The Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t return from Chicago until the early-morning hours Thursday, and in some regard they slept-walked through a 6-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves in the opener of a 10-game homestand.
The loss snapped the Dodgers’ season-best winning streak at 11 games and left them 2.5 games ahead of the idle Houston Astros for best record in the Majors. On the other hand, the Braves snapped a three-game losing skid.
They did so by jumping on Brandon McCarthy early and often. Ender Inciarte opened the game with a base hit to center field, and two batter’s later Freddie Freeman’s RBI single put Atlanta ahead.
Following a Matt Kemp single, Matt Adams’ ground-rule double put the Dodgers in a 2-0 deficit. McCarthy managed to limit the damage by retiring Nick Markakis and Kurt Suzuki.
While McCarthy struck out the side in the second inning, he was blitzed in the third by a Brandon Phillips leadoff triple and Freeman’s second run-scoring single. Suzuki slugged a two-run homer in the fourth, and Inciarte added an RBI single before McCarthy could get out of the inning.
His frustrating night came to a close at four innings pitched, nine hits allowed, six runs, one walk and five strikeouts. McCarthy failed to complete five innings for a third time in his last four starts.
Offensively, the Dodgers scratched in the bottom of the first when Cody Bellinger cashed in a Corey Seager double with an RBI single. Mike Foltynewicz didn’t allow another hit until Chris Taylor led off the fourth inning with a single.
He advanced to second base on a wild pitch, but was stranded. So too was Chase Utley after hitting a one-out double in the fifth inning. Taylor doubled with one out in the sixth and Yasmani Grandal broke the drought with a line drive that skipped off the wall and into the right-field pavilion for a two-run homer.
Foltynewicz was removed after 6.1 innings. Rex Brothers, Arodys Vizcaino and Jim Johnson combined to shut out the Dodgers the rest of the way. Johnson worked around Grandal’s leadoff double and a two-out walk of Austin Barnes to convert the save opportunity against his former club.
If there was any solace for Los Angeles, Luis Avilan, Brandon Morrow and Brock Stewart provided five scoreless innings.
Stewart received some help from Taylor in the eighth, as he threw out Adam on his attempt to score on Suzuki’s single to left field. The assist was Taylor’s fourth this season, which leads all Dodgers outfielders.
