Telepeer

Dodgers’ rally falls short in loss to Braves

May 5, 2025

ATLANTA — The last team bus left Truist Park for the Dodgers’ hotel at 2:20 a.m. Sunday, after the longest day of the season – a three-hour rain delay followed by a three-hour game that didn’t even start until after 10 o’clock Saturday night.

Late nights like that often lead to hangovers, and the Dodgers managed just four hits in the first six innings Sunday night, coming up short in a 4-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves.

The loss (their first in six meetings with the Braves this season) snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Dodgers.

“That’s an excuse. We’re not going to do that,” Freddie Freeman said of the late night leading to sluggish offense. “First game (a 2-1 win on Friday), they pitched good against us too. Yesterday we scored a lot but we’re not going to score 10 runs every game. I thought we gave ourselves a good chance.”

The Dodgers didn’t score 10 runs every night during that winning streak — but close. They scored 63, reaching double figures in three of four games before Saturday. And they hit .423 (33 for 78) with runners in scoring position. Sunday, they were 0 for 10 in those situations and got off to a slow start against Braves starter Bryce Elder and his 5.33 ERA.

“I think you’ve got to give Elder credit,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “The slider was really good. We did come to life later with the bat. But the first few innings were pretty lackluster.”

Elder retired the first eight Dodgers in order, five on strikeouts – including Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freeman in order to start the game. The Dodgers’ only hit in the first three innings was an Austin Barnes double that fell on the warning track in right field after Braves right fielder Eli White misjudged the fly ball over his head.

Those first three hitters in the Dodgers’ lineup went 8 for 13 with two home runs in Saturday’s late-night romp past the Braves. But Elder neutralized them over his five innings, walking Ohtani once and giving up a single to Freeman before leaving in the sixth.

“It’s a different arm slot. It’s a little bit higher,” Freeman said of Elder. “Sinkers (down) and four-seamers up. The slider never seems to get there and he’s also got the changeup. He’ll front door some sinkers too. He can go to all four quadrants. He had it going a little bit tonight.

“You have to attack and he attacked and got ahead and got us out tonight.”

The Dodgers did touch Elder for single runs in the fourth on an RBI double by Max Muncy and a scratch run in the sixth.

But Dustin May’s Austin Riley problem put the Dodgers in a hole they couldn’t quite escape.

May hung a sweeper to Riley in the first inning and it landed 426 feet away, over the center field wall. In the third inning, he did it again and Riley repeated the feat, driving that one 416 feet over the wall.

The pair of two-run home runs were all the scoring the Braves managed. May had a pretty good night against the rest of their lineup, holding everyone but Riley to 3 for 19 with six strikeouts.

“It’s pretty frustrating. Giving up two homers to him on kind of the same pitch, not really how I drew it up,” said May who headed back to the hotel early Saturday in order to avoid the late night. “I thought the execution was a little better tonight, except for those.”

Riley’s power show blurred the bounceback performance by May who allowed 10 runs in 10 1/3 innings over his previous two starts, leaving him dissatisfied and short with reporters after those games.

“Ups and downs. Couple good moments. Couple really bad ones,” May said, assessing the first month of his comeback season. “Definitely need to be more consistent.”

The bullpen provided 2 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of May and the Dodgers made it a one-run game – their 11th in the past 26 games – in the seventh inning when Roberts pinch-hit for a deeply-slumping Michael Conforto, sending Miguel Rojas up to bat against lefty reliever Dylan Lee. Rojas launched his first home run of the season.

Hyeseong Kim’s speed gave the Dodgers a chance to tie the game in the ninth inning. After Andy Pages reached on an infield single, Kim pinch-ran and stole second base. He advanced to third on the throw to first when Smith struck out on a pitch in the dirt.

With the tying run on third, Braves closer Raisel Iglesias struck out Rojas on three changeups.

“We put ourselves in a great position,” Rojas said. “Kim did an amazing job coming off the bench stealing that bag, and I couldn’t deliver.”

Neither could Barnes who struck out to end the game, Roberts choosing not to put on a safety squeeze bunt with the speedy Kim 90 feet away.

“I just felt that with the drawn-in infield, I just thought that Miguel could put the ball in play and give us a chance to tie the game up,” Roberts said. “But yeah, the traditional suicide squeeze, certainly with a guy like that that’s got such high-end stuff, I didn’t feel comfortable doing it.”

Orange County Register

News Details

Dodgers’ rally falls short in loss to Braves

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

News

CONTACT INFO

QUICK LINKS

SERVICES

CURRENT NEWS