Braves Battle Dodgers in Low Scoring Affair, but Drop Series Opener in Extras

The Atlanta Braves lost a close matchup to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-3, in eleven innings on Friday night to open the series between the two NL pennant contenders.

Here’s what you need to know about from the contest.

The Braves veteran wasn’t daunted by having to face the imposing top of LA’s lineup of Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, and Freddie Freeman. Morton held the trio to a 1-8 night, with a Freeman first-inning base hit and a third-inning Ohtani walk the only times those three got on base against him. He capped his outing off in style, going three up and three down against them in the 5th, getting a groundout (Betts) and two strikeouts (Ohtani, on a foul tip, and Freeman looking).

For the game, Morton went six innings with two runs allowed on five hits, walking two and striking out five. His runs came off of a Will Smith single that scored Ohtani from 2nd and a Teoscar Hernandez solo shot on a hanging fastball to open the 4th. He threw 67 of his 98 pitches for strikes and finished with both ten whiffs (on 44 swings) and a 34% CSW.   

Know how we talked just the other day about the Braves sluggers not really getting it going from a power perspective this season?

About that. 

Ronald Acuña Jr apparently loves hitting in Dodger Stadium - he launched a game-tying homer in the eighth inning off of Dakota Hudson that was absolutely smoked, coming off the bat at 103.3 mph. 

Believe it or not, but it’s Ronald’s fifth homer in only eight career games in that ballpark. 

Notably, it came in the 8th inning - Atlanta entered tonight’s game as the best offense in baseball in that inning, with a league-leading 30 eighth-inning runs in their 29 games so far. 

Significantly to me, that homer came off of an elevated fastball - Ronald’s struggled against heaters this season, batting only .129 off of fastballs this season after hitting .305 against them (with a .615 slug) in his 2023 MVP season. 

Austin Riley also broke his power drought in the first inning, launching a solo shot with two outs. Frustratingly, there was two outs in the inning instead of one because Acuña had gotten picked off of second base the pitch before Riley’s homer.  

Ronald’s eighth-inning homer tied the game at two and since neither team could push across another run in regulation, this game went to extras. 

Atlanta scored a run in the top of the 10th on two consecutive sacrifice flies to left field which advanced and then scored pinch-runner Luke Williams, in for Travis d’Arnaud. 

Which meant that Atlanta had to hold LA off the board in the bottom half of the inning. Closer Raisel Iglesias was given the assignment, but on the hardest difficulty: the Dodgers had Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, and Freddie Freeman coming up to bat. Lo and behold, two-tie MVP Ohtani got the job done, singling up the middle to score pinch-runner Chris Taylor from second and tying the game at three. 

After Atlanta was held scoreless in the top of the 11th, Jesse Chavez came in to pitch as much as the team needed. Turns out it was only one inning, as Los Angeles managed to get the “ghost” runner in from second to walk this one off, 4-3, thanks to the 4th hit of the evening for rookie outfielder Andy Pages.  

Even though LA somehow couldn’t sell out a Friday night game against the winningest team in baseball, the atmosphere for this one was great. It had the feeling of an October matchup - low scoring, with most of the runs coming on body-blow home runs and plenty of tension late.   

The Braves are back at it tomorrow night in what’s probably the toughest matchup of the series. Atlanta’s sending sinkerballer Bryce Elder to the mound, facing off with MLB’s strikeouts leader in Tyler Glasnow (53 Ks). First pitch is scheduled for 9:10 PM ET.