The Los Angeles Dodgers survived the heat and beat the Atlanta Braves to take a 1-0 lead in the National League Division Series.
Making his postseason debut for the Dodgers, Tarik Skubal threw a gem with six innings of two-hit ball with seven strikeouts. Of those two hits, Skubal gave up a one-run homer to Sean Murphy at the top of the sixth inning.
Skubal’s command got shaky toward the end of his day; triple-digit temperatures likely didn’t help.
Skubal was aided by outfielder Teoscar Hernández, who continued his impressive postseason performance as a member of the Dodgers, crushing a two-run homer and driving on Freddie Freeman in the bottom of the fourth inning.
The Dodgers opened up the scoring in the bottom of the sixth with Hernández scoring again thanks to the first career playoff jack by Kyle Tucker—who seems to genuinely be turning things around. Max Muncy hit a solo shot himself two batters later. That homer for Max was the 17th in his historic career, the most in L.A. Dodgers history.
Dodgers bullpen remains shaky
Tanner Scott, who was one of the more reliable arms this regular season, although still a far cry from his pre-Dodger days of dominance, came in to close out the game but his old struggles resurfaced.
Scott gave up a single to Ronald Acuña, his first batter faced, and then was taken yard by Ozzie Albies immediately after.
Scott was eventually replaced by Evan Phillips, who didn’t look particularly sharp either but was able to close out the game without any additional damage.
The final score was 5-3 in favor of Los Angeles.
Game 2 of the NLDS takes place Sunday at 5 p.m.; Blake Snell will get the start for L.A.
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