ATLANTA — The Braves went into October trying to unseat the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers with a rotation reduced to two healthy starters. Tyler Mahle gave them the kind of outing that could have stretched the series Wednesday night, but the seventh inning turned into the final hard lesson of a 4-1 season-ending loss in Game 4 of the National League Division Series.
Atlanta’s winter will carry more than the memory of a thin rotation. A stalled offense, a short-rest bullpen choice and a costly hook for Mahle left the Braves watching Los Angeles move on.
Quick facts
- The Dodgers ended Atlanta’s season with a 4-1 Game 4 win Wednesday night.
- Mahle allowed three hits and one unearned run across 6 1/3 innings, throwing 85 pitches.
- Didier Fuentes walked two of three hitters after entering in the seventh inning.
- Andy Pages drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single against Robert Suarez.
- Michael Harris II scored Atlanta’s only run after a first-inning single.
Mahle had settled into the game like a postseason starter. He carried a one-run performance into the seventh, and his fastball showed no obvious fade: his four-seam average in the sixth was 94.9 mph, higher than it had been in each of his first three innings.
With one out and a runner aboard, manager Walt Weiss went to Fuentes instead. The 21-year-old right-hander had covered 3 2/3 innings and 47 pitches in Atlanta’s Game 2 victory three days earlier, and he did not have the same life on Wednesday.
Fuentes walked two of the three Dodgers he faced, loading the bases. Suarez took over and Pages lined a two-run hit to center field, putting Los Angeles ahead for good.
Fuentes’ velocity offered a clear contrast. His five four-seam fastballs in Game 4 averaged 95.9 mph; during his scoreless Sunday appearance, his 25 four-seamers had averaged 99.4 mph.
Suarez had been sharp in that Sunday win, but Wednesday marked only his fifth outing since right elbow trouble sidelined him in June. Before the shutdown, he had logged a 0.56 ERA over 31 appearances.
Mahle gave Atlanta what it needed
Mahle had strengthened an undermanned staff after arriving in Atlanta, posting a 1.99 ERA in nine regular-season starts. He also held the Phillies to one run over seven innings in Game 2 of the National League Wild Card Series.
His removal was especially striking after Chris Sale’s difficult Game 3. Sale, 37, had been the one dependable member of Atlanta’s injury-hit rotation before Mahle joined the club, and the Braves had generally built an extra rest day into almost every one of his regular-season turns.
That protection disappeared in October. Sale threw 95 pitches in the Game 1 Wild Card win against Philadelphia, then returned two days later for a 21-pitch save in Game 3. He lasted five innings against the Dodgers on Tuesday and surrendered two home runs, with his command appearing less precise.
Even a cleaner Sale outing might not have changed the larger issue. Atlanta could not produce enough runs.
Harris was the lone Braves hitter to find consistent footing in the postseason and was moved into the leadoff spot for Game 4. He opened the bottom of the first with a single and came home on a wild pitch, but Tyler Glasnow and the Los Angeles bullpen kept Atlanta off the board the rest of the way.
For a club asked to overcome a championship-caliber opponent with little margin on the mound, the final score left a familiar October feeling: one early run, one bullpen inning that broke loose, and no offensive answer waiting behind it.
