The Los Angeles Dodgers’ mostly stagnant offense received a surge of life when Max Muncy hit a home run with two outs in ninth inning during Sunday’s NLDS game against the Atlanta Braves.

Unfortunately, the solo shot wasn’t enough to bring Los Angeles back. Josue De Paula popped out one batter later, cementing the Braves 3-2 win and evening the series 1-1 as it heads to Atlanta.

Muncy always has a great support system at home games. His wife, Kellie, and their three children are Dodger Stadium mainstays and were present during Sunday’s game.

It seemed that Kellie tried to spark some good fortune for her husband’s team. She made an Instagram post showing the hilarious Max Muncy bobblehead t-shirts that she and the children were wearing. It was captioned, “Keepin’ it for game ”.

The post was made late in Sunday’s game, a short time before Muncy hit that ninth inning blast.

This marked the second straight game where Muncy hit a home run, extending his record for the most homers in franchise history (18).

Muncy is one of the few Dodgers players who are clicking at the plate right now.

Fans will hope that Kellie makes another Instagram post during Game 3 on Tuesday, since it seems to be a good luck charm for her husband.

In the pregame press conference preceding Game 2 of the NLDS, Walt Weiss stated that he was going to just “watch and see what happens” when it came to relying on his bullpen to carry him and the rest of the Atlanta Braves through another high-stakes Postseason game.

As it turned out, one reliever in particular took it upon himself to carry the Braves through nearly the entire final three innings of an eventual 3-2, series-tying win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Didier Fuentes was absolutely dazzling with his only real blemish being a ninth-inning solo homer with two outs given to Max Muncy. With that being said, the 11 outs that Fuentes did get were absolutely huge and definitely helped carry the Braves across the finish line in order to steal home field advantage ahead of a Chris Sale start in Game 3.

“We’re in a good position,” said Weiss when he was asked during the postgame press conference about his pitching plans for once the series shifts to Cobb County. “We’ve got Chris Sale lined up after a split here…Look, we’ve got to face more Cy Young Award winners for [the Dodgers]. Every starter on their staff is a Cy Young guy. It doesn’t get any easier, but I like the fact that we go back home even and we have Chris Sale.”

“I think whenever you have Sale on the mound, you’ve seen it the last couple years about what he can do. You feel good whenever you’re playing at home and Sale’s on the mound,” said Drake Baldwin (who got on base three times with three walks in this one) when he was asked about going back home with a Chris Sale start coming up next. “Being tied, you feel a little bit better than being down 0-2.”

When Weiss was asked about whether or not having Fuentes go 2.2 innings was the plan all along, Weiss stayed true to his word when he stated that he was simply going to watch and observe what happened and go from there. “It wasn’t the plan, believe me,” exclaimed Weiss. “When I went to him in the sixth, I was thinking ‘I’ve got to get the last four innings between him and Iglesias.’ To be honest with you, I thought it would probably be most likely two and two, but Didi was throwing the ball so well, I didn’t want to mess with that. After his third inning, I looked at our pitching coach [and said], ‘Let’s see how he feels. If he feels good enough, I want to send him back out.’ I didn’t want to mess with a good thing. He was throwing the ball really well.”

Indeed, it felt similar to how he let Ray Kerr (who was excellent once again during Game 2 of the NLDS) go for as long as possible in Game 3 — and it’s also a testament to the trust and faith that Weiss has placed in his players all season. If he feels like his pitchers are doing well, he’s going to let them go — within reason. He’s not the type to hang someone out to dry or to leave a guy in simply to get a round number in the “IP” category but he does show plenty of faith in his players to get the job done in their stated role and he did just that with Fuentes tonight.

Fuentes’s efforts ended up making for a short night for closer Raisel Iglesias, who got 21-year-old Josue De Paula to pop out in order to end the game and lock down the victory for Atlanta.

“Look, Iglesias is one of the best closers in the game. Like I said, I just didn’t want to mess with a good thing,” continued Weiss as he talked about why he left Fuentes in for as long as he did. “I was going to give him one base runner. It was hitter to hitter in the ninth. He happened to get two quick outs. I was going to Iglesias the first hitter that got on. Yeah, [he] gave up the homer to Muncy, and that obviously was time [for him to leave]. But I don’t want to get in the way of a good thing.”

