The Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves completed one of the most anticipated matchups of the regular season in what many considered a potential National League Championship preview, but the results ended up being somewhat lopsided.
The Braves took the first three games of the series before the Dodgers were able to avoid being swept by pulling off a victory on Sunday. Atlanta outscored the Dodgers 19-15 over the four games, but 11 of L.A.’s runs came while they were already trailing.
Some of that was due to the Dodgers’ struggles with runners in scoring position, but it also was related to the quality of starts each team had.
In the series opener, Lance Lynn gave up seven runs over 4.1 innings, while Spencer Strider allowed four in six innings. The following night, Julio Urías only lasted five innings while giving up five runs, compared to seven scoreless from Max Fried.
Emmet Sheehan and Bobby Miller each had successful outings, but Bryce Elder was still able to outduel the former with six innings and one run allowed.
The Dodgers’ rotation has been one of their biggest issues for much of the season, and those concerns have remained into the final month, while the Braves have found much more consistency from their group. Because of that, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts feels the biggest gap between the two World Series favorites is the starting pitching.
“Yeah, I think that’s fair,” Roberts said. “Not to take anything away from our guys, but the numbers don’t lie. You see those guys, the earned run average, the WHIP, any kind of numbers you want to put together, the strikeouts, the innings, length deep into the game.
“But we can still, as far as collectively with the pitching, I think we can do a better job of preventing runs. We haven’t these first two games, but yeah, their starting pitching you could argue is probably the best in baseball.”
The Braves rank third in MLB and first in the NL in team ERA (3.78), while the Dodgers rank 17th (4.14). Braves starters rank seventh with a 4.01 ERA while the Dodgers are again 17th with a 4.53 ERA.
In the second half alone the two clubs have been much closer, however. The Braves rank 14th with a 4.45 ERA from their starting pitchers, while the Dodgers are 16th with a 4.48 ERA.
Still, the biggest difference may be between who each team can rely on in the postseason. Fried, Strider, Elder and Morton are all locked into a rotation spot for Atlanta, while the Dodgers have Clayton Kershaw and a lot to figure out.
The Dodgers do have a few encouraging young arms in Miller, Sheehan, Ryan Pepiot and Gavin Stone, along with the potential return of Walker Buehler, but none of them are guaranteed to be in the playoff rotation.
A rebound from Urías would go a long way into stabilizing the Dodgers’ October rotation, but his struggles this season leave him as a major question mark.
Dave Roberts still confident in Dodgers pitching staff
Despite the rough showing against the Braves, Roberts still has confidence in his pitching staff and lineup if the two clubs meet again in the NLCS.
“I think we match up just fine,” Roberts said. “I think how you go about preventing runs, there’s not one way to do that. I think we can do that, which we showed [Saturday] night.
“I think when you get opportunities to score runs and take advantage of situations, we’ve got to do that.”
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