NLCS Game 4 (Thursday) Braves 10, Dodgers 2
ARLINGTON, Texas – Marcell Ozuna homered twice, rookie right-hander Bryse Wilson made his postseason debut by outpitching a three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw and the Braves bounced back from a lopsided loss with a rout of their own, beating Los Angeles 10-2 on Thursday night.
“Feels good, feels really good,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Still have a lot of work to do, you know how quick things can turn. I was really proud of the guys, how they bounced back.”
The Braves took a 3-1 lead in the NL Championship Series, a night after a 15-3 loss.
Atlanta became the first team in MLB history to have back-to-back games in a single postseason where they lost by at least eight runs and then won by at least eight runs, according to STATS.
Ozuna had four hits and drove in four runs. It was 1-all in the sixth when the Braves scored six times, with MVP candidate Freddie Freeman hitting a tiebreaking double and Ozuna following with an RBI double that chased Kershaw.
A night after the Dodgers had a record 11-run first, they managed only one hit – a solo homer by Edwin Ríos – over six innings against the 22-year-old Wilson.
“He was in complete control. … He had a really good look about him. He had good tempo, and the stuff was live,” Snitker said. “It was huge, a huge effort by him.”
Ronald Acuña Jr. led off the decisive six-run sixth with an infield single on a play that ended with him, Kershaw and second baseman Kiké Hernández all on the ground.
Kershaw fell down after coming off the mound while reaching up to try to field the high chopper. Hernández went to the ground after grabbing the ball and making a sidearm throw then went wide while Acuña tumbled after passing the base and landed awkwardly on his left wrist that was irritated twice during the regular season. Acuña went to second base because of the errant throw after being tended to for several moments.
Freeman doubled home Acuña for a 2-1 lead before Ozuna followed with another double. Reliever Brusdar Graterol got the first out before giving up three consecutive hits, including Dansby Swanson’s tworun double and Austin Riley’s RBI single. Rookie Cristian Pache capped the inning with an RBI single that made it 7-1.
“They’re similar to us as far as they build on momentum really well,” Kershaw said. “It just seems like they have that domino effect when one thing gets going. They just continue to build on that. And they’ve got great hitters, too.”