Pinch-hitter Ha-Seong Kim singled home Lane Thomas with two outs in the ninth inning Wednesday night, lifting the Atlanta Braves to a 6-5 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in a back-and-forth clash between the two division leaders. It was the second consecutive night the Braves had rallied late to beat Los Angeles, extending their winning streak to three games and dropping the Dodgers to consecutive defeats as the National League playoff picture tightens down the stretch.
Thomas opened the winning rally with a double to right field off closer Tanner Scott, who also took the loss in Tuesday's series opener. The Dodgers elected to intentionally walk Austin Riley to load the bases and set up a force at any base, bringing up Kim, who lined a single into the outfield to send Thomas home and touch off a celebration at Truist Park. Victor Mederos worked a perfect ninth in relief to seal it.
The game itself swung several times. Tommy Edman's two-run homer in the third put Los Angeles ahead 3-1, but Atlanta answered in the fourth on a Riley sacrifice fly and a two-run double from Drake Baldwin, who finished with three hits. Sean Murphy's solo shot in the sixth made it 5-3 before the Dodgers tied it in the seventh — Mookie Betts singling in Shohei Ohtani and Edman drawing a bases-loaded walk against reliever Didier Fuentes, who escaped further damage by getting Kyle Tucker to line out and Alek Thomas to ground into a double play. Atlanta loaded the bases again in the eighth, but Mauricio Dubón hit into a double play to keep the score tied until Kim's heroics. Matt Olson also went deep for his 37th homer of the season, and the full box score is available on ESPN.
Sasaki's night ends early
The larger story for Los Angeles may prove to be what happened to Roki Sasaki. The right-hander allowed four runs on six hits before departing with one out in the fourth inning after a blister opened on the middle finger of his throwing hand. Sasaki told SportsNet LA through an interpreter that he had no warning before the skin tore.
I did not feel anything coming beforehand, so my skin just ripped off. After that, it kept getting worse.
Roki Sasaki, Dodgers starting pitcher
Manager Dave Roberts confirmed afterward that Sasaki would go on the 15-day injured list, a move the club made official Thursday. The timing stings for Los Angeles: Sasaki had posted a 2.31 ERA and struck out roughly a quarter of the batters he faced across six starts since the All-Star break, one of the best stretches of his rookie big-league season, before Wednesday marked his first outing allowing four runs since early July. He is not eligible to return before September 11, leaving a narrow window to build back up before October. Details of the corresponding roster move were first reported by MLB Trade Rumors.
A series with playoff stakes
The result matters beyond one box score. Atlanta improved to 78-55 and holds a comfortable lead in the NL East, while Los Angeles is still 80-53 and in first place in the NL West despite the two straight losses in Atlanta. Both clubs are jockeying for postseason positioning and, potentially, home-field advantage in October, which made a midweek series between them carry more weight than a typical late-August set.
The two teams close out the series Thursday night with a marquee pitching matchup, Braves left-hander Chris Sale against Yoshinobu Yamamoto, as Los Angeles looks to avoid being swept in Atlanta. For the Dodgers, the bigger concern now shifts to how quickly — and how effectively — Sasaki can work his way back into a rotation that will need him healthy for a playoff push. For the Braves, back-to-back walk-off wins over the sport's reigning champion offer another data point in a season in which Atlanta has increasingly shown it can beat the best team on the schedule in the games that matter most.
