Dodgers' awful offense in Braves' bullpen game just vindicated their Chris Sale gambit

The Atlanta Braves' relievers had an admirable Wild Card series, but it was laughable when manager Walt Weiss decided to stage back-to-back bullpen games against the Los Angeles Dodgers to open the NLDS. LA had Tarik Skubal and Blake Snell against the mound against ... Dylan Dodd and Ray Kerr?

It didn't work out so well for the Braves in Game 1. Dodd pitched three scoreless innings, but Teoscar Hernández was all over Victor Mederos in the fourth, opening up scoring with a two-run homer. Atlanta tacked on a few more by the end of the evening, but they never caught up.

In Game 2, the legend of postseason Ray Kerr continued to grow. Taking down the Philadelphia Phillies' order a few times is one thing, but the Dodgers? Kerr gave up just two hits and a walk against LA in 2 2/3 innings.

Will Smith left two runners on in the third after Grant Holmes came in, but Freddie Freeman's solo homer to tie the game in the fourth offered some hope that LA's offense would break through.

They didn't. They went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and lost 3-2. Now, they'll have to head to Atlanta to face Chris Sale.

Dodgers go 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position in pathetic showing for NLDS Game 2

Coming into the series, Weiss was getting a lot of questions about Sale, who pitched 6 1/3 innings against the Phillies in Game 1 of the Wild Card, then 1 1/3 to close out Game 3. After Game 1, those questions became more pointed, but Weiss stuck to his guns and trusted his bullpen. Clearly, he was right to do so.

The Braves' three runs came off of Blake Snell, who exited the game after just 3 2/3 innings, Kris Bubic, and Edgardo Henriquez via a single for Mauricio Dubón, a wild pitch from Bubic with Michael Harris II on third, and then a Michael Harris double.

Max Muncy offered a glimpse of possibility in the bottom of the ninth, down to his last strike, when he hit a solo homer off of Didier Fuentes, who was working toward a four-inning save, but Josue De Paula — the new guy on campus, getting his first postseason at-bat — popped out on the third pitch he saw to end the game.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who has been virtually untouchable on the road this year, will give the Dodgers a very good chance of not letting things go completely off the rails, but if the offense doesn't kick themselves back into high-gear, this might get ugly.

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