The Braves have put themselves in a real spot after Sunday’s bullpen gem evened the series with the Dodgers at one game apiece, and now the setting shifts to Truist Park, where Atlanta is 54-30 this season. With Games 3 and 4 coming home and the club’s two main starters lined up, the door is open for the Braves to make a statement.
But if Atlanta is going to actually finish the job, the offense has to catch up.
That’s the central issue hanging over this series. The Braves have already shown they can survive a game without leaning on their rotation, and they’ve proven they can hang around even when the bats are quiet. What they haven’t shown yet is that their biggest names can carry the attack the way this kind of October run usually demands.
Ronald Acuña Jr. is the obvious headliner. When he’s right, he’s one of the five best players in the sport.
His early-season injuries threw him off, but by September he looked like the MVP version of himself again, finishing the regular season with a .337 average and seven homers over his final 26 games. That made him one of the most important players in the field coming into the postseason.
So far, though, that version of Acuña hasn’t shown up. Across the two series, he’s gone 3-for-18 and still hasn’t produced an extra-base hit.
The same problem has followed Matt Olson and Drake Baldwin. Olson did leave the yard once in Game 3 against the Phillies, but he and Baldwin have combined for six hits in five playoff games, and only two of those hits have gone for extra bases.
There’s a way to spin that in Atlanta’s favor: the Braves have already survived a playoff round and grabbed a game from the Dodgers without much help from their top three hitters. That’s no small thing.
Still, the other side of the equation is impossible to ignore. A team this thin on offense can only get so far if its best bats stay stuck in neutral.
And with the Dodgers, the pressure cuts both ways. Their lineup is too dangerous to assume it will stay quiet much longer. If Atlanta is going to knock off the back-to-back World Series champions and reach the NLCS for the first time since 2021, it needs Acuña, Olson and Baldwin to start making the kind of impact that changes a series.
In Other News...
Ronald Acua Jr. Reopened Braves Drama Before A Huge Game 3
Ronald Acua Jr. added a fresh layer of intrigue around the Braves on the eve of Game 3 of the NLDS, using a Spanish-language podcast appearance to share his thoughts on the coaching staff. The comments centered on someone who is no longer with the team, and while Acua and his co-host stopped short of naming the person, the discussion was pointed enough to spark immediate speculation.
For Atlanta, the timing is what makes it stick. With a huge postseason game coming, the remarks have pulled attention back toward a familiar off-field storyline, even though the exact target of Acuas criticism still has not been confirmed. It is the kind of sidelight that can follow a team into October, especially when the baseball itself is about to matter even more. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Had To Change Their NLDS Plan Around Ronald Acua Jr
Ronald Acua Jr. was supposed to be part of the Braves Game 3 NLDS formula in the outfield, but the plan shifted as the series moved on. Lingering knee soreness from a slide in a previous game pushed Atlanta to make a late adjustment, moving Acua to designated hitter and reshaping the rest of the lineup around it.
Sean Murphy was scratched and Lane Thomas was added in right field, while the Braves kept their catching duties aligned behind Chris Sale by leaning on Drake Baldwin. Murphy still remains in the mix as a pinch-hitting option, a reminder that even in October, one nagging issue can force a team to redraw its blueprint on the fly. [Read more 🡒]
Braves-Dodgers Game 3 Just Took Two Unexpected Turns
The NL Division Series shifts to Atlanta with the stakes even again, and the broadcast booth is getting an unusual late change before first pitch. Joe Davis will not call Game 3 between the Dodgers and Braves because he lost his voice, so Kenny Albert is stepping in for the national telecast as the series heads to Tuesdays 6:00 ET matchup.
The on-field wrinkle is just as notable for a Braves team trying to seize control at home. Los Angeles is also altering its order, moving Shohei Ohtani into the fifth spot against Chris Sale, a move that adds another layer to a game already carrying plenty of pressure with the series knotted at 1-1. [Read more 🡒]