The second day of the LDS round was reserved for the two NL series, with each of the San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves pulling even with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies, respectively.
Atlanta Braves 3, Philadelphia Phillies 0 – Series Tied 1-1
All it took was a hard, but playable, groundball getting by Rhys Hoskins at first base, and that was that for the Phillies. It went down as an RBI single for Matt Olson, but two more runs followed in that 6th inning, and they were the only three runs in the game. Sometimes, soft defense IS going to hurt the Phillies.
Kyle Wright and the Braves bullpen were dominant, and their defense was exceptional. I shared the ridiculous Dansby Swanson catch last night, but this one from Austin Riley wasn’t too shabby either:
The full highlights:
Game Three is Friday, October 14 at 3:37pm CT. Aaron Nola will face a MYSTERY STARTER!!! No, the Braves just haven’t announced their starter yet. They will.
San Diego Padres 5, Los Angeles Dodgers 3 – Series Tied 1-1
It was a back-and-forth home run derby in this one, with five total homers and four lead changes. Yu Darvish was outstanding outside of the three solo homers he gave up (so is that outstanding?), and Clayton Kershaw was solid, albeit for only five innings.
The Dodgers, it turns out, had a historically thin total volume of end production given what they did at the plate:
At one point, a goose landed on the field and decided to hang out. Great seats are great seats:
Outrageous to me that they ejected the goose without even first checking its ears for sticky stuff.
The full highlights:
Game Three is Friday, October 14 at 7:37pm CT, with Tony Gonsolin facing Blake Snell.