The Los Angeles Dodgers again struggled to come up with hits and it resulted in a 4-2 defeat on Sunday and series loss to the Atlanta Braves. The Dodgers had four, five and seven hits, respectively, in the three games at Truist Park.
Max Fried was dominant early as he retired the first 10 batters faced. His perfect game was broken up by Justin Turner on a one-out double in the fourth inning, which also wound up leading to a run when Albert Pujols blooped an RBI single into right field.
It cut the Dodgers’ deficit in half as the Braves had previously scored on Abraham Almonte’s RBI double in the second inning, and Ozzie Albies’ double in the third.
A leadoff walk in the sixth inning led to more trouble for Trevor Bauer as Ehire Adrianza then followed with a single. Ender Inciarte’s one-out RBI single extended the Braves’ lead to 3-1.
Bauer got through six innings and snapped his string of allowing at least one home run at two consecutive starts. He surrendered a season-high three long balls on Memorial Day.
Much of the talk with Bauer’s start against the Braves centered around his spin rates, which were down on the four-seam fastball, slider, cutter and changeup. Bauer did see a slight increase — only 71 rpm — on his curveball.
The Dodgers had multiple opportunities to erase their deficit, most notably when they put two on in the sixth and seventh innings.
The Braves scored a run off David Price in the eighth, which loomed large considering Pujols led off the ninth with a solo home run. The long ball was Pujols’ 671st of his career and moved him into fourth place on the MLB all-time total bases list.
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