LOS ANGELES — The numerous injuries to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitching staff sometimes seem to be an insurmountable barrier to playoff success. Their inferior arm quality was glaring while the Atlanta Braves took the first three games in a showdown series between the National League’s top two teams.
And then Bobby Miller stepped up in the finale Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium and pitched a gem that reminded the home club and its fans that anything is possible if these teams meet again in October.
The rookie right-hander allowed just three hits as he went seven innings, his season high, and Los Angeles avoided a four-game sweep with a 3-1 victory.
The 24-year-old Miller (9-3) underlined his ace potential with an impressive performance against the powerhouse Braves in his 17th career start. Less than four months after he made his Major League Baseball debut with a solid victory in Atlanta, Miller challenged the majors’ top lineup again and thrived.
“After getting our teeth kicked in a little bit after the first three games, we really needed this one today,” Miller said. “I was really locked in. I had a great feeling going into this game. Probably the most locked in I’ve ever been so far. … That’s a big goal for me, to dominate a team for the second time.”
He retired 16 consecutive Braves between Marcell Ozuna’s double in the second and Matt Olson’s home run in the seventh, then finished the inning to a standing ovation. Miller had five strikeouts and just one walk.
“An arm like Bobby Miller’s is what it takes,” Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said of taming a Braves roster that lead the majors with a .276 average and 258 home runs. “Good stuff, and we just couldn’t get a hold of him. … That’s a good-looking young pitcher right there. He’s a strong kid. Love his delivery. He’s got a really bright future.”
Olson hit his 44th homer to pull even with Shohei Ohtani for the MLB lead this season, but Atlanta’s six-game winning streak ended with only its second loss on a 10-game West Coast trip. The Braves still have the majors’ best record at 90-46.
“I look at the body of work, and it was really, really good,” Snitker said. “A lot of great things happened. The guys earned an off day tomorrow.”
When it comes to the final score, Sunday has been an off day of sorts for the Braves for more than a month. Despite their overwhelming overall success this summer, they lost for the fifth consecutive Sunday and also missed out on a series sweep for the fourth Sunday in a row. Their most recent Sunday victory was an 8-6 win against the Milwaukee Brewers on July 30.
Atlanta, the five-time reigning champion in the NL East Division, has a 15-game lead over the second-place Philadelphia Phillies with less than a month remaining in the regular season. The Dodgers (84-52) are first in the NL West, 14 1/2 games up on the second-place San Francisco Giants.
Miguel Rojas had an RBI double and Mookie Betts added a run-scoring single in the fifth for the Dodgers, who prevented Atlanta from wrapping up what would have been its first four-game series sweep at Dodger Stadium. James Outman added an RBI single in the eighth for Los Angeles.
“Getting one before we hit the road again was huge,” Rojas said. “Bobby did a great job with his opportunity. He’s going to be a really good starter for us down the stretch.”
The Braves franchise hasn’t swept a four-game road series against the Dodgers since April 1906, when the Boston Beaneaters took four straight in Brooklyn.
Miller outpitched 39-year-old Charlie Morton (14-11), who yielded six hits and three walks in four-plus innings for Atlanta.
Brusdar Graterol allowed two baserunners in the top of the ninth, but he hung on for his seventh save of 2023. He hasn’t allowed a run in 15 appearances since July 24.
Ronald Acuña Jr. went 0-for-4 and made three inning-ending outs after homering in each of first three games of this set at Dodger Stadium. It was still a big weekend overall for Acuña, who got married Thurday morning before the opener that night and during the series became the first player in MLB history with at least 30 home runs and 60 stolen bases in a season.
An NL MVP candidate — along with L.A. star Betts — Acuña now has 32 homers and 63 steals.
The Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman also went 0-for-4, ending his 10-game hitting streak when facing his former team. The California native spent his first decade-plus in the majors with Atlanta before signing with the Dodgers ahead of the 2022 season.
Neither team got a runner to third until Outman drew a leadoff walk in the fifth and scored on a 391-foot line drive by No. 9 batter Rojas, who has hits in nine of his last 10 games after a tepid offensive summer with his new team.
The Dodgers finally had their first lead since the first inning of Thursday’s series opener, and Rojas scored moments later on Betts’ bouncing single, which chased Morton after 90 pitches.
Olson was 0-for-17 in the series before he ended his 18-game homer drought since Aug. 13 with a two-out solo shot to right. Miller then walked Ozuna, but he followed by inducing an inning-ending groundout by Eddie Rosario.
Atlanta left-hander Dylan Lee returned from 3 1/2 months on the injured list (shoulder) when he relieved Morton in the fifth. Lee got Freeman to ground into a double play while throwing a one-hit inning.