ATLANTA – Atlanta Braves reliever Luke Jackson summed up his team’s mindset against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“They’re kind of like our David and Goliath, you know?” Jackson said. “Whenever we’ve gone out there, it’s been rough. They’re a good team, we’re a good team, 1-2, just duking it out. It’s nice to pull out wins like this.”
Josh Donaldson and Adam Duvall hit consecutive homers off Hyun-Jin Ryu in the sixth inning, the faulty Atlanta bullpen redeemed itself for a change and the Braves finally beat Los Angeles, 4-3 on Saturday night.
Donaldson stirred the largest crowd, 43,619, in SunTrust Park’s three-year history when his 29th homer of 2019 landed in the Atlanta bullpen in right-center field. Duvall added on by going deep into the left-center seats to make it 4-2.
Atlanta won the matchup of National League division leaders one night after the Dodgers’ powerful offense homered four times, sending the Braves to a 27th loss in the past 37 regular-season games between the teams. With their first win in five meetings this season, the East-leading Braves are trying to stand up to the West power that eliminated them from the playoffs last year in the divisional round.