LOS ANGELES -- While explaining why he opted to give a fatigued Chris Sale a couple extra days of rest, Braves manager Walt Weiss said, “We know our club very well.”
Weiss certainly knew what to expect from Ray Kerr as the calm, cool and collected lefty served as an opener for the second time in four days. But even though Didier Fuentes was great throughout the regular season, few could have anticipated him being as valuable as he was while helping the Braves claim a 3-2 win over the Dodgers on Sunday night in Game 2 of the NL Division Series.
“He's what, 21 or 22?” Kerr said of Fuentes. “He's doing that at that age. He's amazing, especially throwing 100. He's getting high-level situations like that and getting through it. It was impressive for sure.”
The 21-year-old Fuentes looked like a seasoned vet, not a young reliever who just posted a 2.45 ERA in his first full big league season. He allowed one run over 3 2/3 innings in this tide-turning victory that evened the best-of-five series. His four-seam fastball averaged 99.4 mph, up from the 97.3 mph average he produced during the regular season.
“It was super emotional and very exciting,” Fuentes said through an interpreter. “So I just give thanks to God for the help that I've been able to stay healthy and be able to compete.”
While Fuentes attempted to close things out in fine fashion, Kerr once again looked like a masterful opener, holding the Dodgers scoreless over the first 2 2/3 innings. His effort rewarded Weiss and his staff for the decision to give Sale two more days to rest coming off his Game 1 start and Game 3 relief appearance in last week’s NL Wild Card Series.
“It was just another Sunday,” Kerr said.
Kerr was playfully referring to him saying, “It was just another Thursday,” after he had thrown 3 1/3 scoreless innings against the Phillies in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series. But this was a pivotal Sunday.
With Michael Harris II delivering a key fifth-inning triple and an RBI double in the seventh, the Braves evened this best-of-five series and seemingly gained momentum. They will now head home with a well-rested Sale lined up for Game 3 and Tyler Mahle for Game 4.
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%).
“Yesterday, we talked about our ‘pen not [being] at full strength and not being in position to chase a game from behind,” Weiss said. “I think losing the way we did yesterday allowed us to do what we did tonight and gain the split.
“Look, you want to win every game obviously. We also have to think about how to win a series. So you have to take all those things into consideration.”
As great as Kerr and Fuentes were, Weiss was masterful as he had to use six different pitchers, including five through the first five innings. But he was feeling quite satisfied after successfully navigating his way to 27 outs.
Kerr’s scoreless performance against the Dodgers alone would have been impressive. But making this effort more epic was the fact it came just three days after he threw 47 pitches against the Phillies.
Weiss entered this game not knowing exactly how long Kerr might last. But the 32-year-old lefty showed no signs of fatigue. He surrendered a leadoff double to Miguel Rojas in the third and then intentionally pitched around Mookie Betts to set up a lefty-versus-lefty matchup against Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani hit a harmless pop fly to end Kerr’s evening.
This has been a pretty good week for a guy who missed most of the past two years recovering from Tommy John surgery. He made just nine big league appearances this year.
“He’s not going to be fazed,” Braves outfielder Mike Yastrzemski said. “He’s going to do the exact same thing that [Fuentes] did and leave it all out there. It was super impressive and huge for us to get off to such a good start.”
The southpaw’s ability to get into the third inning was pivotal, especially with Grant Holmes’ outing lasting just five batters. Holmes surrendered Freddie Freeman’s leadoff homer in the fourth and exited with one out and two on later in the inning.
Dylan Lee cleaned up Holmes’ mess in the fourth and Robert Suarez cleaned up Lee’s mess in the fifth by escaping a two-on, no-out jam. Suarez retired the three batters he faced in what was just his fourth appearance since his right elbow began bothering him in late June.
Knowing Suarez wouldn’t return for a second inning, Weiss planned to split the final 12 outs among Fuentes and Raisel Iglesias. He never could have imagined Fuentes accounting for 11 of them. He might have gotten them all had Max Muncy not homered with two outs in the ninth.
“After his third inning, I looked at our pitching coach, let's see how he feels,” Weiss said. “If he feels good enough, I want to send him back out. I didn't want to mess with a good thing. He was throwing the ball really well.”
Muncy’s homer prompted the entry of Iglesias, who retired the only batter he faced to record the save. But it didn’t ruin what was a memorable night for Fuentes, who hit 99-plus mph with four fastballs in the ninth.
“I couldn’t believe he came back out there for the ninth, but he did and he was still chucking 100,” Braves first baseman Matt Olson said. “That was impressive.”