The round could have – and probably should have – already been over. But instead, Michael Harris II of the Atlanta Braves stood 90 feet away from scoring the go-ahead run.
And the Dodgers, who failed to take care of the little things Sunday night, gave the lead back to the Braves.
Left-handed reliever Kris Bubic lost control of a sweeper. And it flew high and wide, off the tip of catcher Will Smith’s glove and to the edge of the grass behind home plate.
Harris scored standing up. And the Dodgers trailed for the final five innings of Game 2 of the National League Division Series, ultimately losing 3-2, tying the series.
“We didn’t want to give in there,” said Bubic, who was trying to throw that slider to score in a 2-and-0 count against Mauricio Dubón. “But that’s the last thing you want to do there.”
That wild pitch was one of many missteps by the Dodgers on Sunday.
They entered Game 2 with a long list of advantages: the Dodgers were playing at home, they had momentum from the previous day’s victory, they had one of the best starting pitchers on the mound to counter a second straight game from the Braves bullpen.
They gave all their advantages.
“We all knew it was going to be a good series,” veteran first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “Just two really good teams. The pitches were really good.”
Braves left-hander Ray Kerr, who excelled down the stretch as a long reliever, served as the opener Sunday. And the Braves used six pitchers, relying on right-hander Didier Fuentes for 3⅔ innings, to limit the Dodgers to two solo home runs.
The Dodgers, despite the departure of two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell, used seven pitchers. So much for this advantage.
The Dodgers managed only two hits against Kerr, each to open an inning. Freeman lined a single to right field to lead off the second. And Miguel Rojas sent a double to the left corner to start the third.
The Dodgers blocked both — in sequences that included a Tommy Edman pop-out bunt. Shohei Ohtani was the last batter faced by Kerr, and with two runners on and one out, Ohtani hit a high cut into a full count.
Snell only lasted one inning longer than Kerr.
Snell’s first image could easily have spiraled. With one out, he gave up a single to Ronald Acuña Jr. and walked Matt Olson and Ozzie Albies to load the bases. But Snell escaped with just one run scored, on a grounder up the middle from Dubón. Shortstop Mookie Betts made a diving stop but had no chance to throw out Dubón.
Snell then struck out Sean Murphy to end the inning, finishing the at-bat with three straight curveballs for strikes.
The one-off deficit could be erased. But the damage to his number of pitches, up to 27 in this first inning, was done.
Snell allowed just one more hit, but when he issued his fifth walk with two outs in the fourth inning, his pitch count reached 90. Manager Dave Roberts came out of the dugout to pull him.
“He just fought against himself with his performance the whole game,” Roberts said, saying the groin injury that limited Snell in late September had not resurfaced. “I think overall he didn’t have fastball control, he didn’t have slider control, and the changeup wasn’t there. He was shooting it.”
In the second half of the inning, Freeman, who was optimistic that he would be able to recover from his September slump during the bye week, evened the score with a home run. But a sloppy play extended the fifth inning and put the Dodgers in a hole again.
With two outs, in a count of 0 and 2, Bubic asked Harris to chase down an outside sweeper that was moving away from him. Harris leaned down to pull out his bat and sent a line drive into the left field corner.
Teoscar Hernández of the Dodgers took a circuitous route to get to the ball and still missed it by just a few inches. He came off the wall, allowing Harris to reach third base, in scoring position on Bubic’s wild pitch.
“I didn’t think he did that well,” Hernández said. “I didn’t break in, but I got to the side, and when I realized, it was too late. Maybe I had a chance.”
The Dodgers had a chance to come back as soon as they were at bat again. But after fielding two runners against left-hander Dylan Lee, the Braves turned to Robert Suarez. He and Fuentes combined to give up 14 in a row — a streak that Max Muncy finally broke by hitting a two-out home run in the ninth inning.
“It showed they were going to use any pitcher and try to get every game they could,” Roberts said. “Obviously the fact that they push Fuentes to almost four innings, on about 40 pitches, shows that they’re going to ride some guys.”
Max Muncy celebrates crossing home plate after a solo home run in the ninth inning on Sunday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
While the Dodgers have a deeper rotation, the bullpen advantage goes to the Braves.
The Braves extended their lead in the seventh inning against powerhouse right-hander Edgardo Henriquez, who gave up a single to Olson and an RBI double to Harris.
Then, right-hander Roki Sasaki found himself in a bases-loaded situation in the eighth, with Acuña at the plate, but got out of it with a double play. Sasaki then retired the side in order in the ninth.
Next, the series heads to Atlanta for two games. And the third game will be a clash between two aces, Chris Sale for the Braves and Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the Dodgers.
Everything is no longer in favor of the Dodgers.
Hernández said: “We have been through more difficult situations than this. »
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