Inside: The Dodgers hit four home runs in the first three innings and go on to beat the Braves.
LOS ANGELES >> Opportunity had been knocking persistently. The Dodgers finally answered.
With the first-place Giants losing for the third time in their past four games, the Dodgers took advantage, peeling a game off the division lead by beating the Atlanta Braves 5-3 Monday night.
The Dodgers had also lost each of the previous two times the Giants did, the two teams moving in tandem as if it were a sack race. With Monday’s win, though, the Dodgers moved within 1 1/2 games of first place, as close as they have been able to get since a loss to the Giants on July 21.
They did it by beating a Braves team that had hung those two losses on the Giants over the weekend in Atlanta and had been just a tick (18-6) behind the Dodgers (19-6) as the National League’s hottest team in August.
The Dodgers’ offense had not been very hot recently, not even lukewarm. In 10 games before facing the Braves, the Dodgers hit .187 as a team and averaged 3.4 runs per game, culminating in a shutout at home by the Colorado Rockies on Sunday.
They had just one hit after the fourth inning Monday but had already done enough damage, hitting four home runs in the first three innings off Braves lefthander Drew Smyly.
Max Muncy started the power display with one out in the first inning. Will Smith went deep with two outs in the second and Mookie Betts led off the third with a line drive into the left field seats.
Corey Seager broke the solo parade with a two-run shot later that inning, putting the Dodgers firmly on top 5-0.
It was the second time this season the Dodgers hit four home runs in the first three innings of a game -- they also did it on August 4 against the Houston Astros -- and the first time in franchise history they’ve done it twice in a single season.
The Braves nearly matched the Dodgers’ homer total. But it took awhile.
Dodgers starter Julio Urias was perfect through four innings, retiring the first 12 batters he faced. The Braves got a couple singles in the fifth inning to end Urias’ perfect string then Jorge Soler and Freddie Freeman hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth.
Urias finished the sixth, his longest outing since July 21. In eight starts since then, he has a 2.03 ERA while holding opposing hitters to a .191 batting average.
Adam Duvall hit the Braves’ third solo homer of the game in the seventh off Dodgers reliever Phil Bickford. Corey Knebel and Blake Treinen combined to get the final six outs but Treinen had to strike out Adam Duvall and get Stephen Vogt to fly out with the tying runs on in the ninth to get there.