Dodgers rally back before Braves force Game 4
ATLANTA -- Confident Walker Buehler will someday be the Dodgers ace, maybe in a few weeks, and he'll probably be a better one for what he did wrong Sunday.:: NLDS schedule and results ::With a chance for a Dodgers sweep of the best-of-five National League Division Series, the Game 163
ATLANTA -- Confident
:: NLDS schedule and results ::
With a chance for a Dodgers sweep of the best-of-five National League Division Series, the Game 163 winner suffered a second-inning meltdown after a costly
In the history of best-of-five series with the 2-2-1 format, clubs with a 2-1 lead and playing Game 4 on the road have taken the series 18 of 26 times (69 percent). Of those 18 series victories, 14 ended in Game 4, without the club having to return home for a winner-take-all Game 5.
"Sometimes you just lose it," said Buehler. "I'm proud of the way I found the zone after that, but there's no excuse for the second inning. Sometimes you overthrow or you're not looking at the right things or you're not thinking about the right things in the moment and sometimes you get away with it and sometimes you don't."
The Braves hadn't drawn a walk in the first 19 innings of this series, but Buehler walked three (one intentionally) in the second, including opposing pitcher
"It's going to be said it's the first playoff game and blah, blah, blah," Buehler said. "I made eight or 10 bad pitches in a sequence and this is a playoff team we're facing and they're good and somebody's going to take advantage. I plan on pitching in a lot of playoff games. This is a good lesson to get out of the way."
Buehler shrugged off a suggestion that playoff pressure got to him, comparing this game to the importance of his Game 163 masterpiece, except that it was loud when he was bad. So, no, one really bad inning did not derail his trademark bravado.
"I don't think you can pitch here if you don't believe in yourself," he said. "If you can walk a guy and walk in a run on national television and embarrass yourself and if you can't figure it out, I don't think you belong here. The 3-1 fastball to Acuna would say I don't belong here, but I don't think that's the case. I'm excited to pitch in this atmosphere again and will do better."
The Dodgers got Buehler off the hook personally thanks to
• LA shows clout, but missed chances stand out
After a five-pitch first inning, Buehler got himself in trouble by walking
Bellinger's misdirected throw opened first base and Charlie Culberson was intentionally walked to load the bases, but things sped out of control and Buehler also walked Newcomb (3-for-72 lifetime) on four pitches to force in the Braves' first run of the series and first against the Dodgers in 23 innings. Acuna launched his grand slam to left-center on a 3-1 pitch for a 5-0 lead. Then Buehler regrouped and retired the next 10 batters, four on strikeouts.
"After that error in center field, I think that he lost his focus a little bit," said manager Dave Roberts. "And for him to go four straight to the pitcher and obviously you get behind Acuna, so very uncharacteristic. But it was good to see him recalibrate and give us five innings to at some point save our 'pen."
Walks got the Dodgers behind and walks got them back in the game in the third when Newcomb gave up a leadoff pass to
Two innings later,
Muncy went lefty-on-lefty against
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
The Dodgers opened the ninth inning with a single by pinch-hitter
SOUND SMART
Dodgers pitchers have limited the Braves to a .144 batting average and .411 OPS. But Machado is 1-for-12 with a homer, seven strikeouts and a .487 OPS.
HE SAID IT
"I'm excited. We've got to win. It's as simple as that." -- Hill
Ken Gurnick has covered the Dodgers for MLB.com since 2001.