LOS ANGELES -- On paper, the Dodgers had a clear advantage over the Braves in the first two games of the NL Division Series, sending a pair of two-time Cy Young Award winners to the mound while Atlanta was forced to run back-to-back bullpen games.
But baseball is not played on paper, and in several key moments, poor execution was the Dodgers' undoing in Game 2.
A shaky start from Blake Snell set the wrong tone as the Dodgers fell, 3-2, to the Braves on Sunday night at Dodger Stadium. Atlanta countered with a bullpen game anchored by its top leverage arms, working a split in the NLDS as the series shifts to Truist Park with a matchup of aces -- Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Chris Sale -- set for Game 3 on Tuesday.
From a historical standpoint, such a loss swings the momentum of the series. In all best-of-five postseason series, teams to win Game 2 after losing Game 1 have gone on to win the series 34 of 67 times (51%). In Division Series with the current 2-2-1 format, teams to get a split on the road before heading home for Games 3-4 have taken the series 30 of 49 times (61%).
After Tarik Skubal led L.A. to a Game 1 victory, Snell was unable to pick up where his rotation mate left off, holding the Braves to one run but only lasting 3 2/3 innings in Game 2. But while the Dodgers know their rotation is something special, they are also aware that they can't rely entirely on run prevention if they are to pull off the fifth three-peat in World Series history.
And in Game 2, a few too many self-inflicted wounds sealed L.A.'s fate.