LOS ANGELES – Behind the red-hot bat of Eddie Rosario, the Atlanta Braves are one win away from their first World Series appearance since 1999. Now all they need to do is put away the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Easier said than done.
After all, the Braves were in exactly the same position last year and failed to finish the job.
Rosario homered twice in his second four-hit game of the National League Championship Series and six pitchers combined on a four-hitter Wednesday night, giving the Braves a 9-2 victory and a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven matchup.
Game 5 is Thursday in Los Angeles. Last year, the Dodgers also trailed 2-0 and 3-1 against Atlanta in the NLCS before roaring back to win three straight games at a neutral site in Arlington, Texas. They then went on to beat the Tampa Bay Rays for their first World Series title since 1988.
“As we saw last year, winning a game is hard, especially a veteran team like this that we’re playing,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “But I feel good about our club just from what we experienced last year and where these guys are.”
Adam Duvall and Freddie Freeman also homered for Atlanta, which bounced right back from blowing a late lead in an agonizing Game 3 loss Tuesday and ended its 10-game losing streak at Dodger Stadium.
“I feel like everyone has really hunkered down and dug their heels in and everyone is really focused,” Rosario said through a translator. “That’s something that I’m really proud to be a part of.”
Rosario became the first player in MLB history to have two four-hit games in a championship series. He drove in four runs and scored three while continuing his torrid postseason hitting, finishing a double short of the cycle. He homered in the second inning, tripled in the third, singled in the fifth and clocked a three-run homer in the ninth.
“As soon as I hit that first home run, I just thought to myself, ‘Wow, I feel amazing right now,'” Rosario said, “so I kind of just carried that confidence into my other at-bats going forward.”
Rosario hit for the cycle last month against the San Francisco Giants, achieving the feat on five pitches.
“I’ve been using that bat that I hit for the cycle with, and it has not disappointed. I had that double remaining, and I’m like, ‘Man, this bat has not let me down yet,'” he said. “As soon as I hit that second one out, I go, ‘Oh well, there goes the double.'”
The only other player with a pair of four-hit games in a postseason series was National Baseball Hall of Famer Robin Yount of the Milwaukee Brewers in the 1982 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
AP photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez / The Atlanta Braves’ Adam Duvall connects for a solo home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Julio Urias in the second inning of Game 4 of the NL Championship Series on Wednesday night.The Dodgers will need to jump-start their offense to have a shot at another NLCS comeback. Their first five hitters – Mookie Betts, Corey Seager, NL batting champion Trea Turner, Will Smith and Gavin Lux – were a combined 0-for-17 in Game 4.
Los Angeles, which had won 18 of 19 at home going back to the regular season, has won six consecutive postseason elimination games dating to last year.
“I feel good about it,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We have a very resilient team, a very tough team, and it’s not going to get much tougher than facing Max Fried in an elimination game, but we’ve done it before.”
Fried will make the Game 5 start in his hometown, while the Dodgers plan to have a bullpen outing Thursday, a strategy they’ve used twice this postseason, going 1-1 in those games.
Rosario was acquired from the Cleveland Indians on July 30 as the Braves remade their depleted outfield at the trade deadline, and what a find he’s been. The left fielder has hit safely in every Braves game of this postseason, piling up 14 hits in 30 at-bats – including a walk-off single in Game 2 against the Dodgers – for a .467 average with four strikeouts. Rosario is 10-for-17 (.588) with two homers and six RBIs in the NLCS.
“He’s been looking so good at the plate, hitting balls hard,” said Freeman, whose RBI double in the ninth made it 6-2 before Rosario went deep.
Atlanta’s four homers tied a postseason franchise record.
Each of the first three games was decided by one run in the last two innings, but when it got late this time, the wild-card Dodgers couldn’t generate any comeback magic.
Atlanta opener Jesse Chavez combined with Drew Smyly, Chris Martin, A.J. Minter, Tyler Matzek and Will Smith to hold down the Dodgers’ offense. Los Angeles didn’t get a hit until the fifth and was limited to one the rest of the way. Smyly went 3 1/3 innings for the win.
The four-time reigning NL East Division champions’ hitters wasted no time jumping all over 20-game winner Julio Urías, who gave up three homers in 2 2/3 innings. It was the second time he allowed that many in his career; the first was in his second MLB game in 2016.
Rosario drove an 0-2 pitch into the left-field pavilion leading off the second, and Duvall followed with a shot to center, the first time the Braves hit back-to-back homers in the postseason since Oct. 3, 2002, against San Francisco in Game 2 of an NL Division Series.
Freeman went deep leading off the third. Two outs later, Rosario tripled to deep right on a two-strike pitch, sliding headfirst into the bag. Duvall was intentionally walked and Joc Pederson singled, scoring Rosario for a 4-0 lead against Urías.
The Dodgers, who won 106 games during the regular season and took four of six in the season series with the Braves, closed to 5-2 in the fifth on pinch-hitter AJ Pollock’s two-out, two-run single. Justin Turner singled for their first hit of the game, and Cody Bellinger followed with a single and a stolen base to set up Pollock.
Urías didn’t record a strikeout until the fourth, when Dansby Swanson and Freeman went down swinging in back-to-back fashion to end the left-hander’s first clean inning. Urías gave up five runs on eight hits and three walks with three strikeouts in five innings.
Injuries affected both teams by the end of the night.
Braves right-handed pitcher Huascar Ynoa was scratched from his scheduled start with shoulder inflammation and was replaced on the roster by left-hander Dylan Lee. Ynoa will not be eligible to return for the World Series, if the Braves advance.
Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner is done for the season after injuring his hamstring in the seventh, Roberts said. Turner screamed as he was retired on a double-play ball, limped off the field and was replaced in the eighth.