The Los Angeles Dodgers arrived in Atlanta riding a six-game winning streak. Three games later, the momentum was gone, courtesy of a Braves team that finished the job with a pitching masterpiece.
Chris Sale threw a complete-game shutout Thursday as Atlanta defeated Los Angeles 1-0 to complete a three-game sweep.
The veteran left-hander allowed five hits, struck out 11 and did not issue a walk, keeping one of baseball’s most dangerous lineups off the scoreboard for all nine innings.
The Braves gave Sale the only run he needed immediately.
Drake Baldwin jumped on Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s first pitch of the game and sent it over the fence for a leadoff home run. What initially looked like an early jolt for Atlanta turned out to be the entire offensive story.
Yamamoto settled down immediately after Baldwin’s homer and matched Sale through a classic pitchers’ duel. The Dodgers right-hander allowed just four hits and one run over 6 1/3 innings while recording eight strikeouts.
On most nights, that performance would have put Los Angeles in an excellent position to win.
Sale made sure this wasn’t one of those nights.
The 37-year-old was overpowering from beginning to end, mixing sharp command with unusually high velocity. At one point he fired a 100.1 mph fastball against Shohei Ohtani, his hardest recorded pitch since 2018.
Atlanta sent Sale back to the mound for the ninth, giving him the opportunity to finish what he started. He did exactly that, recording his 11th strikeout to close the game and seal the sweep.
For the Dodgers, the loss added another frustrating chapter to a stretch filled with narrow defeats. Los Angeles has repeatedly found itself in games decided by slim margins, putting additional pressure on its pitching, defense and bullpen.
More concerning is the club’s recent performance against postseason-caliber opponents. The Dodgers have struggled to turn close games into victories against teams occupying playoff positions, an issue that becomes increasingly difficult to dismiss as October approaches.
Los Angeles also continues to juggle its roster.
Kyle Tucker received a day off against Sale as the Dodgers attempt to help the struggling outfielder regain his footing. Meanwhile, pitcher Roki Sasaki was placed on the 15-day injured list because of a blister on his right middle finger, with reliever Seth Halvorsen recalled to reinforce the bullpen.
The Dodgers now move on from Atlanta looking to rediscover the form that produced their six-game winning streak before this series.
Their pitching remains capable of keeping them in almost any game. Yamamoto demonstrated that again Thursday.
The bigger question is whether the offense can begin giving those performances enough support.
Against Sale and the Braves, one swing was enough to decide everything.
