The Braves found a way to win a game that had just about everything except clean air. Atlanta outlasted the Dodgers 4-3 on a night that swung from loud to tense to downright nerve-racking, then ended with Raisel Iglesias slamming the door in the ninth.
It started fast, and it started messy for Tyler Glasnow. In his first start since May, the Dodgers right-hander was greeted by four singles among the first five hitters.
That opened the door for two early runs, then Ozzie Albies added a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0. Atlanta tacked on a fourth run on a passed ball, though the call was bizarre: the home plate ump ruled the pitch hit the bat of Yaz even though replay showed it did not.
The problem, of course, was that the play could not be reviewed. Yaz then got rung up on an ABS reversal, adding another odd wrinkle to an already strange first inning.
Even so, the Braves still walked away from the frame up 3-0.
Bryce Elder had his own work to do with that cushion, and he mostly held up. The Dodgers pushed across two runs in the second and another in the fourth to tie the game 3-3, but Elder settled in from there and finished with a quality start: six innings, three runs allowed, eight hits, no walks.
The box score says one thing; the feel of it said another. Every hit he allowed was a single, and a lot of them were soft contact.
He never issued a free pass, and with a little more BABIP luck, the night could have looked even better. The strange part was that Elder shut down Ohtani and Freeman, while numbers 7, 8 and 9 in the order collected five hits against him.
Glasnow, after that shaky opening, settled into something much closer to form. He blanked the Braves from the second through the fifth, and by then both starters had allowed 14 hits between them without a single extra-base hit.
Every one of those knocks was a single, and most of them weren’t hit hard. It was the kind of game where every inning felt like it might tilt the whole thing.
The bullpens took over from there, and the chess match got sharper. Dylan Lee handled a scoreless seventh, and the choice to use him there instead of the eighth made sense with Ohtani and Freeman looming at the top of the Dodgers’ order.
Then came the surprise: Walt went to Anthony Mederos in a massive spot in the eighth. For a moment, it looked like it might work.
After two quick outs, the move was paying off. Then Mederos walked two batters, which probably took him out of the high-leverage picture going forward.
Dylan Dodd stepped in and got Miguel Rojas on a harmless fly ball to keep the game tied. Dodd may be forever younger than Dylan Lee, but he has become just about as good.
Atlanta finally broke through in the bottom of the eighth. Matt Olson opened with a double - and yes, one of the uglier slides into second you’ll see - for the game’s first extra-base hit after 16 singles.
Marcell Ozuna advanced him to third, but Michael Harris II couldn’t bring him home. That left it to Albies, who delivered a two-out single to center for the go-ahead run.
That still left the ninth, and that meant facing three future Hall of Famers with a recently shaky Iglesias on the mound. Shohei Ohtani led off with a triple, well struck and just shy of the top of the left-field wall.
Lane Thomas had a chance to make the play but couldn’t quite finish it, and suddenly the tying run was 90 feet away with nobody out. At that point, the best hope was to limit the damage and live for the bottom of the inning.
Iglesias did more than that. He struck out Freeman, got Mookie Betts on a weak grounder to short, and then after Weiss wisely chose to intentionally walk Muncie and put the potential go-ahead run on base, Iglesias got Edman to fly out to center.
Braves win. Braves win.
Braves win.
The Braves now get a shot at the series tomorrow behind AJ S-S against Sasaki, and then a chance to sweep on Thursday behind Sale.
Very sad news also came today with the passing of Dolly Parton. All of us in my family are huge fans. What a great body of work she leaves; more than that, she made the world a better place because she lived.
In Other News...
Craig Kimbrel's Latest Moment Is Tough For Braves Fans To Watch
Craig Kimbrels place in Braves history is already secure. Before being traded to the Padres ahead of the 2015 season, he was one of the most dominant closers the franchise has ever had, piling up a 1.43 ERA and 186 saves in Atlanta and becoming the late-inning arm fans came to expect whenever a lead needed protecting. Since then, though, his career has turned into a winding tour through baseball, with injuries and uneven performance sending him to 11 teams and keeping him on short-term deals more often than not.
Kimbrels latest milestone came in August 2026, when he earned his first save since July 2024 for the Royals and moved into fifth on the all-time saves list. For Braves fans, it is the kind of development that stirs up two feelings at once: appreciation for what he once meant in Atlanta, and a reminder of how far his journey has carried him from those days. It also leaves open the same question that has shadowed his recent stops, because every small bright spot comes with the sense that the next one may not be far behind. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Add Pitching Depth With One Big October Question
The Braves added a little more bullpen insurance by claiming Ricky Vanasco off waivers from the Tigers and sending him to Triple-A Gwinnett. It is the kind of low-risk move teams often make this time of year, especially when they are trying to keep as many arms available as possible for the stretch run and whatever comes next.
Vanasco arrives with some big-league experience from his time with the Dodgers, but he also comes with the kind of recent track record that explains why he was available. Detroit designated him for assignment after a rough five-appearance stint in the majors this season, and injuries have been part of his career path as well, leaving Atlanta with another depth option and one more October question still hanging in the background. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Could Lock In Two Veterans For Crucial Roster Stability
The Braves have long liked getting ahead of the market with early extensions, and that approach could make sense again as they try to shore up the roster beyond this season. Two names that fit the pattern are Mauricio Dubon and Tyler Mahle, both of whom have given Atlanta useful, if different, kinds of stability. Dubon has shown the kind of versatility that lets a club cover multiple spots without losing much in the way of reliability, while Mahle has looked better since arriving in Atlanta and has started to reestablish himself as a pitcher worth keeping around.
From the Braves perspective, the appeal is obvious: the farm system has promising arms and bats, but not enough ready-made answers to fill every important hole right now. That leaves a window for a pair of veterans to become more than short-term fixes if the sides can find common ground before free agency arrives. The question is whether the Braves decide to move early again, and whether Dubon and Mahle are willing to buy into that kind of longer-term fit. [Read more 🡒]