While Didier Fuentes stole the show with his efforts on the mound, the hometown kid Michael Harris II continued to rake at the plate. Harris had 18 games with at least three hits during the regular season and he’s now pulled it off in two of the five Postseason games that the Braves have played so far. His big double in the seventh inning wound up being the difference, as Matt Olson scored what turned out to be the winning run that gave the Braves enough breathing room to survive.

“I think it means a lot to obviously overcome what happened yesterday, not winning the game, and taking momentum and going back to Atlanta and potentially hand the ball off to either Mahle or Sale,” said Harris when he was asked about how big it was to pick up the split. “I think that gives us confidence and motivation to come back with some momentum.”

When Harris was asked about how it felt to be producing at such a high level for the team that he grew up being a fan of and watching, Money Mike was full of hometown pride in that regard. “Yeah, it means a lot just knowing I was there in that situation watching [the 2021 NLCS],” said Harris. “Watching [Austin Riley] hit the walkoff [in Game 1 of that series] and being there for that, just chanting MVP for him. Now we’re here in the playoffs trying to do the same thing.”

“Yeah, it means a lot, and now I’m out on the field to be able to wear that jersey in front of the city that I grew up in and I was once sitting in those seats,” continued Harris. “Yeah, it feels good.”

It’s certainly a treat to see someone with local ties deliver in such a big moment for the Braves and now he’ll be in a similar position to deliver in front of the hometown fans once the series shifts to Atlanta on Tuesday. The Braves now have home field advantage in this series and are now on the front foot with a day of rest and two of their best starters lined up for the next two games. Again, it won’t be easy but as Weiss has continued to maintain all season, this team has proven that they’re at their best with their backs against the wall.

Hopefully they’ll be able to put the Dodgers in that position with a win in Game 3 with Chris Sale starting. The bullpen has carried this team through — now it’s Sale and the rotation’s turn. We’ll see what happens going forward!

The Dodgers could blow this.

They could actually blow this.

The Atlanta Braves walked into their National League Division Series with an enormous self-inflicted wound, and the Dodgers had them right where they wanted after claiming the opening game.

But as this series heads to Atlanta for Games 3 and 4, the Dodgers unexpectedly find themselves in trouble.

Serious trouble.

Possibly dynasty-ending trouble.

So much for the Dodgers’ edge in pitching.

So much for the Braves being worn down.

The Dodgers handed back whatever advantages they had in an unforgivable 3-2 defeat on Sunday that leveled the series at one game apiece.

This is a series now.

If the Dodgers are to advance to the NL Championship Series, they will have to earn it.

The Braves’ starting pitcher for Game 3 on Tuesday: Chris Sale, the former Cy Young Award winner who pitched a complete shutout against them in August.

In Game 4, the Dodgers will face right-hander Tyler Mahle, a successful reclamation project who was 4-1 with a 1.99 earned-run average in nine starts after the Braves acquired him from the San Francisco Giants at the trade deadline.

If there is a Game 5, it will be played at Dodger Stadium, with Tarik Skubal scaling the mound for the Dodgers and the Braves resorting to their third bullpen game of the series. Skubal blanked the Braves over six innings in Game 1, but six Braves relievers combined to shut down the Dodgers in Game 2.

The Braves have found a realistic path to victory in a series in which they looked as if they had no chance just a day earlier.

How did it come to this?

The short answer is that Braves manager Walt Weiss gambled – and won.

Instead of starting Sale in Game 2, Weiss elected to push him back two days and have him pitch Game 3.

If Sale would have pitched on Sunday, he would have done so on four-days’ rest, which the 37-year-old hadn’t done since April. Sale was only three days removed from converting a four-out save against the Philadelphia Phillies in a Wild Card Series.

The downside for the Braves was considerable. Their two previous games were also bullpen games, and they were counting on a run-down group of relievers to take down Snell and stop the Dodgers from taking a two-games-to-none lead.

The Dodgers are at fault for that not happening.

If their dreams of a three-peat evaporate over the next week, Game 2 will be the game on which they look back with regret.

The Braves didn’t win this game as much as the Dodgers lost it.

They had one of their aces on the mound in Blake Snell.

And Snell absolutely stunk.

They had Shohei Ohtani in the batter’s box with two runners on base in the third inning.

And Ohtani popped up.

