NLDS Game 3: Braves blow big lead but hold off Dodgers 6-5 to extend series

ATLANTA — It wasn’t quite 28-3, but once again, an Atlanta team blew a big lead in a critical postseason game.

But unlike their football brethren, the Braves battled back from disaster, defeating the Dodgers 6-5 Sunday night to stave off elimination in the National League Division Series. It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t easy, but it was a victory for the Braves, and now the series goes to a Game 4 on Monday afternoon.

Atlanta came into its first postseason game at home in half a decade shuddering under the weight of some ugly statistics. No Braves team had won a postseason series of any sort since 2001. And no team since 1921 had lost the first two games of a postseason round without scoring a single run. And in the course of their two wins, the Dodgers scored four runs in the first two innings of Game 1, and two in the first inning of Game 2, all via home run.

The first goal for Atlanta, then, was a simple one: keep the Dodgers off the board to start the game. Manager Brian Snitker called an audible on the Friday night flight back from Los Angeles, opting to bench scheduled righthander Kevin Gausman in favor of Sean Newcomb. The 25-year-old lefthander had come within an out of no-hitting the Dodgers back on July 29, and Braves manager Brian Snitker clearly hoped that mojo would resonate in October.

Newcomb’s first two innings paid off Snitker’s hunch. Aided by two double plays, Newcomb kept the Dodgers off the board, and SunTrust Park exhaled just the tiniest bit. For a team that had played from behind for all but the first three outs of both games, just staying even was a refreshing change.

From the other dugout, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts rolled with rookie Walker Buehler, who in the space of 24 games, ranked among the league leaders in ERA, WHIP, and opponents’ slugging percentage. He pitched the Dodgers’ crucial Game 163, throwing 6.2 innings of scoreless, one-hit ball to help Los Angeles knock off the Rockies.

Pitching in his first career postseason start, Buehler lacked the dartboard control that had characterized his rookie season. He walked Nick Markakis to start the second on four straight pitches. Then, after striking out Kurt Suzuki and Johan Camargo, Buehler allowed a bloop single to Ozzie Albies that Dodgers centerfielder Cody Bellinger bobbled. Buehler intentionally walked Charlie Culberson to face Newcomb … and that’s where his troubles truly began.

Newcomb batted a meaty .044 this season, getting just two hits on 45 at-bats. If you’re a pitcher, you like those odds. But also if you’re a pitcher, you need to get the ball into the strike zone – and Buehler didn’t, walking Newcomb on four straight pitches to bring Markakis home.

And then Ronald Acuña Jr. stepped to the plate.

Acuña has been nothing short of astonishing in this, his rookie season, overdelivering on his immense promise. Bases loaded, first postseason game in his home ballpark, team with its back against the wall … so naturally, Acuña turned on Buehler’s 98-mph four-seamer and dropped it deep in the left-center-field seats. Acuña became the youngest player ever to hit a grand slam in the postseason, knocking a 21-year-old Mickey Mantle off the pedestal, and crafted a remarkable postseason moment for a team that’s got a litany of them.

Acuña staked the Braves to a five-run lead, and that lead almost vanished into the Georgia night one inning later. Newcomb gave up walks to Kiké Hernandez and Chris Taylor, and that was enough for Snitker to break out the hook and bring in Gausman … a decision that would have ugly consequences for the Braves.

Justin Turner singled in Hernandez, and Taylor scored when Acuña bobbled the ball in left field. Max Muncy walked, and that put Manny Machado at the plate with a chance to tie up the game with one swing of his bat. Gausman managed to end that threat by striking out Machado on a splitter, but Los Angeles wasn’t done with him yet.

Two innings later, Gausman walked Yasmani Grandal on four straight pitches, and Taylor proceeded to drive Gausman’s splitter into the left-field seats. Snitker hauled out Gausman in favor of Max Fried, and Muncy welcomed him to the game by homering into deep center field. And just like that, the Braves’ five-run lead was gone.

Acuna ended the disastrous fifth by catching a Machado moonshot at the very top of the left-field wall, but the damage was done, the lead obliterated, the spirit snapped. “28-3” jokes started making their way around Twitter, of course, and the SunTrust Park crowd grew uneasy.

But that’s what the Dodgers do. They pound and they pound and they pound, hammering away like they’re kicking at a wooden door, and eventually they just kick the damn thing off its hinges. You figure a way to shut down, say, David Freese, they switch him out with Muncy. You keep Turner in check, and someone like Taylor will beat you. And always lurking right there in the three spot: Manny Machado.

After the Dodgers tied up the game in the fifth, the game had the feel of a wobbly highwire with the Braves halfway across. Atlanta’s Touki Toussaint gave up a ground-rule double to Matt Kemp in the sixth, but Culberson cut him down with a do-or-die play at the plate two batters later. Toussaint then loaded the bases but got Taylor to ground out to end the inning.

Then it was the Dodgers’ turn to make a debatable pitching change. Ever since giving up the grand slam to Acuna, Buehler had been dealing, retiring 10 Braves in a row. But Roberts made the decision to go with Alex Wood to start the sixth, and Freeman hammered his first pitch into the right-field seats to reclaim the lead for Atlanta once more.

But this is Atlanta, and nothing ever comes easy. Needing just three outs to hang on and extend the series another day, Arodys Vizcaino began the ninth by giving up a long single to Joc Pederson and walking Turner. As Muncy stepped to the plate, the sellout crowd was virtually silent, all too aware of what could happen next.

After throwing three straight balls to Muncy, Vizcaino settled in and struck him out on the next three pitches. He then struck out Machado on a third-strike wild pitch that advanced the runners, leaving Los Angeles with the tying run just 90 feet from home. That put the game on the shoulders of Brian Dozier, with Pederson feinting toward home from third. Down to his final strike, Dozier whiffed, and the Braves exulted like they’d exorcised an army of postseason ghosts … which, in a way, they had.

The Braves cleared the bullpen decks, using seven pitchers and 193 pitches to take out the Dodgers. What they’ll have left for a relentless Los Angeles team on Monday afternoon, if anything, remains to be seen. But they get to play another day, and for the moment, that’s enough.

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.

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