The Braves needed Game 2, and they got it in a way that left the Dodgers’ home crowd looking completely checked out before the finish.
Atlanta entered Sunday night knowing how steep the climb would get if it fell behind 2-0 in the NLDS, and that urgency hung over the game from the start. Manager Walt Weiss caught heat for not starting Chris Sale, but the Braves’ bullpen answered the bell. Ray Kerr and Didier Fuentes each turned in playoff performances for the ages, and Atlanta scraped out the kind of win that can flip a series.
It wasn’t a runaway, either. Blake Snell didn’t have his best stuff, but he kept the Braves from breaking through offensively for much of the night, and the game stayed tight all the way through. Still, while Braves fans were locked in, the scene in the stands told its own story.
By the eighth inning, Dodgers fans were already heading for the gates.
Dodgers fans heading for the gates after eighth inning. pic.twitter.com/MSbrA4S9Uw
- Ken Sugiura (@ksugiuraajc) October 5, 2026
That kind of early exit is one thing when a game is out of hand. It’s another when the score is still close in the middle of the playoffs and the home team is trying to rally. The Braves won by one run, which makes the mass movement toward the exits even harder to explain.
The double standard around crowd criticism is hard to miss, too. Atlanta drew plenty of attention last week for day playoff crowds during the work week, even though MLB’s scheduling deserves the blame there. Yet when Dodgers fans start streaming out during a one-run playoff game, that gets treated very differently.
Now the series heads back to Atlanta for Games 3 and 4, both at night, and the Braves should have the kind of crowd behind them that plays much louder on the field than it ever does in the commentary around it.
In Other News...
Padres Season Now Hinges On One Painful Game 2 Decision
The Padres had the kind of Game 2 that lingers, the sort that turns a single inning into the center of an entire postseason conversation. Mason Miller was asked to get the final six outs, but he could not finish the job, and Milwaukee walked it off on Jackson Chourios two-run single for a 4-3 Brewers win that pushed San Diego to the brink. Millers command wavered badly along the way, and by the end of the night the choice to keep him in drew plenty of scrutiny.
Now San Diego heads home down 2-0 in the NLDS and staring at a simple but punishing equation: win three straight or the season is over. The pressure is no longer just on the lineup to score or the bullpen to hold, but on the decisions that shape each high-leverage inning from here on out. One game changed the tone of the series, and it left the Padres with very little room to survive another misstep. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Explain Late Mason Miller Call After Crushing Game 2 Collapse
The Padres Game 2 loss in Milwaukee left them staring at an 0-2 hole in the National League Division Series, and the way it unraveled only deepened the sting. San Diego had turned to Mason Miller for six outs in a high-leverage spot, trusting the closer to help lock down the game, but the plan fell apart in the ninth when his command slipped and the Brewers kept pressing until Jackson Chourio delivered a walk-off two-run single.
Afterward, manager Craig Stammen and Miller both addressed the late call to extend him beyond the usual closer usage, a decision that now looms over a crushing collapse. For a Padres team that needed one clean finish to even the series, the choice to ride Miller that long became part of the postgame conversation, with the result leaving San Diego to answer not just for the loss, but for how it got there. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Just Got A New NLDS Concern As Series Shifts Home
As the National League Division Series shifts to San Diego for Game 3, the Padres added another experienced arm to the mix by reinstating right-hander Walker Buehler from the paternity list. To make room, Randy Vasquez was taken off the roster, a move that reflects how tightly San Diego is managing its pitching staff as the series changes venues and the leverage starts to climb.
Buehler is expected to matter if the matchup goes beyond Game 3, which gives the Padres a little more flexibility in how they piece together the back half of the series. For a club trying to control every pitching decision in October, getting him back into the active roster only adds to the questions Milwaukee now has to account for as the series moves forward. [Read more 🡒]