The Los Angeles Dodgers fell behind to a big deficit early against the Atlanta Braves but battled back to earn an 8-6 win, and their 30th of the season, led by the offensive performances of J.D. Martinez and Freddie Freeman.
Gavin Stone made his second career start, replacing the injured Dustin May, and struggled early against a tough Braves lineup. In the first inning, he gave up a leadoff double to Ronald Acuña Jr. and an RBI single to Sean Murphy.
Stone then fell into some more trouble by walking Austin Riley, and the inning was capped off by a three-run homer from Eddie Rosario, putting the Braves up 4-0. The inning finally came to an end after 34 pitches.
From there, Stone settled in to pitch three consecutive scoreless innings with some help from two double plays.
Martinez started the Dodgers’ offense in the second inning when he blasted his seventh homer of the season to cut the Braves lead to three runs.
The Dodgers continued their comeback in the fourth inning when Freeman legged out a double on a ground ball to center field. The double extended Freeman’s hitting streak to 12 games, and he ended up scoring on a groundout from Max Muncy to cut the lead in half.
With two outs in the inning, Martinez singled, and that was followed by a triple from David Peralta to put the Dodgers behind by just one run.
In the fifth inning, the Dodgers took a 6-4 lead when Miguel Rojas singled, Mookie Betts walked, and Freeman hit a three-run homer against his former teammate, Charlie Morton.
Stone, however, once again fell into some trouble in the fifth when he walked two hitters on eight consecutive balls. On the second walk, the Dodgers’ defense was not paying attention, which allowed Acuña to take third base, putting runners at the corners with no outs.
That ended Stone’s night and Evan Phillips entered the game in relief. Phillips got a quick fielder’s choice, which likely would have been a double play if not for the earlier defensive blunder, that cut the Dodgers’ lead to just one run.
Austin Riley then doubled to put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. However, a diving catch from James Outman and a baserunning mishap from Sean Murphy allowed the Dodgers to maintain a 6-5 lead heading to the sixth inning.
The Dodgers had two more two-out rallies when Rojas doubled and scored on a single from Betts in the sixth inning, and during the seventh inning, Martinez homered for the second time in the game to make the score 8-5. The designated hitter finished the game going 4-for-5 while also adding two singles.
Following Stone, the Dodgers bullpen combined to throw five frames to close out the victory, allowing only one run.
Dodgers DH J.D. Martinez closing in on 300 home runs
With Martinez’s 20th multi-home run game of his career, he now has 290 home runs, placing him within 10 of joining the 300 club.
Freeman joined the 300 homer club earlier this month when he hit a grand slam against the St. Louis Cardinals. That made him the 155th player in MLB history with at least 300 career home runs.
Freeman, Duke Snider (1957), Gil Hodges (1958), Gary Sheffield (2001) and Adrián González (2016) are the only players to hit their 300th career home run while with the Dodgers.
Have you subscribed to the Dodger Blue YouTube channel? Be sure to ring the notification bell to watch player interviews, participate in shows and giveaways, and stay up to date on all Dodgers news and rumors!
