Saturday Night Fever: Atlanta Braves hang on to beat the Dodgers 5-4

The Atlanta Braves bats pumped enough offense while bullpen held on just enough to secure the win—the first against the Dodgers this season

Coming into Saturday’s game, the Atlanta Braves have not won a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers this season and Friday’s loss didn’t help. However, a day after getting rocked, the bullpen managed to get through 4.1 innings, allowing only one run and served six strikeouts.

Also, after going from the major club to AAA to being called back up in 24 hours, Adam Duvall delivered the winning run for the Braves. Josh Donaldson and Duvall hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth off Hyun-Jin Ryu, who was showing why he’s a Cy Young candidate earlier in the game, to give the Braves the lead.

It was a good night for the Braves who once again showed their effort by fighting and coming back in another playoff-esque game in front of another record-breaking crowd of 43,619 in attendance. With that, we’ll jump into the takeaways from an exciting night in Atlanta.

Is The Offense Ready?

We all know the Braves offense is one of the best in MLB period, let alone the NL. Currenly, Ronald Acuna Jr. is the NL leader in runs scored, stolen bases, and fourth in home runs while Freddie Freeman is the leader in RBIs. Also, Donaldson and Ozzie Albies have been on fire since the All-Star break.

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The Braves struck first in the bottom third when newly signed Adeiny Hechavarria led off the inning with a double before moving over to third on a Folty sac-bunt. Acuna Jr. drew a walk and as he was taking off on a 2-0 count, Ozzie Albies launched one to deep left for a 2-RBI double.

In the sixth, with the game tied 2-2, Josh Donaldson and Adam Duvall each cracked a fastball for back-to-back home runs to give the Braves back the lead.

This proved just enough for the Braves to secure the win but playing against a team like the Dodgers, they really could’ve used a couple more insurance runs.

If this is a preview for the playoffs, the question is if the Braves can match up against the powerhouse Dodgers—at least better than they were last season.

So far for 2019, this was the first Braves win against the Dodgers. In the series in LA, the Braves were swept by scores of: 3-5, 0-9, and 4-9. Friday’s loss ended 3-8.

With the injuries stacking up on the Braves as well, depth will be another factor between them and the Dodgers, as well as any other team they’ll meet in the playoffs.

Folty Is Almost There

Mike Foltynewicz was the man on the mound for Atlanta and as much as he’s struggled this season, since coming back from injury, he has been showing hints of the spark he had last season. Saturday was the same way when started the game with three scoreless innings.

He had to deal with runners in the first due to an Albies error and a two out single from Justin Turner but managed to get out of it.

His struggle throughout the game was having to fight for the outs and dealing with a pitch count that was quickly rising throughout the innings. In the third inning, Ryu saw an eight-pitch at-bat that did manage to end in a strikeout, however, this was a pitcher who’s hitting .105 on the season.

Ryu later came around for a hit in the fourth off of what was Foltynewicz’s 85th pitch. Back to the third inning, Foltynewicz continued to struggle by walking Max Muncy on six pitches, then allowed a bloop single to Turner before walking Cody Bellinger to load it up. Ronald Acuna Jr. saved the day when he was an amazing diving catch to rob Corey Seager a multi-run hit and to end the inning.

The first Dodger’s run came from a solo homer from Matt Beaty. They later tied the game when Foltynewicz walked Turner and followed up with singles to Bellinger and Beaty. That ended the night for Foltynewicz but if you looked his overall night, he was pretty good. The 27-year-old went 4.2 innings while striking out five. He was tagged for two runs and three walks but showed potential.

The Bullpen Held Up

The bullpen has continued to struggle since the break even with the reinforcements, being last in ERA and opponent BA. However, they rebounded some and secured the win on Saturday after blowing the lead and gem from Mike Soroka on Friday.

Sean Newcomb replaced Foltynewicz in the fifth to get the third out while Luke Jackson allowed the only relief run via homer from Muncy.

Most impressive was Shane Greene who struck out the side on 16 pitches. Mark Melancon went on to get the save and also got a strikeout.

The Braves will go for the series win on Sunday behind Max Fried at 1:20 PM ET.