Braves are full of life, while reigning champion Dodgers seek answers
By Pedro Moura
FOX Sports MLB Writer
LOS ANGELES — Atlanta’s Eddie Rosario overshot the second cycle in postseason history by 10 feet. He homered for a second time instead.
Meanwhile, the most impressive feat by a Dodger in Game 4 of the NLCS was Clayton Kershaw’s scoop of an Ozzie Albies foul grounder in Dodger Stadium’s home dugout. Kershaw, who is out for the postseason, fielded it with his cap.
It was that lifeless a Wednesday night for the home team. The Dodgers hardly threatened. In fact, their offense looked a lot like their offense during Tuesday’s Game 3, especially anemic in the middle innings. The only difference: There was no Cody Bellinger, no unlikely hero to step up late.
Meanwhile, Rosario alone tripled the Dodgers’ total bases, and the rest of the Braves completed a balanced attack to win 9-2 and seize a 3-1 series lead.
"That’s how I define myself," Rosario said through an interpreter. "Someone who comes up big in these clutch moments."
The reigning champions’ postseason run is on the verge of being defined as the opposite.
Atlanta is still missing power-hitting outfielder Jorge Soler, who would’ve been a top option against left-hander Julio Urías, the Dodgers’ Wednesday starter. Instead, the Braves started two left-handed-hitting outfielders: Rosario and former Dodger Joc Pederson. That worked out. Rosario started the game’s scoring by slamming a homer in the second. Up next, center fielder Adam Duvall matched his effort. In the bottom half of the inning, Duvall leaped to steal a potential home run from Gavin Lux.
An inning later, Freddie Freeman homered, Rosario tripled, and Pederson blooped a ball to center field. When Lux failed to reach it, Urías raised his arms in disbelief. The Braves had a four-run lead. They added to it, but it was already plenty.
"It was their day," Urías said afterward.
The Braves had planned to begin a bullpen game with Huascar Ynoa, a 23-year-old right-hander who stymied the Dodgers for four innings last NLCS. But Ynoa reported shoulder inflammation in the hours before first pitch, and Atlanta opted to replace him on the roster and start reliever Jesse Chavez instead.
Chavez, 38, is a 14-year veteran of nine teams and some seven trades. He’s the definition of a journeyman, surviving less on skill and more on guile. Yet the Dodgers did nothing against him, and they did little against Drew Smyly, the long reliever who followed him to the mound. Two months ago, L.A. torched Smyly here at Dodger Stadium in what became his last start of the season.
But this postseason hasn’t worked out like the Dodgers' 106-win regular season. On Wednesday, they did not manage their first baserunner until Corey Seager walked with one out in the fourth. They stranded him. It took another inning for their first hit, a Justin Turner single to right.
Bellinger followed with a single on the next pitch, forcing Braves manager Brian Snitker to turn to his bullpen. A.J. Pollock plated two runs with a two-out single. The Dodgers squandered their last real chance in the seventh, after Albert Pujols led off with a pinch-hit single. Turner grounded into a double play and strained his hamstring in the process, limping into the clubhouse with help from teammates and trainers. He’ll miss the rest of these playoffs.
Urías, who has had so much postseason success, had not surrendered three homers in the same game, as he did Wednesday, since June 2, 2016. Would he have been better if he had not pitched in relief in Sunday’s Game 2? That will probably be debated for a long time. Urías said he felt great. Manager Dave Roberts said he did not think the relief appearance affected his starter but then acknowledged that he could not be sure.
"I don’t think anyone knows," Roberts said. "I just didn’t see the stuff tonight as compromised."
Urías did not display great body language while on the mound. There was the Lux incident, and when Albies snuck a grounder through the shift in the fifth, Urías placed his hands on his knees and leaned over for several seconds. That grounder led to one more Atlanta run.
Even then, Roberts stuck with him. The Dodgers used so many relievers to win Tuesday’s Game 3 and might need so many more to win Thursday’s Game 5 that Roberts thought it best to extract as many innings as he could out of Urías. After throwing five innings Wednesday and a total of 15 in four postseason outings, Urías most likely won’t pitch again in this series — or, at this point, this season. If he does, it’ll be in another limited relief role, the kind that helped put the team in this mess to begin with.
The Dodgers have played a sloppy series and an especially sloppy Game 4. Even Mookie Betts, the steadiest man around, dropped a Travis d’Arnaud liner that bounced off his glove in the eighth inning.
This is the part where we remind you that the Dodgers came back from a 3-1 deficit against these Braves a year ago. And this is the part where we remind you that the circumstances have changed.
"This is a whole different team," Freeman said. "This is a whole different thing."
A year ago, the Dodgers didn’t face the prospect of going back to Atlanta. They were in a neutral bubble. They also didn’t have to traverse a Game 5 against Atlanta ace Max Fried while wielding only their bullpen. And they must do so with Max Muncy, Kershaw and Turner all watching from the dugout.
"No one needs to really tell anyone that we can do it," Pollock said. "We've done it. We've been here. Obviously, we gotta grind tomorrow. But we win tomorrow, we're not in a bad spot."
To win Thursday, the Dodgers will need a radically improved offensive performance against a significantly better pitcher.
Pedro Moura is the national baseball writer for FOX Sports. He most recently covered the Dodgers for three seasons for The Athletic. Previously, he spent five years covering the Angels and Dodgers for the Orange County Register and L.A. Times. More previously, he covered his alma mater, USC, for ESPNLosAngeles.com. The son of Brazilian immigrants, he grew up in the Southern California suburbs. Follow him on Twitter @pedromoura.