LOS ANGELES -- On paper, the Dodgers had a clear advantage over the Braves in the first two games of the NL Division Series, sending a pair of two-time Cy Young Award winners to the mound while Atlanta was forced to run back-to-back bullpen games.
But baseball is not played on paper, and in several key moments, poor execution was the Dodgers' undoing in Game 2.
A shaky start from Blake Snell set the wrong tone as the Dodgers fell, 3-2, to the Braves on Sunday night at Dodger Stadium. Atlanta countered with a bullpen game anchored by its top leverage arms, working a split in the NLDS as the series shifts to Truist Park with a matchup of aces -- Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Chris Sale -- set for Game 3 on Tuesday.
"We've got our work cut out," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "So now it's a three-game series."
From a historical standpoint, such a loss swings the momentum of the series. In all best-of-five postseason series, teams to win Game 2 after losing Game 1 have gone on to win the series 34 of 67 times (51%). In Division Series with the current 2-2-1 format, teams to get a split on the road before heading home for Games 3-4 have taken the series 30 of 49 times (61%).
After Tarik Skubal led L.A. to a Game 1 victory, Snell was unable to pick up where his rotation mate left off, holding the Braves to one run but only lasting 3 2/3 innings in Game 2. But while the Dodgers know their rotation is something special, they are also aware that they can't rely entirely on run prevention if they are to pull off the fifth three-peat in World Series history.
"Every starter on their staff is a Cy Young guy," Braves manager Walt Weiss said. "It doesn't get any easier, but I like the fact that we go back home even and we have Chris Sale."
In Game 2, a few too many self-inflicted wounds sealed L.A.'s fate.
Snell, who has thrown just five innings on 96 pitches in the past two and a half weeks after exiting his Sept. 16 start with left groin tightness, looked like he still had plenty of rust to knock off. He issued five walks, including a pair in the first inning that loaded the bases to set up a two-out RBI single for Mauricio Dubón.
While Snell didn't allow a run the rest of the way, his elevated pitch count meant that he was unable to pitch deep into the game. After Snell walked his fifth batter on the 90th pitch he threw, Roberts lifted him in favor of Brock Stewart, the first of six Dodgers relievers to pitch -- as many as the Braves used in their planned bullpen game.
"He just was fighting himself with his delivery all game," Roberts said. "I think, in total, didn't have fastball command, didn't have slider command and the changeup wasn't there. … It wasn't the groin. He just wasn't sharp tonight."
Snell was not available after the game because he was dealing with a family matter.
The Dodgers were briefly back in the game when Freddie Freeman led off the bottom of the fourth with a home run -- his first extra-base hit since Sept. 2 -- but the tie did not last for long. Kris Bubic was a strike away from tossing a scoreless top of the fifth, but Michael Harris II hit a fly ball to left field that Teoscar Hernández misread, then had to run down after it hit off the wall.
"I didn't break in, but I broke to the side," Hernández said. "And then when I realized, it was too late. Maybe I had a shot on it."
Harris' knock was scored a triple, and he scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch from Bubic.
"Obviously, that wild pitch is the last thing you want in that situation," Bubic said. "But turn the page, and on to the next."
While the Braves capitalized on mistakes, the Dodgers were unable to cash in the opportunities they created, going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranding seven runners. They inched within a run when Max Muncy took Didier Fuentes deep with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, but Braves closer Raisel Iglesias slammed the door by getting pinch-hitter Josue De Paula to pop out.
All seven runs the Dodgers have scored this series have come via the long ball. While power is a difference-maker in the postseason, they know they can't be overly reliant on leaving the yard against a talented Braves staff.
Through two games, the Dodgers have seen every arm in Atlanta's 'pen except JR Ritchie. That doesn't necessarily make facing them easier, but it has allowed them to gather information, which is key. Because if L.A. is going to keep this postseason run going, it will need to adjust before Game 3.
"Get guys on base, get that big hit," Freeman said. "And hopefully, our pitching keeps doing what they're doing."