Freeman, Braves hold on to beat Dodgers

First baseman opened 33-minute, four-run half inning with a home run

ARLINGTON, TEXAS— Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman didn’t stop his “MVFree” campaign when the calendar turned to October. Nor did his team’s offence stall when it arrived in the Texas bubble.

Freeman, who was the National League’s best player in the regular season, has been the best player through two games of the NL Championship Series. And his Braves, formerly post-season doormats, are two wins from a World Series berth.

Freeman’s fingerprints were all over Tuesday’s 8-7 Game 2 victory in Arlington. He belted a two-run homer off Dodgers starter Tony Gonsolin to open the scoring in the fourth, made a clutch stretching grab to end a Dodgers scoring threat earlier in the night and had a key RBI hit in a four-run fifth.

It was another all-important win for the Braves, who are 7-0 this post-season while outscoring opponents 37-12. Yes, that’s aplus 25-run differential in seven games. The Braves had a plus-60 run differential in the 60-game regular season.

It almost slipped away, however, when the Dodgers scored seven runs from the seventh inning on, including a four-run ninth in which Cody Bellinger was left stranded at third.

The difference was ultimately the fourth inning. The Braves’ 33-minute, four-run half inning began with Nick Markakis’s 10pitch walk. Entering the at-bat, Markakis was just 4-for-25 this post-season. Six pitches later, Cristian Pache laced a double down the left-field line that scored Markakis.

It aptly illustrated the Braves’ oft-discussed veteran-youth mix. Pache, 21, scored Markakis, 36, on his first post-season hit and first career RBI. The double extended the Braves’ lead to 3-0.

Ronald Acuna’s ensuing walk ended Gonsolin’s outing. The

Dodgers summoned Pedro Baez, who held left-handed hitters to a 3-for-31 mark in the regular season, to face Freeman, who greeted him with an RBI single. Marcell Ozuna walked to load the bases. Travis d’Arnaud’s walk scored the Braves’ fifth run. Ozzie Albies’ sacrifice fly scored their sixth.

It was an inning that sapped the enthusiasm out of every Dodgers fan at Globe Life Park. The Braves weren’t just beating the Dodgers, they were dominating them, convincingly showing them up just as they did with the Reds and Marlins in route to the NLCS.

The Dodgers, who were 43-17 in the regular season and nearly everyone’s World Series pick, looked as helpless as the lastplace Red Sox team the Braves obliterated at Fenway Park in early September. But their late surge might have shown what’s to come. The Dodgers won’t be going out quietly.

Messy finish aside, the Braves just need two more victories to claim this best-of-seven series. Nobody in Atlanta will feel comfortable until it’s over, but these Braves have demolished every demon of the franchise’s past. And they avoided adding to that list of miseries by hanging on in Game 2. Albies’ solo homer in the top of the ninth proved a game-saving insurance run.

The Braves won despite starter Ian Anderson’s “off” performance. Like Max Fried the night before, Anderson saw his pitch count build early with a 29-pitch first inning.

Unlike Anderson, Gonsolin cruised early and looked like he’d pitch deep into the game. The right-hander, who replaced Clayton Kershaw as the starter, entered the fourth inning with a perfect game but left it in a two-run hole. He issued a leadoff walk to Acuna and saw his ill-placed inside splitter deposited into the right-field seats by Freeman, who had his second homer in as many nights.