Dodgers Finish Off the Braves, March Into a Third Straight NLCS

ATLANTA — Andy Pages spent the first two games of this series waiting. He waited through a hitless start, through two quiet nights in the lineup, for one moment to arrive. It arrived in the top of the seventh inning on Wednesday night at Truist Park — bases loaded, two outs, a 1-1 tie — and Pages did not miss. He lined a 3-2 fastball from Robert Suarez up the middle for a two-run single, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 4-1 in Game 4 to win the National League Division Series 3-1 and advance to their third consecutive National League Championship Series.

It was the Dodgers’ first hit with runners in scoring position in the entire series — they had started 0-for-14 — and it snapped a string of 22 straight innings in which Braves starter Tyler Mahle had held them without an earned run, dating back to 2022. The back-to-back World Series champions won back-to-back games in Atlanta to close out the best-of-five set. They are now eight wins from becoming the first National League team ever to win three straight World Series.

The seventhHow the tie broke

The rally began, improbably, with Teoscar Hernández. Minutes after crashing into the left-field wall, Hernández singled off Mahle on the starter’s 85th pitch. That ended Mahle’s night at 6 1/3 innings, charged with two runs — one earned — on three hits with four strikeouts, per the Associated Press.

Braves reliever Didier Fuentes walked pinch-hitter Josue De Paula and Kyle Tucker to load the bases; Tommy Edman ran for De Paula. Suarez entered and worked Pages to a full count, and Pages swatted the sixth pitch — a fastball near 100 mph, per USA Today’s live coverage — into center field. Hernández and Edman scored. 3-1, Dodgers.

Max Muncy added insurance in the ninth with a solo homer off Raisel Iglesias — his third of the postseason and his 19th postseason homer with the Dodgers, extending his own franchise record, according to the AP.

The armsGlasnow grinds, the bullpen slams it

Tyler Glasnow, making his first start since Sept. 24, gave the Dodgers 4 2/3 gutsy innings — one run, one hit, five walks, five strikeouts. Atlanta’s only run came in the first: Michael Harris II singled on Glasnow’s first pitch, stole second, and scored from third on a wild pitch that bounced off catcher Will Smith’s chest protector.

The Dodgers tied it in the second with help from two Atlanta errors — Shohei Ohtani walked, stole second and took third on catcher Sean Murphy’s errant throw, then Muncy’s shallow pop was dropped by shortstop Mauricio Dubon, letting Ohtani score. Alex Vesia ended the fifth on Matt Olson’s groundout; Edgardo Henriquez entered with one out in the sixth and stranded a runner at second to earn the win, following with a scoreless seventh. Tanner Scott pitched a perfect eighth, and Edwin Díaz got three quick outs for the save — his second of the series. Glasnow and four relievers combined to allow just three hits, per the AP.

The scareTeoscar meets the wall

With the score tied 1-1 in the sixth, Ozzie Albies lined an Alex Vesia fastball deep to left. Hernández leaped at the wall, missed the ball and crashed hard into the padding, staying down on the warning track as a trainer and Pages checked on him, per ClutchPoints and USA Today. Albies cruised into second with a leadoff double.

Hernández pointed to his head and neck while talking to the athletic trainer but stayed in the game — and caught a Drake Baldwin liner the very next at-bat. Albies never scored: Lane Thomas grounded out and Dubon lined out to Kyle Tucker in right to end the threat. Then Hernández led off the next half-inning with the single that started the winning rally.

The missing manRojas sidelined

The Dodgers played a man short. Veteran infielder Miguel Rojas was unavailable after leaving Tuesday’s Game 3 win in the eighth inning with lower back soreness — first tweaked fielding a grounder in the fifth, aggravated on a swing in the eighth. “[He’s feeling] not great,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game, according to the New York Post. “Back’s sore. Laying low… So we’re going to kick this one to another day.”

The Dodgers kept Rojas on the active roster rather than replacing him — a mid-series injury replacement would make him ineligible for a potential NLCS — and Kiké Hernández handled second base in his absence. The club also moved Shohei Ohtani up to the cleanup spot after he hit fifth in Game 3, and Muncy returned to the starting nine, per the Post.

The wordsRoberts, Freeman, Pages

In a champagne-soaked clubhouse, Roberts delivered the night’s mission statement — captured by MLBonFOX. “We talked about this: There’s no more talented team, than the Los Angeles Dodgers,” he told his players. “The best organization in sports top to bottom. We’re smarter, better and we’re tougher.” Then the Kobe Bryant coda: “We have eight more wins. Stay focused.”

Freddie Freeman had the quote of the night on the hero, speaking to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal. “It means a lot. I know he’s wanted this. He’s had a great year, All-Star for the first time. He’s had a great year, and came up huge when we needed to,” Freeman said — adding a shout-out to “Teo for getting it started, Josue and Kyle Tucker’s at-bats too, and Andy with a huge knock.”

And Pages, through his translator, on the wait and the moment: “From the beginning of the series, I was waiting for a moment like that,” he told Rosenthal. “It was a tough moment. But I let that time past and I put it in the past to try and focus on the present.” The 25-year-old first-time All-Star — whose role shrank in the 2025 postseason amid his struggles — had two hits in Game 3 and two more in Game 4, burying last October for good.

What’s nextMilwaukee or San Diego

The Dodgers now await the winner of the Brewers-Padres series. Milwaukee led 2-1 heading into Game 4 at Petco Park in San Diego on Wednesday night. NLCS Game 1 is Sunday — in Milwaukee if the Brewers advance, at Dodger Stadium if the Padres rally, per the New York Post and the AP. Either way, the road to the pennant runs through the two-time defending champions. Eight more wins. Stay focused.