The Los Angeles Dodgers were swept by the Atlanta Braves following a pitcher’s duel between Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Chris Sale.
The Dodgers have now been swept four times this season, three of which have come since the middle of July and all against teams with a winning record.
L.A.’s lead over Atlanta for the No. 2 spot in the National League playoff race has shrunk to just one game.
They also lost the season series to the Braves on Wednesday, giving Atlanta a potential tiebreaker if they are tied at the season’s end. Atlanta took two of three from the Dodgers in L.A. from May 8-10.
The Dodgers have fallen to .500 in their last 16 games at Truist Park dating back to the 2022 season, after entering the series having won eight of their last 13.
Braves 1, Dodgers 0: key takeaways
Chris Sale & Yoshinobu Yamamoto battle
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was excellent once again, but one mistake pitch cost him. On the first pitch he threw, Yamamoto left a hanging splitter, and it was crushed out of the ballpark by Drake Baldwin to give the Braves a quick 1-0 lead.
From there, Yamamoto retired the next seven hitters he faced and ended up getting to the seventh inning without any more damage. The right-hander allowed just the lone run on four hits with eight strikeouts and one walk.
He exited in the seventh inning with 105 pitches after allowing a one-out single and a walk. Jack Dreyer replaced him and got a quick double play on a comebacker to end the inning.
It was Yamamoto’s 18th consecutive start of recording at least one out in the sixth inning, and the 21st time this year he’s completed at least six innings out of his 24 starts.
But for as good as Yamamoto was, Chris Sale was even better. Sale pitched a complete game shutout innings while allowing just five hits and striking out 11 hitters.
The Dodgers went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position against Sale and left seven men on base. They also didn’t make the southpaw work very much as he started the eighth inning with just 81 pitches before going on to complete the shutout.
The only time the Dodgers put a runner in scoring position was a leadoff double from Mookie Betts in the fourth inning on a weak fly ball that dropped into no-man’s land. He didn’t move off of second base as Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernández and Miguel Rojas all produced quick outs.
Freeman had a leadoff single in the ninth against Sale, but Hernández flied out on one pitch, Rojas grounded into a fielder’s choice, and Alex Call struck out.
For Sale, that was his first complete game shutout in a Braves’ uniform and his first in seven years. He only pitched one inning where he did not strike out a Dodgers’ hitter.
The last time the Braves beat a team 1-0 after a leadoff home run was when the Boston Braves beat the Indiana Hoosiers on Sept. 2, 1889. The last time in happened in MLB was 13 years ago when Gerardo Parra hit a leadoff homer for the Arizona Diamondbacks against the Miami Marlins.
Dodgers offensive issues in sweep
For as good as Sale was, the Dodgers’ offense has been nearly non-existent in the three-game sweep. They scored a total of just eight runs across the series and lost by one run each game.
In total, the Dodgers offense went 7-for-29 (.241) with runners in scoring position and left 28 runners on base. They also only tallied one home run across the matchups, which continues a trend of their lack of power this season.
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