Seager homers again, Dodgers force Game 7
ARLINGTON, TEXAS » Corey Seager’s sweet swing. Walker Buehler’s calm. Kenley Jansen’s resurgence. The Los Angeles Dodgers got what they needed — again.
“We did what we had to do to force a Game 7,” Justin Turner said.
They sure did.
Seager homered again, Buehler pitched six scoreless innings and the Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 3-1 on Saturday to send the NL Championship Series to a winner-take-all finale.
Los Angeles avoided elimination for the second time in less than 24 hours, staying alive in its pursuit of a third pennant in four years. It hasn’t won a championship since 1988.
“I’m still sort of recovering from this one, but already thinking about Game
7,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “That’s what you live for.”
Turner also homered for Los Angeles, and Jansen threw a six-pitch ninth for his
18th career postseason save. The NL West and East champions play again Sunday night, with the potential for two rookie starters in a Game 7 for the first time in big league history.
Roberts was keeping his options open for his starting pitcher while the Braves plan to go with rookie righthander Ian Anderson, who has thrown 15.2 scoreless innings in his three postseason starts. Tony Gonsolin and three-time NL Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw are among the possibilities for Los Angeles.
“Shoot, we’ll go out there and let ‘er fly. A Game 7 is another baseball game,” Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said. “You have to treat it as such.”
The Braves were hoping to celebrate Snitker’s 65th birthday Saturday with the franchise’s first World Series berth since 1999. But Max Fried took his first loss all year, working into the seventh inning after surrendering three runs during a rocky first.
Buehler, using Stan’s Rodeo Ointment to deal with bothersome blisters, threw 65 of 89 pitches for strikes. He allowed seven hits while striking out six without a walk.
After Atlanta loaded the bases with three singles in a row to start the top of second — the last hit by his Vanderbilt roommate Dansby Swanson — the right-hander really brought the heat, with 10 consecutive fastballs to get out of the jam.
Austin Riley struck out on a 98.7 mph pitch before Nick Markakis took a called third strike on 99.7 mph. Cristian Pache, the 21-year-old rookie
who had an RBI in each of his first four NLCS starts, was retired on an inningending groundout.
“His mound presence is just unbelievable,” Turner said.
Buehler said he has never felt that calm in a game, especially a situation like that. He credited catcher Austin Barnes — and past experiences.
“I’ve failed in those moments. I’ve been through it and I’ve been good after it, but that failure doesn’t really scare me anymore,” Buehler
said. “The more times you go through things like that, your heartbeat kind of changes and can slow down.”
It was a much different result than Buehler’s postseason debut two years ago in Game 3 of the NL Division Series, when the Braves also loaded the bases against him in the second inning. After a walk drove in a run, Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a grand slam on the next pitch.
Fried, who struck out five and walked four in 6 2/3 in
nings, allowed only two homers in his 11 starts while going 7-0 during the regular season. But the Dodgers went deep twice in three pitches in the first.
Seager pulled a towering shot to right on a 73-mph curveball, and Turner connected on a 93-mph sinker that went 418 feet to straightaway center.
Max Muncy walked and scored after back-to-back singles by Will Smith and Cody Bellinger.