Dodgers beat Braves in marquee series opener

Time will tell if this weekend’s series is a postseason preview.

But Friday night certainly had the feel of a playoff game.

On one side, the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers. On the other, a red-hot Atlanta Braves squad that arrived in Los Angeles tied for the most early-season wins in the majors.

Both teams possess high-powered offenses, with the Braves leading baseball in runs scored and the Dodgers topping all clubs in OPS.

Both teams have talented pitching staffs, the Dodgers ranking second in ERA and the Braves led by former Cy Young winner Chris Sale.

On Friday, both turned one spectacular defensive play after another on top of all that.

But in the end, the Dodgers did what they usually do in high-profile matchups, grinding out a 3-1 win to take the opening contest in this three-game set.

This one was decided on the margins, ultimately coming down to one costly mistake and one big swing.

With the score tied 1-1 in the fifth inning, Braves rookie shortstop Jim Jarvis –– fresh off a stunning diving catch in the bottom of the fourth and his first career hit in the top of the fifth –– airmailed a throw into the dugout that put Miguel Rojas on second base. Three batters later, Shohei Ohtani snuck a two-out ground-ball through the infield for a go-ahead RBI single.

In the sixth, the Dodgers would stretch their advantage, when Freddie Freeman capitalized on a rare misfire from the 37-year-old Sale. In a 0-1 count, the left-hander left a fastball over the heart of the plate. With his biggest swing in weeks, Freeman clobbered it to center for his first home run since April 6.

That was enough to give the Dodgers some breathing room. The rest of the way, they leaned on their bullpen to close it out.

After a 4 ⅔-inning, one-run start from Emmet Sheehan, the Dodgers’ relief corps combined for 5 1/3 innings of scoreless ball.

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It started with Alex Vesia, who stranded a pair of runners he inherited from Sheehan in the fifth. Kyle Hurt came on next, gave up back-to-back singles to lead off the sixth, then escaped the jam in his highest-leverage appearance so far this season. And from there, Will Klein and Brock Stewart built a bridge to the ninth inning, where Tanner Scott emerged for his third save.

There were other key moments mixed in along the way, like a perfect relay play from Teoscar Hernández and Miguel Rojas to gun down a runner at home in the fourth. 

And though the Dodgers didn’t exactly solve Sale in a seven-inning, seven-strikeout start, they did enough –– in every phase –– to win on a night with shades of October.

What it means

That, when facing premier competition, the Dodgers can win in a number of ways.

After all, the team was out-hit 9-5 on Friday. Sale easily outshined Sheehan, who continued to battle fluctuating fastball velocity, on the mound.

Yet, as the club has done so often over the past two Octobers, they prevailed nonetheless, winning for a fourth time in the past games to improve to 4-3 against opponents with winning records this year.

Who’s hot

The Dodgers got on the board Friday courtesy of Kyle Tucker, who continues the slow process of turning his season around.

With two outs in the second, Tucker was facing a 1-2 hole against Sale when he got a shin-high slider over the outer edge of the plate. He was early with his swing, but rode the pitch out and somehow got the barrel to it, pulling a double down the right-field line to erase an early 1-0 deficit.

The hit marked Tucker’s seventh double in his last 14 games (a stretch that also includes a home run), and helped him raise his batting average to .288 in that time. The $240 million signing is still hitting just .254 on the season with a sub-.750 OPS, but has at least been contributing more regularly since being dropped down the lineup.

Who’s not

With Mookie Betts out on a rehab assignment and set to rejoin the Dodgers on Monday, a potentially difficult roster decision is on the horizon.

And in a rare chance to start Friday, utilityman Santiago Espinal didn’t exactly help his cause.

While Espinal worked a couple long at-bats against Sale, he only turned one of them into a hit. And even then, he got himself thrown out trying to stretch for an ill-advised hustle double on an opposite-field line drive.

Espinal, a former All-Star looking to revive his MLB career with the Dodgers this year, is now batting just .200. It’s possible that, when Betts returns, the Dodgers will opt to send one of Hyeseong Kim or Alex Freeland back to the minors, where they could get more regular playing time. But both of them have been productive lately, raising the possibility that the Dodgers could cut Espinal loose in the next few days.

Up next

Two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell will make his season debut Saturday night, after missing the start of the campaign recovering from offseason shoulder fatigue. The Braves will turn to former All-Star Spencer Strider, for what will be only his second start of the year since returning from an oblique strain.