They started the fifth inning with Mookie Betts drawing a walk and Ohtani advancing him to second base with a ground-ball single.

And Will Smith, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez failed to drive either of them in.

The Dodgers left seven men on base. They were 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position. The only runs they scored were the result of a fourth-inning home run by Freeman and a solo shot from Max Muncy in the ninth.

The offense doesn’t look right, with Ohtani out of sync and the team not being able to score unless they knock the ball over the fence. Three homers were responsible for each of the five runs they scored in their Game 1 victory.

As was the case last year, the Dodgers will be counting on Yoshinobu Yamamoto to save their season.

When the Dodgers were behind the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series by a three-games-to-two deficit last year, it was Yamamoto who won Game 6.

When they ran out of pitchers a day later in Game 7, it was Yamamoto who pitched the final 2 ⅔ innings.

Tuesday night at Truist Field, Yamamoto will pitch opposite of Sale.

How Yamamoto performs could determine whether the Dodgers win the World Series – and how they are remembered.

The inning could have — arguably should have — been over already. But instead, the Atlanta Braves’ Michael Harris II stood 90 feet away from scoring the go-ahead run.

And the Dodgers, who failed to take care of the little things Sunday night, handed the lead back to the Braves.

Left-handed reliever Kris Bubic lost control of a sweeper. And it flew high and outside, off the end of catcher Will Smith’s glove and to the edge of the grass behind home plate.

Harris scored standing up. And the Dodgers trailed for the final five innings of Game 2 of the National League Division Series, ultimately a 3-2 loss, evening the series.

Read more:Dodgers know they must break their reliance on home runs to beat Braves

“We didn’t want to give in there,” said Bubic, who was trying to throw that slider for strike in a 2-and-0 count to Mauricio Dubón. “But that’s the last thing you want to do there.”

That wild pitch was one of many Dodgers missteps Sunday.

They entered Game 2 with a long list of advantages: The Dodgers were playing at home, they had momentum from the win the day before, they had one of best starting pitchers on the mound to counter a second straight Braves bullpen game.

They gave away every edge they had.

“We all knew it was going to be a good series,” veteran first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “Just two really good teams going at it. Pitching’s been really good.”

Braves left-hander Ray Kerr, who excelled down the stretch as a long reliever, served as the opener Sunday. And the Braves used six pitchers, leaning on right-hander Didier Fuentes for 3⅔ innings, to hold the Dodgers to two solo homers.

The Dodgers, despite starting two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell, used seven pitchers. So much for that advantage.

The Dodgers managed just two hits off Kerr, each to open an inning. Freeman lined a single into right field to kick off the second. And Miguel Rojas sent a double into the left-field corner to begin the third.

The Dodgers stranded both — in sequences that included a pop-out bunt from Tommy Edman. Shohei Ohtani was the last batter Kerr faced, and with two runners on and one out, Ohtani popped up a high cutter in a full count.

Snell lasted only one inning more than Kerr.

Snell’s first frame easily could have spiraled. With one out, he gave up a single to Ronald Acuña Jr. and walked Matt Olson and Ozzie Albies to load the bases. But Snell escaped with just one run scored, on a grounder up the middle from Dubón. Shortstop Mookie Betts made a diving stop but had no chance at throwing out Dubón.

Snell then struck out Sean Murphy to end the inning, finishing the at-bat with three straight curveballs for strikes.

The one-run deficit could be erased. But the damage on his pitch count, up to 27 in that first inning, was done.

Snell surrendered just one more hit, but when he issued his fifth walk with two outs in the fourth inning, his pitch count was up to 90. Manager Dave Roberts strode from the dugout to pull him.

“He just was fighting himself with his delivery all game,” Roberts said, saying the groin injury that limited Snell in late September had not resurfaced. “I think in total, didn’t have fastball command, didn’t have slider command, and the changeup wasn’t there. He was pulling it.”

In the bottom half of the inning, Freeman, who was optimistic that he could shake off his September slump over the bye week, tied the score with a homer. But sloppy play extended the fifth inning and put the Dodgers in a hole again.

With two outs, in an 0-and-2 count, Bubic got Harris to chase an outside sweeper moving away from him. Harris leaned over to get his bat out to it and sent a line drive into the left field corner.

The Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernández took a circuitous route to the ball and still missed by only inches. It caromed off the wall, allowing Harris to reach third base, in position to score on Bubic’s wild pitch.

