The Los Angeles Dodgers couldn’t get the bats going and suffered their first loss of the 2020 postseason at the hands of the Atlanta Braves, dropping Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, 5-1.
The Dodgers’ only source of offense Monday night was a solo home run by Kiké Hernandez to lead off the bottom of the fifth. The blast allowed L.A. to even up the score following Freddie Freeman’s solo shot in the first inning.
The score remained locked at 1-1 entering the ninth inning, but the Braves ultimately rallied for four runs against the Dodgers bullpen to secure the victory. “It’s going to happen. It’s baseball. Anything can happen on any given night,” Hernandez said.
“They have a really good team, you can’t take credit away from them. I think their energy was a little bit better than ours. They came right off the gates, Freddie hit that ball really hard in the first inning and after that it kind of put us on our heels a little bit.
“It’s baseball. We’re going to lose games, but Game 1 doesn’t mean anything if they don’t win four games this series. Whoever wins four first is whoever wins the series, so we’ll throw this one away and come back with a fresh mind.”
Outside of Hernandez’s solo home run, the Dodgers were limited to just three singles and two walks by the Braves’ pitching staff. “Fried threw the ball really well and they have a really good bullpen, just like we do,” Hernandez said.
“At the end of the day we came up short because we didn’t put at-bats together, we didn’t get runners on base and we weren’t able to pass the baton like we did in the last series. Pitching did a great job, kept us in the game all the way to the ninth inning.
“When the guys are throwing the ball that well we need to pick them up and score some runs for them. Tonight we weren’t able to do that.”
Roberts believes Buehler matched Braves’ intensity
While Hernandez felt the Dodgers didn’t match the Braves’ energy, manager Dave Roberts thought his players did a good job — particularly Walker Buehler, who settled down after the first-inning home run.
“I thought there was a lot of energy from both sides,” Roberts said. “Obviously, second hitter of the game, when you hit a homer as a visiting team, you feel pretty good.
“But I thought Walker matched that intensity and you’ve just got to give credit to Fried because he pitched a heckuva ballgame.”
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