HISTORICAL: Dodgers took Game 3 out of the freezer against Braves

By José Alejandro Rodríguez Zas

With a historic four-run reaction in the eighth inning, never before seen in franchise history in the postseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers came from below to turn the score in picking up the bats and prevailing with a close final score of 6. -5 to the Atlanta Braves, in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series at Major Leagues.

When all seemed lost for the reigning World Series champions and the 0-3 match seemed almost a reality, a three-run homer from Dodgers first baseman and seventh hitter, left-hander Cody Bellinger, appeared at the bottom of the game. eighth inning, which tied the game at five runs, before a delirious crowd of more than 51,000 people who gathered at Dodger Stadium.

Bellinger swung at a 96 mph fastball thrown by Atlanta right-handed reliever Luke Jackson and sent the ball flying over the fences between right and center fields, propelling teammates Will Smith and AJ Pollock, who they ran on the pads, both on singles.

Moments later, Chris Taylor hit left field unstoppable, stole second, reached third on a grounder to Matt Beaty’s box and scored the decisive run by double for Mookie Betts, already with two outs on the board. Total madness at Dodger Stadium as his team is ahead in the crash.

From the very beginning of the game, the Dodgers sent clear signals that they were coming for the victory, after being swept in a series of two games in Atlanta and one more loss would put them on the verge of the abyss, forced to win four in a row. In fact, this is the 24th time in postseason history that teams with at least 15 wins apart from each other in the regular season have faced each other in a playoff series, as the Braves finished 88-73 and the Dodgers finished 88-73. 106-56 and the first where the team with the fewest wins would take a 3-0 lead in the series.

Minutes into the game, a home run by Corey Seager in the bottom of the first chapter, brought the first two of the crash, against a Charlie Morton who did not start well at all.

Morton walked, for the first time in a postseason career, three walks in a single opening inning, but dominated Taylor in line at shortstop to reduce damage for the Dodgers. The last time he did this in the MLB regular season was in July 2019. Even in that own inning, the Braves starter threw 34 pitches, the most for him in a playoff chapter.

However, little by little Morton was finding his way and, although he was not dominant, he managed to contain the Dodgers offense for five innings with only three hits and two earned runs, in addition to five strikeouts. Only the six walks and 96 pitches clouded his actions.

For the Dodgers, right-hander Walker Buehler worked three very good innings, but in the fourth, after a single by Freddie Freeman and a fly out by Azzie Albies, there was a connection to center field by Austin Riley, very poorly fielded by Gavin. Lux, which, although it was an official double, complicated the entry, to the point of making the Braves four scores, turning the board in their favor 4-2.

This decreed Buehler’s exit from the box after 3.2 innings, seven hits, four earned, three strikeouts and an equal number of walks.

Atlanta extended its lead in the top of the fifth to 5-2 and its relief pitchers dominated the Dodgers’ shootout, until in the eighth inning came the rebellion that gave the reigning World Series champions the victory in a fact that hasn’t happened since 2016. Since then, MLB teams had lost 138 straight playoff games when trailing by three or more runs in the eighth inning or later.

The Chicago Cubs in Game 4 of that year’s National League Division Series, against San Francisco, had been the last to win. In fact, the Dodgers themselves were 0-81 in this situation in their postseason history of the best baseball in the world.