“I didn’t think he hit it that good,” Hernández said. “I didn’t break in, but I broke to the side, and then when I realized, it was too late. Maybe I had a shot on it.”

The Dodgers had a chance at a comeback as soon as they were at bat again. But after they got two runners on against left-hander Dylan Lee, the Braves turned to Robert Suarez. He and Fuentes combined to retire 14 straight — a streak Max Muncy finally broke by hitting a homer with two outs in the ninth inning.

“It showed that they’re going to use any pitcher, try to get every matchup possible,” Roberts said. “ Obviously them pushing Fuentes to almost four innings, 40-something pitches, shows they’re going to ride certain guys.”

While the Dodgers have a deeper rotation, the bullpen advantage goes to the Braves.

The Braves expanded their lead in the seventh inning against hard-throwing right-hander Edgardo Henriquez, who gave up a single to Olson and an RBI double to Harris.

Then right-hander Roki Sasaki got himself into a bases-loaded situation in the eighth, with Acuña at the plate, but got out of it with a double play. Sasaki then retired the side in order in the ninth.

Next, the series heads to Atlanta for two games. And Game 3 will be a matchup of two aces, Chris Sale for the Braves and Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the Dodgers.

No longer is everything stacked in the Dodgers’ favor.

Said Hernández: “We’ve been in tougher spots than this one.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Walt Weiss and the Braves’ staff made the bold decision to hold off ace Chris Sale from Game 2 of Atlanta’s National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers Sunday night.

If they could manage to win without throwing their top two starters, they would head back to Atlanta tied at 1 with Sale and Tyler Mahle lined up to start the two home games in the series.

But by doing so, they would be throwing a third straight bullpen game and reducing their chances of winning Game 2.

The bold move paid off as six relievers combined to hold down the Dodgers’ bats and the Atlanta offense did just enough to eke out a 3-2 win in Los Angeles, sending the best-of-five series back to Atlanta level at one win apiece.

For a time, it looked like Didier Fuentes, who had an up-and-down wild-card series, was going to carry the final four innings himself. He entered in the bottom of the sixth and retired the first 11 batters he faced to protect a 3-1 lead before Max Muncy hit a solo homer off him with two outs in the ninth to cut the deficit to one run.

Raisel Iglesias came out of the bullpen and got the final out, getting Josue De Paula to pop out in foul territory to close out the win.

The win didn’t have to be as stressful as it proved to be for the Braves, who stranded 11 runners on base.

The Braves had Dodgers starter Blake Snell on the ropes in the first inning, loading the bases with one out on Ronald Acuña Jr.’s single followed by consecutive walks from Matt Olson and Ozzie Albies. Atlanta did plate the first run of the game on Mauricio Dubón’s infield single with two outs. But Sean Murphy’s strikeout prevented the Braves from putting up a crooked number.

Ray Kerr did the opener job for the second time in four days, delivering 2 2/3 innings of scoreless work to run his total to six shutout innings on just three hits over his first two postseason starts. He struck out two in a 1-2-3 first and then navigated a leadoff Freddie Freeman single in the second.

He ran into some trouble with Miguel Rojas’ leadoff double in the third but recorded two outs around a walk and then was replaced by Grant Holmes, who got Will Smith to ground out to third on his first pitch to end the threat.

Holmes didn’t carry that same success into the fourth, when old friend Freddie Freeman led off with a game-tying solo homer. The Dodgers chased Holmes after he got just two outs after a single followed by a walk, but Dylan Lee entered the game, struck out Max Muncy and got Tommy Edman to pop out to escape another threat with the game tied at 1.

The Braves reclaimed the lead in the next half-inning, when Michael Harris II delivered a two-out triple just over Teoscar Hernandez’s glove down the left field line and came home on Kris Bubic’s wild pitch.

The Dodgers appeared poised to again tie the game or take the lead when they put the first two runners of the fifth on base against Lee. Robert Suarez entered, however, and retired the next two batters on flyouts before striking out Hernandez to escape with the lead intact.

Los Angeles finished 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, stranding seven runners.

Harris then added onto the lead with his third hit in the seventh, an RBI double to score Olson, leaving him a homer short of the cycle.

