The Dodgers leaned on the thing that has carried them all season: power. In a 3-1 win over the Braves in Game 3 of the NLDS on Tuesday, Los Angeles did just enough damage in one burst and then let Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the bullpen handle the rest, taking a 2-1 lead in the series.
That was the shape of the night. The Braves had Chris Sale on full rest and got an electric opening from him, but the Dodgers only needed a couple of swings to flip the game. Enrique Hernández opened the scoring with a two-run homer in the top of the fourth, then Freddie Freeman added another blast two batters later to give the Dodgers all the cushion they needed.
For a lineup built around impact contact, this was familiar territory. During the regular season, the Dodgers ranked second in MLB in slugging and tied for seventh in home runs.
They were one of just nine teams in MLB to top 200 homers in 2026, and the depth is what makes the threat so relentless. Even with Shohei Ohtani not himself at the plate right now, Los Angeles still had four hitters with at least 20 home runs, seven with at least 15, and nine in double figures.
Hernández’s shot was especially big because of where it landed in his postseason résumé. It was the 12th playoff homer of his Dodgers career, moving him past Duke Snider and Ohtani, who have 11 apiece, and into a spot behind only Max Muncy (18), Corey Seager and Justin Turner (13) on the franchise list.
The pitching side held up, too. Yamamoto was sharp from start to finish, giving up one run over seven innings with 10 strikeouts and only one walk. With the starter in command and the bullpen finishing the job, the Dodgers didn’t need much more.
Sale, meanwhile, looked like he might be headed for one of those dominant October nights early on. He struck out the side in the first inning, then did it again in the second, becoming just the eighth pitcher in MLB postseason history to rack up six strikeouts in the first two innings. In the third, he reached 100 mph with a fastball to Shohei Ohtani, and Mauricio Dubón saved some damage with a highlight catch in left field.
But the fourth inning changed everything. The Dodgers caught up to Sale with a pair of home runs, including the one from Freeman, only the second by a left-handed batter that Sale has allowed all season in 2026. Inside Edge noted that it was just the second time in his entire career that Sale surrendered a homer to a lefty on a fastball, and the first came more than a decade ago.
Sale was good. The problem was that Yamamoto was better, and the Dodgers’ power made sure that was enough. Three runs in five innings simply wasn’t going to beat that kind of performance.
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