DEFINING MOMENTS
1. Juan Uribe’s two-run home run
Situation: Braves up 3-2 with nobody out in eighth with runner at second base for Uribe
Result: Uribe homered to left field on 2-2 slider from David Carpenter.
Comment: After Yasiel Puig hit a leadoff double against Carpenter, Uribe was trying to bunt him to third base. But after a couple of attempts went foul and he had two strikes against him, he started swinging away. He got Dodger Stadium shaking with a two-run shot to left the Dodgers' third homer of the game and seventh of the series.
2. Jose Constanza’s pinch hit RBI single
Situation: Game tied 2-2 with one out in the seventh, Elliot Johnson at third base and the Dodgers infield in.
Result: Constanza lined an RBI single to center to score Johnson easily and put Braves up 3-2 for first time in the game.
Comment: Constanza might have been the last position player on the Braves playoff roster, but they wanted him because he could make contact anywhere, anytime. Right on cue, pinch hitting for Freddy Garcia, he gets the runner in from third base with less than two outs for the go-ahead run.
3. Double play that wasn’t
Situation: Braves down 2-1 with one out in the fourth inning.
Result: Andrelton Simmons' grounder to third baseman Juan Uribe had the look of an inning-ending double play but netted the Braves a run as second baseman Mark Ellis, with an assist from the sliding Chris Johnson, threw wide to first base.
Comment: The Braves tied the game 2-2 on a pair of unearned runs after Adrian Gonzalez botched a throw to second base on an Evan Gattis ground ball earlier in the inning. Momentum swung back to Braves.
ANALYSIS
Pitching: Nobody outside the Braves clubhouse would have figured Freddy Garcia to go toe-to-toe with Clayton Kershaw but they each pitched six innings and left to a 2-2 tie. Garcia continued the work of his three spot starts in September with six solid innings, allowing only two solo home runs to Crawford. He topped out at 90 mph but kept the Dodgers off-balance with a split-finger pitch in the low 80s. Garcia came a couple feet shy of facing a 3-0 deficit in the first inning after Justin Upton caught a Yasiel Puig fly ball just shy of the right field fence.
Hitting: Chris Johnson went 3-for-4 with three singles. He singled in each of his first two at-bats Sunday to make him 3-for-6 in the series vs. Kershaw. After striking out 12 times against Kershaw in Game 1, the Braves struck out six times in six innings on Monday. Brian McCann went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts, including three times looking. He is 0-for-13 in the division series.
Defense: The Dodgers were the ones playing shoddy defense with a pair of errors from first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, including a costly throwing error in the second inning. Mark Ellis compounded it with a bad throw on a double play attempt that helped the Braves to a 2-2 tie on two unearned runs.
Bullpen: Carpenter was saddled with his second home run of the series and the game-clinching loss. He had given up a two-run home run to Hanley Ramirez in the eighth inning of Game 2. Luis Avilan, orchestrator of the key inning-ending double play in Game 2, stranded the tying run at second base in the seventh inning by getting Adrian Gonzalez to fly out foul to right field, despite falling behind him 3-0.
In the dugout: Garcia backed up manager Fredi Gonzalez's decision to stick with him Game 4 with a quality start. He also got A.J. Ellis to ground out after Gonzalez elected to walk the left-hander Skip Schumaker with two outs in the sixth and the go-ahead run at second base.
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