That run proved critical when Muncy hit his second homer in as many games of this series to chase Fuentes. But Iglesias needed just three pitches to retire De Paula and close out a highly improbable — and quite possibly series-altering — win for the Braves.

LOS ANGELES — Turns out, Sunday was a bullpen game for both teams at Dodger Stadium, whether by design or not. But the Dodgers managed only two runs against six Braves pitchers in a slog of a game and a 3-2 loss to even the National League Division Series at one game apiece.

Blake Snell did not have it in his start, and in retrospect it was a minor miracle he left with only one run against his ledger. His first inning took 27 pitches with two singles, two walks, and a run, but he escaped with by striking out Sean Murphy.

After allowing two-out baserunners in the second and third innings with no damage, Snell regressed in the fourth with two more walks, giving him a season-high five walks on the evening. It’s the most walks by Snell in a start since August 24, 2024, when he walked six while with the San Francisco Giants.

But all that traffic meant 90 pitches for Snell to get just 11 outs, with nearly as many balls (43) as strikes (47).

Brock Stewart got the final out of the fourth inning to strand those two runners left by Snell. That started the bullpen game that the Dodgers very much were not expecting.

A rarity

Left-hander Kris Bubic, acquired at the trade deadline from the Kansas City Royals while on the 60-day injured list, is a starting pitcher and former All-Star who has pitched in relief through his rehab assignment and into the majors because that’s where the need arose in Los Angeles. It has mostly worked swimmingly, through six rehab outings in Triple-A and five games with the Dodgers down the stretch.

Bubic’s 12th appearance in the organization came to start the fifth inning, and he got the first two outs before Michael Harris II hit a ball into the left field corner that Teoscar Hernández played into a triple. That was the first extra-base hit Bubic allowed during those 12 games, with Harris his 43rd batter faced. Nobody had yet scored against Bubic either in 11 innings, until he uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Harris to scamper home with the go-ahead run.

Déjà vu

For the second straight game, the Dodgers failed to score against the first pitcher in a Braves bullpen game. After Dylan Dodd pitched three scoreless innings to open Game 1, fellow southpaw Ray Kerr got the first eight outs on Sunday and kept the Dodgers from scoring.

Miguel Rojas, who hit .293/.240/.469 with a 121 wRC+ against left-handers this season, got the start at third base and paid dividends in the form of a leadoff double off Kerr in the third inning. But that rally was neutered by Tommy Edman, a switch-hitter with a career 118 wRC+ against southpaws, attempted a bunt for some reason but instead popped out to Austin Riley at third base. Then Shohei Ohtani continued his expedition outside the strike zone before popping out weakly.

Kerr shook hands with Braves manager Walt Weiss after an impressive extended outing for the second time in four days, and former Dodgers first-round draft pick Grant Holmes needed only one pitch to induce a Will Smith ground out to strand the two runners left behind by Kerr.

Finding his swing?

Once again, the Dodgers scored against the first Braves reliever, and did so again via the long ball. Freddie Freeman took Holmes deep in the fourth to tie the game at 1-1, Freeman’s first home run since September 2, snapping a skid of 85 plate appearances without one. Before that, Freeman went 47 full games and 196 plate appearances without a homer. A good chunk of that time had Freeman plagued by a right knee injury, though Freeman over the final week of the season insisted the knee got healthy, but he had developed bad habits with his swing that he tried to correct over the five days off before the NLDS.

Through two games of the NLDS, Freeman has gotten three hits, and scored in each contest.

Rough first game back

Edgardo Henriquez was one of the Dodgers’ best relievers this season, but he spent the last two weeks of the regular season on the injured list with lower back discomfort. He entered the seventh inning on Sunday with the Dodgers trailing 2-1. The stuff looked good in Henriquez’s first game in three weeks, well into triple digits with his fastball, but lefties Matt Olson got and Harris tagged Henriquez for hits, with Harris delivering a two-out double to score Olson from first base, widening Atlanta’s advantage to 3-1.

Starring performance

The Dodgers had their chances on offense, putting eight runners on base in the first five innings. But only one of them scored, thanks to seven hitless at-bats with runners in scoring position. 21-year-old Braves right-hander Didier Fuentes simply fixed that glitch for Atlanta, and didn’t permit any Dodgers to reach base at all in his first three innings, and even pitched into the ninth, getting two more outs. Then he gave up a home run to Max Muncy, pulling the Dodgers within one and pulling Fuentes from the game, robbing the world of the second four-inning save of this postseason.

