Three Dodgers homers support Skubal’s six innings in a 5–3 NLDS opening victory.
Atlanta Braves 3 · Los Angeles Dodgers 5
Game date: Oct 3, 2026 · America/Chicago
Published: Oct 14, 2026
Professional · Baseball · MLB
The Dodgers answered Atlanta's first home run with two of their own. Sean Murphy's sixth-inning shot had cut Los Angeles' lead to 2–1. Kyle Tucker then homered with Teoscar Hernández aboard, and Max Muncy followed with a solo shot. The Dodgers moved ahead 5–1 before completing a 5–3 NLDS opening win on October 3.
The three-run sixth supplied the margin Los Angeles needed when Ozzie Albies homered in the ninth. Atlanta's late two-run shot made the finish closer, but it did not remove the separation created by Tucker and Muncy. Evan Phillips recorded the final out after Tanner Scott had allowed the homer.
Los Angeles took a 1–0 advantage in the best-of-five series. The opener was built from three home runs and six effective innings by Tarik Skubal, who allowed one run on two hits and two walks while striking out seven. Atlanta scored through two home runs of its own but did not create enough additional contact to match the Dodgers' five runs.
Hernández supplies the first lead
The teams remained scoreless until the fourth. Hernández homered to left-center with Freddie Freeman aboard, giving Los Angeles a 2–0 advantage. The first scoring swing already carried extra value because the Dodgers had a runner on base.
Hernández finished with two hits, two RBIs and two runs. His homer produced the opening lead, and his later run on Tucker's shot contributed to the sixth-inning expansion. He was involved in both of the Dodgers' two-run scoring plays.
Atlanta's starter, Dylan Dodd, worked three scoreless innings, allowing two hits with four strikeouts and no walks. The Braves had kept Los Angeles from scoring against the opening pitcher. The runs came against the pitchers who followed him, changing the significance of Dodd's effective early work.
Victor Mederos was charged with two runs while recording one out. AJ Smith-Shawver allowed three over 2⅔ innings. Their combined five runs accounted for all of Los Angeles' scoring, showing where the Braves' pitching sequence became vulnerable after the scoreless start.
Skubal keeps Atlanta restricted
Skubal threw 94 pitches over six innings. Murphy's solo homer was the only run charged to him. The Braves had two hits and two walks against the starter, but did not assemble a multi-run inning that could make the Dodgers chase the score.
Murphy's home run to center cut the deficit to one in the top of the sixth. It created an immediate opportunity for Atlanta to move back into a game that had been quiet offensively. Los Angeles' response in the bottom half closed that opening quickly.
Tucker homered to right with Hernández on base, making it 4–1. Muncy's solo homer to right made it 5–1. The Dodgers had turned a briefly narrow advantage into a four-run margin through two consecutive scoring swings.
Tucker finished with two hits and two RBIs. Muncy's homer was his only hit. Freeman had a hit, a walk and a run, while Mookie Betts added a hit and a walk. Los Angeles finished with eight hits and three walks, but all five runs were driven in through home runs.
LOS ANGELES — Milwaukee needed only one inning to take back the lead. By the end of the night, the Brewers had taken something considerably larger from the Dodgers: nearly all their room for error.
DOPE Sports Network Staff · Oct 14, 2026
William Contreras had already answered one Dodgers lead when he stepped into the middle of another Milwaukee comeback. His fifth-inning home run brought the Brewers even. His sixth-inning single put them ahead. By the time Aaron Ashby recorded the final out, Los Angeles had exhausted eight pitchers without finding a way to stop Milwaukee from coming back.
DOPE Sports Network Staff · Oct 14, 2026
Milwaukee's four relievers in NLCS Game 2 allowed the Dodgers no hits and no walks over five innings. That line is the simplest way to locate the difference between a game the Brewers repeatedly had to repair and a finish they could control. Once the bullpen took responsibility for the remaining outs, Los Angeles stopped producing baserunners through either of those routes.
Atlanta's last response
Albies homered in the ninth with Ronald Acuña Jr. aboard, reducing the score to 5–3. It was a meaningful answer because it brought the Braves within another two-run swing of tying the game. It did not, however, erase the damage Los Angeles had created three innings earlier.
Atlanta finished with four hits and three walks. Murphy and Albies supplied its three RBIs through their homers, while Acuña and Drake Baldwin had the other hits. The Braves' scoring came entirely from power, without a separate run-producing sequence to supplement the two shots.
Brock Stewart and Alex Vesia each supplied a scoreless inning for Los Angeles after Skubal. Scott allowed two runs while recording two outs in the ninth, and Phillips obtained the final out after issuing a walk. The bullpen did not maintain a perfect finish, but it preserved enough of the sixth-inning margin to complete the win.
Brent Suter worked two scoreless innings for Atlanta. Those innings kept the Dodgers from adding further insurance, but the Braves still needed to recover the four-run gap established before he entered. Their ninth-inning home run recovered only half of it.
The immediate advantage
The opener gave Los Angeles the first win toward the three required to advance. Its most important offensive work came directly after Atlanta had made the score close. That response prevented Murphy's homer from becoming the beginning of a tied or reversed game.
Hernández built the initial lead, Tucker and Muncy made it larger, and Skubal limited how often Atlanta could threaten it. Albies made the finish more demanding. The Dodgers had already created enough separation to withstand that final response.
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