Dodgers Beat Braves to Take Commanding NLDS Lead

The Los Angeles Dodgers took a commanding NLDS lead on Tuesday night, beating the Atlanta Braves 3-1 in Game 3 of the National League Division Series at Truist Park. Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out ten over seven innings of one-run ball, Kiké Hernández hit a two-run homer and Freddie Freeman added a solo shot, and the Dodgers moved a single victory away from another National League Championship Series berth, as reported by the Associated Press. The Braves, who had tied the series in Los Angeles two nights earlier, now face elimination in Wednesday's Game 4. Read the Associated Press game report.

The night belonged to Yamamoto in the most anticipated pitching matchup of the series. Facing Atlanta ace Chris Sale, the Japanese right-hander allowed only four hits and one walk while permitting a single run, and his double-digit strikeout total set a new postseason high for him, according to the Associated Press. Sale, meanwhile, was tagged for three runs in his start, a rare off night for a pitcher who had not surrendered more than one home run in any outing since early July. Yamamoto, the MVP of the 2025 World Series, improved to 8-1 with a 2.14 ERA across eleven career postseason appearances. With that kind of dominance on the mound, it did not take much offense for the Dodgers to build their NLDS lead.

The fourth inning Atlanta never recovered from

All of Los Angeles's offense arrived in a single decisive frame. Batting ninth, Hernández kick-started the scoring with a two-run homer that drove in Andy Pages, who had singled. One out later, Freeman pulled his eighteenth career postseason homer to right field for a 3-0 lead. The back-to-back blasts stunned Sale and the home crowd alike, and they extended the Dodgers' NLDS lead to 2-1 in the best-of-five series. The inning also continued a troubling pattern for Atlanta: the Braves stranded six runners across the first three innings, wasting their best chances against Yamamoto before the Dodgers broke through and built an NLDS lead they would never give back.

The cruelest near-miss for Los Angeles came an inning earlier. In the third, Mauricio Dubón made a leaping catch over the left-field wall to rob Freeman of a home run. Freeman would not be denied for long. His fourth-inning shot was a small measure of revenge against his former club and a reminder of why the Dodgers paid for his October pedigree. For Atlanta, the sequence summed up the night: one spectacular defensive play, followed by an inning that erased it.

Braves strand their last gasp in the ninth

Atlanta's final threat came in the ninth against closer Edwin Díaz. Ozzie Albies opened the inning with a double off the right-center wall and moved to third on Michael Harris II's groundout. Díaz then stranded the runner, getting Dubón to foul out to right field before Mike Yastrzemski grounded out to shortstop Mookie Betts. The scoreless stand preserved the final and the Dodgers' NLDS lead, sending the series back to Truist Park on Wednesday with Atlanta's season on the line. The Braves managed only five hits all night, and their two errors did not help a lineup that could never solve Yamamoto.

The Ohtani shuffle and an October legend

Before first pitch, manager Dave Roberts made a bold lineup call, dropping designated hitter Shohei Ohtani to the No. 5 spot against the left-handed Sale. According to the Associated Press, Roberts called it a one-game adjustment to give the Dodgers a different look, noting that the No. 5 spot is the lowest Ohtani has hit since 2020 with the Angels. Ohtani entered the night just 3-for-15 with no home runs in his career against Sale, and Roberts said the four-time MVP completely understood the move. Read more on the lineup decision.

Tuesday also burnished the legend of Kiké Hernández, October's most reliable surprise. His two-run shot was his seventeenth career postseason home run, matching the career playoff total of Aaron Judge, who has not played this postseason due to injury. The game was Hernández's ninety-fourth playoff appearance with the franchise, the most in Dodgers history. For his career, he has homered roughly once every twenty-eight regular-season at-bats, but in the postseason that rate jumps to once every seventeen. When the Dodgers need a jolt in October, he keeps delivering it, and with their NLDS lead intact, the Dodgers will happily take more of the same on Wednesday.

One win from the NLCS

The Dodgers can turn their NLDS lead into an NLCS berth by closing out the best-of-five series and taking another step toward becoming the first National League team to win three consecutive World Series titles by beating the Braves again on Wednesday night in Game 4. Atlanta, which clawed back to even the series with a 3-2 win in Game 2 in Los Angeles, now needs two straight victories to survive. For more on how the Braves got here, see how Atlanta eliminated the Phillies to reach this NLDS, and follow the rest of the postseason on the sports topic page. A year ago, the Dodgers were celebrating a championship. On Wednesday, they can take the next step toward defending it.