Fuentes threw 47 pitches to record his 11 outs and struck out three Dodgers, after a 31-percent strikeout rate to fuel his 2.45 ERA in 73 1/3 innings during the regular season.

Meanwhile, 15 Braves reached base on Sunday, including eight walks by Dodgers pitchers, just the eighth game in Dodgers postseason history with at least eight walks.

Last-ditch effort

Muncy’s home run brought in Raisel Iglesias, the Braves’ closer, and brought pinch-hitter Josue De Paula to the plate as the potential tying run. It was the first major league postseason at-bat for the 21-year-old De Paula, but he popped out in four territory to end the game with the Dodgers just short.

NLDS Game 2 particulars

Home run: Freddie Freeman (1), Max Muncy (2)

WP — Dylan Lee (2-0): 2/3 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, 1 strikeout

LP — Kris Bubic (0-1): 2/3 IP, 1 hit, 1 run, 1 walk

Sv — Raisel Iglesias (2): 1 up, 1 down

Up next

The Dodgers turn to Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 3 in Atlanta on Tuesday night (3:08 p.m. PT, FS1), while the Braves will have ace Chris Sale rested and ready to start after a pair of Atlanta bullpen games to open the series.

From the start, the Atlanta Braves knew that they would be going with a bullpen game in Game 2 of the National League Division Series.

The unexpected twist: The Dodgers essentially had to do the same thing, as well.

After a rather straightforward victory in the opening game of this best-of-five series, nothing went according to plan for the Dodgers on Sunday.

Blake Snell failed to complete four innings, grinding through poor command and long at-bats in a start that included only one run but also five walks. 

The relief corps was saddled with a heavy workload, turning another sweltering night at Chavez Ravine into a sweat-inducing battle of the bullpens.

And after the Dodgers gift-wrapped the Braves a run in the fifth inning, when Teoscar Hernández turned a fly ball down the line into a triple and Kris Bubic threw a run-scoring wild pitch, the two-time defending champions found themselves on the back foot for the first time this fall.

In a 3-2 loss, they wouldn’t recover.

Instead, a series the Dodgers seemed to have under control coming into Sunday has quickly been flipped on its head.

The Braves’ decision to save staff ace Chris Sale for Game 3 –– the highly-debated pre-game talking point –– now looks prescient. The Dodgers’ decision to start Snell in Game 2, and not Yoshinobu Yamamoto, might now be questionable.

And while the Braves had to burn through the heart of their bullpen, using six different arms to piece together 27 outs, so too did the Dodgers, who summoned six relievers of their own in a losing effort.

With Game 3 set for Tuesday night back in Atlanta, this 1-1 series suddenly appears to be up for grabs.

“We knew it was going to be a battle,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We knew those guys weren’t going to go down.”

Still, it’s hard not to feel like what really happened Sunday was the Dodgers letting a previously dazed Braves squad climb back off the mat.

“I felt really good where we were at,” Roberts added. “We just couldn’t execute as the game progressed.”

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Really, the Dodgers were behind from the start on Sunday, with Snell –– who had previously pitched just five innings since Sept. 11 because of a groin injury, yet got the nod for Game 2 to remain on his regular pitching schedule –– giving up a quick run in the first.

The Braves loaded the bases with one out, on a single from Ronald Acuña Jr. and two walks from Snell. Mauricio Dubón got a run home on an infield knock, sending a ground ball deep into the hole at shortstop that Mookie Betts fielded but made an errant throw to first on.

Snell ultimately limited the damage there, but required 27 pitches in doing so. By the time he was pulled with two outs in the fourth, that total had already ballooned to 90.

“He just was fighting himself with his delivery all game,” Roberts said of Snell, who was not in the Dodgers’ clubhouse postgame because of what the team said was a family matter. “It wasn’t the groin. He just wasn’t sharp tonight.”

The bigger problem was the Dodgers’ inability to get to the Braves’ bullpen, starting with left-handed opener Ray Kerr.

Showing no signs of fatigue just two days removed from a heroic 47-pitch outing in Game 3 of the wild-card series, Kerr gave Atlanta unexpected length.

