Yamamoto Fans 10 as Dodgers Top Braves 3-1 for 2-1 NLDS Lead

The Los Angeles Dodgers are one win from the National League Championship Series. Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out 10 in seven innings, Kiké Hernández hit a two-run homer and the Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 3-1 on Tuesday night at Truist Park to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five NL Division Series, The Associated Press reported. ESPN also reported the result.

The game was billed as an ace matchup, and Yamamoto won it. Last year’s World Series MVP allowed four hits and one walk, and his 10 strikeouts were a postseason career high, according to the AP, which said he improved to 8-1 with a 2.14 ERA in 11 career postseason outings. ESPN reported that he threw 62 strikes on 98 pitches and drew 17 swings and misses. “I was confident and able to control all my pitches today,” Yamamoto said through a translator, as quoted by the AP. Chris Sale allowed three runs and seven hits in five innings for Atlanta, with seven strikeouts and no walks.

Both runs of damage came in the fourth inning. Andy Pages led off with a single, and Hernández, batting ninth and starting at third base in place of Max Muncy, drove a Sale changeup over the left-field wall, ESPN reported. One out later, Freddie Freeman pulled his 18th career postseason homer to right field for a 3-0 lead, according to the AP, an inning after Mauricio Dubón made a leaping catch over the left-field wall to rob him. “One bad inning can kind of ruin a whole game,” Sale said, according to ESPN. “Yanked a changeup to Kiké.”

The Freeman homer carried extra weight in Atlanta. ESPN noted it was his first postseason game at Truist Park since 2021, after which he left the Braves for the Dodgers in free agency, and the boos from the sellout crowd of 42,420 grew louder after he connected. “I’ve got a gray uniform on,” Freeman said, as quoted by the AP. “I expect boos. It’s OK.”

Atlanta’s only run came in the fifth. Dubón and Lane Thomas singled, Rowdy Tellez drew Yamamoto’s lone walk, and Drake Baldwin’s bases-loaded grounder to first drove in a run before Ronald Acuña Jr. grounded out, ESPN reported. Yamamoto then retired the final six batters he faced. Tanner Scott pitched the eighth, and Edwin Díaz stranded Ozzie Albies after a leadoff double in the ninth to earn the save, according to the AP.

There were lineup and health notes on both sides. Manager Dave Roberts moved Shohei Ohtani down to fifth because Ohtani was 3 for 15 in his career against Sale, the AP reported. Second baseman Miguel Rojas left in the eighth with what the Dodgers announced as lower back pain, and Roberts said he probably will not start Wednesday. The win was Roberts’ 71st in the postseason, tying Tony La Russa for second-most in major league history behind Joe Torre’s 84, according to the AP.

Game 4 is Wednesday night, with Tyler Glasnow expected to start for Los Angeles against Atlanta’s Tyler Mahle, who said an abdominal pull is now a “non-issue,” the AP reported. ESPN said Tarik Skubal would start a Game 5 for the Dodgers if the Braves force one. The Dodgers are trying to become the first NL team to win three straight World Series titles. Catch up on our earlier coverage of the Dodgers’ Game 1 plans, and find more playoff news on our Sports page.

Verification: The score, series status, pitching lines, lineup moves and injury updates come from The Associated Press (Charles Odum, Oct. 6) and ESPN (Jeff Passan, Oct. 6). Quotes are as published by those outlets; the pitch count and swing-and-miss figures are from ESPN, and the attendance is from the AP.