appearances and 70 strikeouts in 202 at-bats over his past 48 games.
For the second night in a row, the Braves scored first. They took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Evan Gattis doubled with one out, advanced on Chris Johnson’s groundout, and scored on Simmons’ infield single. And for the second consecutive night, the resurgent Kemp quickly erased the lead with a home run.
Wood left a 1-and-1 fastball over the plate and Kemp drilled it for a solo homer to start the second inning. In Tuesday’s series opener, Kemp’s two-run homer in the second turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead, and he added a two-run homer in the seventh of the 8-4 Dodgers win.
The Braves had another chance to score after Justin Upton’s one-out double in the fourth, but Gattis struck out and Chris Johnson’s first-pitch groundout ended the inning. The Braves also had two runners in scoring position in the sixth when Gattis struck out.
Before La Stella worked that full-count, opposite-field single in the sixth, Greinke had retired 11 of 12 since Simmons’ second-inning RBI single, including seven via strikeout in that span. When Gattis whiffed to end the sixth and Chris Johnson whiffed to start the seventh, Greinke had 10 strikeouts in a stretch of 17 batters.
Wood did impressive work to get out of jams in the fifth and sixth. After the Dodgers got two singles to put runners on the corners with one out in the fifth, Wood coaxed a pop-up from Yasiel Puig and got Adrian Gonzalez on a routine grounder.
Kemp singled with one out in the sixth, and Uribe’s two-out infield single gave the Dodgers runners on the corners again. With Greinke on deck — a solid hitter by pitcher’s standards with a .154 average and four doubles before Wednesday — the Braves elected to pitch to Ellis. Wood struck him out to strand two with the score still tied.
In the third inning, Gattis made a strong throw to second to catch Dee Gordon stealing. Gordon was called safe initially, but the Braves challenged and the call was overturned after video review. That was big, with Puig up next with two out. Wood walked Puig and struck out Gonzalez to end the inning.
