The Los Angeles Dodgers knew they would not overpower Chris Sale on Tuesday night. Instead, they set out to wear him down, and Freddie Freeman believes that approach paid off long before the final out of a 3-1 win over the Atlanta Braves in Game 3 of the National League Division Series.

Freeman said the plan against the veteran left-hander was built around patience.

“Obviously we talked about trying to get him in the middle of the zone,” Freeman said in a post-conference after the game. “Lay off the inside fastballs. If he throws it there, take it, try and push him out over. Lefties are a different story. It's hard.”

The goal was simple. Avoid quick outs, run up the pitch count and get Atlanta's ace out of the game as early as possible.

“Don't try and make early outs, and if that's all we could do, get him out early, and we were able to do that,” Freeman said.

The Dodgers did not score in the first three innings, but they made Sale work for every out. By Freeman's count, the left-hander had already thrown around 60 pitches through three frames.

“Especially when you're at 60 pitches after three with him,” Freeman said. “Getting Chris Sale out of the game after five innings is a huge win no matter what the score is. We felt really good about our at-bats. We just missed, they made good plays. But getting Chris out after five innings, that was huge for us.”

The breakthrough came in the fourth. Kike Hernandez launched a two-run homer after an Andy Pages single, and Freeman followed with a solo shot to make it 3-0. It was the 18th postseason home run of his career.

“Just a sinker in and got to it,” Freeman said of the blast.

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Sale finished with three runs allowed over five innings. It was the first time he had given up two homers in a single inning since April 2023.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto took care of the rest, striking out a postseason career-high 10 over seven innings of one-run ball. Edwin Diaz closed it out in the ninth.

The Dodgers now lead the best-of-five series 2-1 and can clinch a third straight trip to the NLCS with a win in Game 4 on Wednesday.