Atlanta KO’s Kershaw in 6run 6th, pushes L. A. to brink
ARLINGTON, Texas — Marcell Ozuna homered twice, MVP candidate Freddie Freeman delivered the goahead hit off Clayton Kershaw and the Atlanta Braves moved one win from ending a twodecade World Series drought by routing the Los Angeles Dodgers 102 on Thursday.
The Braves took a 31 lead in the NL Championship Series, bouncing back from getting pounded 153 the previous night. Atlanta will try to reach its first World Series since 1999 when it plays Game 5 on Friday.
“Feels good, feels really good,” Atlanta 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.”
Dustin May, who has thrown 42⁄ scoreless innings
3 in three appearances this postseason, will start for the Dodgers. Atlanta will likely go with a bullpen day.
Ozuna had four hits and drove in four runs. It was 11in the sixth before the Braves scored six times, with Freeman hitting a tiebreaking double and Ozuna following with an RBI double that chased Kershaw.
A night after the Dodgers had a record 11run first, they managed only one hit — a solo homer by Edwin Rios — over six innings against 22yearold rookie righthander Bryse Wilson in his postseason debut.
“He was in complete control,” Snitker said. “He had a really good look about him. He had good tempo, and the stuff was live. It was huge, a huge effort by him.”
Though the Braves’ outburst also lasted more than a halfhour but without as many runs as Los Angeles’ a day earlier, it was more than big enough enough after Ronald Acuña Jr. led off the decisive sixrun sixth with an infield single on a play that ended with him, Kershaw and second baseman Kiké Hernandez all on the ground. They all took tumbles because of their effort.
Kershaw fell down after coming off the mound while reaching up to try to field the chopper. Hernandez 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.
After trying glasses in the field and getting eyedrops early in the game, Freeman apparently had no problems seeing when he doubled home Acuña for a 21 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 center fielder Cristian Pache capped the inning with an RBI single made it 71.
“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.”
Freeman and Ozuna each added RBI singles in the eighth.
Atlanta had gotten even 11 in the fourth when Ozuna turned an 86 mph slider from Kershaw into a 109 mph rocket that went 422 feet to left for his second postseason homer. Ozuna went even deeper in the seventh, a 434foot shot to straightaway center.
Wilson became the thirdyoungest pitcher to allow one or no hits over at least six innings in a postseason game. The righthander struck out five and walked one, starting with a 123 first on 10 pitches.