Dodgers Advance Despite Their Bats Going Ice Cold Against Braves

ATLANTA — The Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t start their postseason in peak form.

In their pursuit of being the first major league team to three-peat since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees, Los Angeles’ offense finished its National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position, stranding 26 runners.

The Dodgers got basically nothing from four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani, who was unable to pitch due to injuries and wasn’t much more effective at the plate, finishing the series 2-for-13 (.154) with a run, four strikeouts and two walks.

Standout catcher Will Smith was 1-for-16 (.063) and Mookie Betts was 3-for-14 (.214), with no one in that trio managing an extra-base hit.

When the Braves stole Game 2 in Los Angeles with a bullpen game, they returned to Atlanta with their pitching aligned in what should have been a scary, tenuous situation for the Dodgers.

But they never seemed to break a sweat in Atlanta, outscoring the Braves 7-2, trailing for just a half-inning across the two games and closing out the best-of-five series in four games against an Atlanta team which won five of six games against Los Angeles in the regular season.

It may have only been the Dodgers’ “B-” series. 

But it was comfortably enough to get the job done.

Most importantly, it prevented the Dodgers from ever facing elimination in this series.

“Once you get to an elimination game, a Game 5 or a Game 7, anything can happen,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said. “To be able to win today, get back, reset, have a day off tomorrow, set the rotation, it’s huge.”

For as much as some of the most important bats didn’t deliver in the NLDS, the pitching staff was very much in peak form. Tarik Skubal set the tone in Game 1, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was spectacular in the all-important battle of the aces in Game 3 and the bullpen slammed the door shut when Tyler Glasnow walked five and couldn’t make it through five innings in Game 4.

Edwin Diaz, after an injury riddled regular season, stepped into the closer role and secured saves in the final two games.

Overall, Los Angeles’ pitching staff allowed eight runs and 18 hits in the series. The Braves finished the series 1-for-23 with runners in scoring position. In the two games in Atlanta — where they were 52-29 in the regular season — the Braves managed just two runs on eight hits.

“Their arms just keep coming at you,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said of the Dodgers’ pitching staff.

Next up for the Dodgers will be the Milwaukee Brewers, who also closed out their NLDS Wednesday night. Milwaukee has been a great story, winning a franchise-record 103 games and seeking its first World Series appearance since 1982 and first title in franchise history.

Not to say things will go exactly the same this time, but we saw that matchup in last year’s NL Championship Series and it ended in a Dodgers sweep.

It’s just hard to fathom Los Angeles’ hitters will be as poor at situational hitting as they were against Atlanta. Or that the Dodgers will get basically nothing from multiple top-of-the-lineup hitters.

The Dodgers are fallible, as any great dynasty team is. But it won’t come easily for the Brewers or whoever comes out of the American League.