The best team in Major League Baseball in September is the Atlanta Braves.
On Lakers Night, a tribute to the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, the Braves defeated the host Los Angeles Dodgers 6-3 to close the gap between the two teams to 6.0 games. The Braves are 89-45, the Dodgers 83-51.
The night before, it was a close 8-7 game, but tonight it was a lopsided victory for the Braves. It was hardly what you’d call a preview of the National League Championship Series. For the Dodgers, the question of whether to include Julio Urias in the postseason starting rotation is a big one.
Max Freed (6-1, 2.52) vs. Julio Urias (11-8, 4.60): The left-hander matchup was intriguing. Freed showed off the stuff that would make him the No. 1 starter in a division series right now. Over seven innings, he held the high-powered Dodgers offense to three hits and two walks while striking out 10. The Mookie Betts-Freddie Freeman table-setter was held to one hit in six at-bats.
By comparison, Urias allowed three solo home runs to Travis Dano (#10) in the second, Ronald Acuna Jr. (#31) in the third, and Marcell Osuna (#32) in the fourth. Five runs on nine hits in five innings. This is ineligible pitching for a postseason starter.
If the previous day was a home run duel, with Acuna Jr. hitting the game-winning home run, today was a complete domination of the Dodgers at the plate. In addition to the three home runs, they scored two runs in the fifth inning on Austin Riley’s double and Osuna’s RBI single, and added a sixth run in the eighth on Eddie Rosario’s RBI single to left. The Braves pounded out 14 hits, long and short.
The only consolation for the Dodgers was a three-run homer by pinch-hitter Kolten Wong in the eighth. The bench, which is still well-stocked, got a boost from Wong. Wong was claimed by the Dodgers as a minor league free agent after being released by the Seattle Mariners and promoted to the big leagues today.바카라사이트
Earlier in the day, the Dodgers honored the memory of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant by presenting a $100,000 fund to his wife, Vanessa, and family. Older daughter Natalie, who played for the Mookie Betts, looks like Kobe and is much taller than her mom. The Dodgers gave away Bryant’s No. 24 jersey as a souvenir to each attendee. The game was a sellout with 52,436 fans in attendance. Before the game, players from both teams lined up to watch Kobe’s survival on the big screen. The Dodgers honored Kobe by wearing his No. 8 and No. 24 jerseys.
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