ATLANTA — The last team bus left Truist Park for the Dodgers’ hotel at 2:20 a.m. Sunday, after the longest day of the season – a three-hour rain delay followed by a three-hour game that didn’t even start until after 10 o’clock Saturday night.
Late nights like that often lead to hangovers, and the Dodgers managed just four hits in the first six innings Sunday night, coming up short in a 4-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves.
The loss (their first in six meetings with the Braves this season) snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Dodgers.
The Dodgers scored 63 runs during that winning streak, reaching double figures in three of four games before Saturday. But the offense was sluggish against Braves starter Bryce Elder and his 5.33 ERA.
Elder retired the first eight Dodgers in order, five on strikeouts – including Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman in order to start the game. The Dodgers’ only hit in the first three innings was an Austin Barnes double that fell on the warning track in right field after Braves right fielder Eli White misjudged the fly ball over his head.
Those first three hitters in the Dodgers’ lineup went 8 for 13 with two home runs in Saturday’s late-night romp past the Braves. But Elder neutralized them over his five innings, walking Ohtani once and giving up a single to Freeman before leaving in the sixth.
The Dodgers did touch Elder for single runs in the fourth on an RBI double by Max Muncy and a scratch run in the sixth.
But Dustin May’s Austin Riley problem put the Dodgers in a hole they couldn’t quite escape.
May hung a sweeper to Riley in the first inning and it landed 426 feet away, over the center field wall. In the third inning, he did it again and Riley repeated the feat, driving that one 416 feet over the wall.
The pair of two-run home runs were all the scoring the Braves managed. May had a pretty good night against the rest of their lineup, holding everyone but Riley to 3 for 19 with six strikeouts.
The bullpen provided 2 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of May and the Dodgers made it a one-run game – their 11th in the past 26 games – in the seventh inning when Roberts pinch-hit for a deeply-slumping Michael Conforto, sending Miguel Rojas up to bat against lefty reliever Dylan Lee. Rojas launched his first home run of the season.
Hyeseong Kim’s speed gave the Dodgers a chance to tie the game in the ninth inning. After Andy Pages reached on an infield single, Kim pinch-ran and stole second base. He advanced to third on the throw to first when Smith struck out on a pitch in the dirt.
Rojas struck out with the tying run on third and Barnes did the same with Ohtani stranded on deck.
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