Braves tipped scales in Dodgers' favor after misguided Shohei Ohtani intentional walk

On Sept. 3, the Angels intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani with two outs and Mookie Betts next up to bat, and Betts took that to heart. He saw a first-pitch slider that really missed its spot and jumped on it immediately, sending it out 421 feet over the center field wall to put the Dodgers up 6-2 in the 10th. His reactions while jogging around the bases were maybe the most animated we've seen Mookie Betts get this season, but the Angels really just got what was coming to them.

When it's the top of the Dodgers' order, if you walk one MVP, another one steps in right behind him.

What makes this tactic even more ridiculous is that Betts has better numbers than Ohtani with runners on and runners in scoring position, and it's not even close. Ohtani is hitting .271 with the former and .228 with the latter; Betts is .353 and .393. Of the Dodgers' MVP 1-2-3 punch, Ohtani's not the guy opponents should be intentionally walking.

The Braves clearly didn't get the memo. With Sunday Night Baseball tied in the top of the ninth, Atlanta intentionally walked Ohtani to put runners at the corners with two outs. Betts saw three pitches, then sent a center cut fastball straight up the middle to put the go-ahead run on the board. What followed was perhaps one of the most thrilling Dodgers comebacks of the season.

Mookie Betts leads Dodgers to dramatic ninth-inning win over Braves after Shohei Ohtani intentional walk

After Betts gave the Dodgers the lead, the next four Dodgers to step up to the plate would add six more runs of insurance. Freddie Freeman singled to bring Ohtani and Betts in, and advanced to second on a boggled ball by Jarred Kelenic. The error didn't matter much anyway, though, because Teoscar Hernández followed to score himself and Freeman on a 408-foot homer.

The Braves pulled Raisel Iglesias, but John Brebbia was no match for whatever clicked for the Dodgers lineup. Tommy Edman, who's been on a tear since the Dodgers saw his old rival Cubs, hit his fifth homer of the season, and then Max Muncy followed to put up one more. Back-to-back-to-back.

Brebbia finally got the Braves out of the inning with a Kiké Hernández strikeout, and Brusdar Graterol took Atlanta's hitters down in order to close out the game. It was the perfect redemption game for a Dodgers team that lost in blowout fashion the night before, 10-1.

The Dodgers were teetering on the edge of a 2.5 game lead off the Padres, who also won on Sunday to sweep the Giants, potentially their smallest division lead since Aug. 17. Instead, LA kept it to 3.5 games. They'll go for a series split in Atlanta on Monday night (they're already up early) before heading back home for three games against the Rockies before seeing the Padres again.

We'll need to see a couple of blowout performances against Colorado if the Dodgers want to put even more distance between themselves and the Padres before they meet again for the last time this season. Even though this team does feel like it's being held together by duct tape lately, Sunday's win did remind exactly what they can do when they're really clicking.