Yoshinobu Yamamoto Outduels Chris Sale as Dodgers Beat Braves 3-1 to Take 2-1 NLDS Lead

Tuesday, October 6, 2026 — There is a particular silence that falls over a ballpark when 40,000 people realize, all at once, that the ace is in trouble. Truist Park found it in the top of the fourth on Tuesday night, when Kiké Hernández — batting ninth, starting at third base because Dave Roberts decided October was no time for sentiment — turned on a Chris Sale changeup and sent it 406 feet into the Atlanta night. An inning earlier, Mauricio Dubón had robbed Freddie Freeman of a sure two-run homer at the left-field wall. This time there was no robbery. There was only the visiting dugout losing its mind, and then, two batters later, Freeman going back-to-back — a 399-foot tower to right-center, his 18th career postseason homer, tying him for 10th on the all-time list. Just like that, 3-0. The heavyweight duel was over, and the Dodgers had their pivot point.

The final was 3-1, and the two-time defending World Series champions are one win from a third straight trip to the NLCS. They got there behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who spun seven innings of one-run, four-hit ball with a postseason career-high 10 strikeouts — 98 pitches of fastballs, curveballs, and splitters that made the Braves look, for long stretches, like they'd never seen a breaking ball. Atlanta struck out 12 times, went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, and managed its only run on Drake Baldwin's bases-loaded groundout in the fifth. Yamamoto, making his first postseason start since being named the 2025 World Series MVP, was simply better than Sale. In a series that had been a coin flip through two games — Braves 3-2 on Sunday to even it, after the Dodgers' 5-3 Game 1 win — that was the difference between a tied series and a 2-1 lead.

The fourth inning that broke the duel

Sale, to be fair, was magnificent for three innings — the version of Chris Sale who posted a career-best 2.16 ERA this season, who threw a five-hit shutout at these same Dodgers back in August, who struck out six of the first nine hitters he faced Tuesday, including Shohei Ohtani with two runners on in the first. The Dodgers put runners in scoring position in each of the first three innings and had nothing to show for it but stress: two stranded in the first, the bases loaded in the third, when Dubón went back to the short wall in left and stole Freeman's would-be two-run shot with a leaping, full-sprint grab.

Then the fourth. Andy Pages opened with a single. Hernández — in the lineup over Max Muncy specifically so Roberts could stack right-handed bats against the lefty Sale — got a changeup that caught too much of the inside corner and did not miss it, celebrating with a primal scream as he rounded first. It was his first homer of this postseason and the 17th of his career in October, which is just what Kiké Hernández does: 41 games and four homers in the regular season, and then the calendar flips and he's Babe Ruth. Two batters later, Freeman — playing his first postseason game in Atlanta since leaving the Braves five years ago, the franchise where he spent 12 seasons and won the 2021 World Series — squared up a 95-mph sinker and sent it towering over the brick wall in right-center. Of Sale's 13 career playoff appearances, it was the first since his postseason debut in 2017 in which he had given up multiple home runs.

Yamamoto's night: 98 pitches of October authority

This is what the Dodgers paid for. Yamamoto, coming off a 14-9, 2.53 ERA regular season, tapped straight back into last October's historically dominant form. He faced one real jam all night — the fifth, bases loaded, one out, the top of the Atlanta order up — and limited the damage to a single run when Baldwin grounded out to first and Ronald Acuña Jr. grounded out to second to strand two. After that, he was gone: four hits, one walk, 10 strikeouts, and the Braves' lineup never looked comfortable against the splitter again.

Tanner Scott worked a scoreless eighth, and Edwin Díaz — back in closing duties — made the ninth interesting the way closers do, giving up a leadoff double to Ozzie Albies off the right-center wall. Albies moved to third on Michael Harris II's groundout, but Díaz stranded him there: Dubón fouled out, Mike Yastrzemski grounded out to Mookie Betts, and the Dodgers had their 2-1 lead. Four Atlanta relievers had tossed a scoreless inning apiece to keep it close. The offense just never showed up.

Roberts' gamble — and the lineup twist that made it work

The night before the game, Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates had laid it out plainly: to go deep in October, "you're gonna have to beat some really good pitchers … You're gonna have to face an ace." Roberts responded with the boldest lineup card of the series. Hernández and Miguel Rojas were drawn in, replacing Max Muncy and Tommy Edman, to give the Dodgers two extra right-handed bats against Sale. And Shohei Ohtani — hobbled by knee and triceps injuries in the second half, with two singles in eight at-bats through the first two games — was dropped to the No. 5 spot, the lowest he'd hit since the 2020 season with the Angels.

"I just feel this gives us the best chance to beat the Braves today, and combat Sale," Roberts said pregame. He was right about the construction, even if Ohtani himself stayed quiet — Sale struck him out with two runners on in the first (he'd also gone 0-for-4 with two strikeouts against Sale back on Aug. 26), and though Ohtani later reached on catcher's interference and walked in the eighth, the bottom of the order did the damage. The nine-hole hitter decided a playoff game. That's October.

Atlanta's missed chances — and a short-handed lineup

The Braves didn't just lose to Yamamoto; they lost to themselves in the moments that mattered. Six runners stranded over the first three innings. The bases loaded with one out in the fifth, the tying run 90 feet away, and one run to show for it. Acuña Jr. — moved to DH with a sore right knee from a weekend slide, Lane Thomas taking right field and batting seventh, Sean Murphy out of the lineup entirely — couldn't deliver the big hit. It's the kind of night that haunts a clubhouse: the ace gives you five gritty innings, the bullpen holds, and the lineup goes 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

The Dodgers, for all their joy, have their own worry. Rojas was removed in the top of the eighth after appearing to injure himself on a swing; Edman came in to finish the at-bat, and Rojas was seen with trainers in the dugout heading toward the clubhouse. His status for Wednesday is the subplot to watch. And here's the oddity of this series: the Dodgers have yet to score any way other than the long ball — they're 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position through three games. Every run has come on a homer. It hasn't mattered yet.

One win from the NLCS

"We played tonight like an elimination game. Collectively, it was probably one of our better performances, certainly with the starter, one through nine [in our lineup]."— Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, postgame

Now the math is simple. Game 4 is Wednesday night at Truist Park: Tyler Glasnow for the Dodgers against Atlanta's Tyler Mahle, who said Tuesday that the abdominal pull he suffered in last week's wild-card loss to Philadelphia is a non-issue. Win, and the Dodgers are in the NL Championship Series, chasing a piece of history — they'd be trying to become the first National League team to win three straight World Series. Lose, and it's back to Los Angeles on Friday for a Game 5 with Tarik Skubal lined up, which is about as stressful a sentence as October produces.

The Braves, meanwhile, are one loss from the end of their season, and they know it. They've been here before in this rivalry — and so have the Dodgers, who have made a habit of treating October like it owes them something. Tuesday night, Yamamoto made sure it paid up.