Two of the best teams in baseball convened at Chavez Ravine on Friday night, the National League West-leading Dodgers and NL East-leading Atlanta Braves opening a three-game series that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts promised would be “a good matchup, exciting for our fans and players.”
The clubs did not disappoint, entertaining a crowd of 50,859 with superb starting pitching, three home runs, clutch hits, a great defensive play, a key pickoff and a walk-off bloop hit in a game that was so good it could not be contained to nine innings.
Dodgers rookie outfielder Andy Pages delivered the decisive blow in the bottom of the 11th inning, fouling off two full-count pitches from reliever Jesse Chavez before blooping a one-out RBI single to shallow right-center field for a 4-3 victory, the Dodgers’ ninth win in 11 games.
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“Yeah, absolutely,” Roberts said when asked if the game was a reminder of how evenly matched these teams are, “and I don’t think that we needed tonight to validate that. On paper, they’re a very good ballclub, sort of put together to handle us with all those lefties in the bullpen. … There were a lot of good things today. It was a fun baseball game.”
The teams traded runs in the 10th inning, Braves pinch-runner Luke Williams scoring on Orlando Arcia’s sacrifice fly to left field to give Atlanta a 3-2 lead in the top half, and Shohei Ohtani poking a one-out single to center off Braves closer Raisel Iglesias to tie the score 3-3 in the bottom half.
Reliever Michael Grove gave the Dodgers a chance to win with a scoreless 11th in which he retired leadoff man Ronald Acuña Jr. on a popup to shortstop, Ozzie Albies on a grounder to second and Austin Riley on a grounder to third.
With automatic runner Will Smith at second, Max Muncy was intentionally walked to open the bottom half of the 11th. Teoscar Hernández grounded into a fielder’s choice, putting runners on first and third with one out for Pages, who looked a little wobbly when he swung at three Chavez pitches that were well off the plate, fouling two off.
But Pages fought off an inside cut fastball and fisted his fourth…