The former minor-league journeyman worked all the way into the third without damage. He struck out four batters. He even got Shohei Ohtani out twice, including on a first-inning punchout with an inside fastball.

“I think with Shohei, if you look at the at-bats, there’s a lot of chase,” Roberts said of Ohtani, who has managed just two singles so far this series while continuing to play through right arm and left knee injuries.

“I haven’t heard anything other than he feels fine [physically]. So I don’t know if he’s trying to do too much because he doesn’t feel perfect. But this time of year, no one feels perfect. He’s doing the best he can.”

Trouble was brewing in Kerr’s final frame, after Miguel Rojas –– inserted into the starting lineup in place of Max Muncy to counteract the southpaw –– roped a full-count curveball down the line for a leadoff double.

But, in a maddening sequence of situational ineffectiveness, the Dodgers couldn’t take advantage.

Tommy Edman popped up on a bunt, as part of a second-straight hitless performance. Ohtani popped out on another chase, after missing a center-cut pitch earlier in the at-bat. Will Smith rolled over on a first-pitch slider, contributing to his team-worst 0-for-8 mark this weekend.

“We had opportunities,” Roberts said. “We just couldn’t get a hit when we needed to.”

It would become the theme of the night, with the Dodgers going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position while stranding seven men on base.

So far this series, all seven of their runs have come via homers.

“Got to find a way to score some runs without hitting a home run,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “I think that’s our biggest thing right now.”

Freeman did hit a home run in the bottom of the fourth –– a positive sign after belting just one in his final 66 regular-season games while battling a right knee injury –– lifting a low slider from right-hander Grant Holmes over the wall in right to tie the score at 1-1.

But there would be another missed chance later in the inning, with high-leverage Atlanta left-hander Dylan Lee stranding a pair of runners, before the Dodgers fell right back behind in the fifth on the miscues from Hernández and Bubic.

Off the bat, Hernández appeared to have a bead on a slicing opposite-field, two-out line drive from Michael Harris II. But the ball kept drifting away from him, evading his outstretched glove before rattling around in the corner for a triple.

“I didn’t break in, but I broke to the side [instead of straight back]. And then when I realized, it was too late,” Hernández said. “I still thought I had a shot at it, but it just kept carrying.”

Three pitches later, Bubic airmailed a sweeper that catcher Will Smith couldn’t handle. The self-inflicted wound left the Dodgers trailing again, 2-1.

“I just lost it out of hand,” Bubic said. “It’s never an ideal situation, but especially with a runner on third there.”

From then on, the rest of the game was a frustrating grind, with the Dodgers facing one stout reliever after the next.

In the bottom of the fifth, hard-throwing right-hander Robert Suarez inherited a two-on, no-out jam but escaped unscathed, ending the inning on a 50/50 check swing call that went against Hernández.

After that, another rocket-armed righty, 21-year-old Didier Fuentes, went nine up, nine down over three scoreless innings –– all while the Braves extended their lead on a two-out RBI double Harris smacked against a dead-red cutter from Edgardo Henriquez in the seventh.

“Bullpen games are hard,” Freeman said. “You’re facing a different arm every single time you’re going up there. It’s different angles, different velocities, different things.”

The last arm the Dodgers faced wouldn’t come until two outs in the ninth, after the Braves sent Fuentes back to the mound for a fourth inning of work, watched him finally give up a home run to Muncy, then summoned veteran closer Raisel Iglesias for the final out.

That came way of pinch-hitting rookie phenom Josue De Paula, who popped up in foul ground right in front of the Dodgers’ dugout for the final out.

They trudged back to the clubhouse, while the Braves reveled in an unforeseen win.

“Getting the split in this place against these guys, yeah, it’s awesome,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “We’re in a good position. We’ve got Chris Sale lined up.”

Indeed, the Dodgers have now squandered their home-field advantage. They no longer hold a clear pitching edge, either.

Sale (who shut out the Dodgers in August) will face Yamamoto in an epic –– and pivotal –– Game 3 showdown. Tyler Mahle (who had a sub-2.00 ERA after a deadline trade to the Braves) and Tyler Glasnow are scheduled for Game 4.

“We all knew it was going to be a good series,” Freeman insisted.

It’s just that, it seemed like it would be a whole lot easier for the Dodgers given the state of play at the start of the day.

“We know what’s at stake on Tuesday,” Freeman said. “We need to get that win.”