Yamamoto's 10-K Gem and Twin Homers Put Dodgers One Win From NLCS in 3-1 Game 3 Win Over Braves

ATLANTA — The two-time defending champions are one win from another National League Championship Series. Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivered a postseason masterpiece Tuesday night, striking out a career playoff-high 10 over seven innings of one-run ball, while Kiké Hernández and Freddie Freeman each took Chris Sale deep in the fourth inning of the Dodgers' 3-1 Game 3 win over the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park, giving Los Angeles a 2-1 NLDS lead.

Sale, baseball's ERA leader with a career-best 2.16, was untouchable early — six strikeouts through two innings, a bases-loaded escape in the third that needed Mauricio Dubón's leaping robbery of a would-be Freeman homer. But Hernández, starting at third over Tommy Edman for "intensity," crushed a 406-foot two-run shot after Andy Pages' leadoff single — his 17th career postseason homer — and Freeman answered with a 399-foot solo blast, the 18th of his October career and into a tie for 10th in MLB history, in his first playoff game in Atlanta since winning the 2021 World Series there.

Yamamoto (1-0), making his 2026 postseason debut, allowed four hits and one walk. His only jam came in the fifth, when he limited the Braves to a Drake Baldwin RBI groundout with the bases loaded before getting Ronald Acuña Jr. to ground out. Tanner Scott worked a scoreless eighth, and Edwin Díaz survived an Ozzie Albies leadoff double to close it out.

Sale (0-1) lasted five innings, allowing three runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts — the first time since his 2017 playoff debut he had surrendered multiple homers in a postseason game. Miguel Rojas exited in the eighth with an apparent injury on a swing. All 10 Dodgers runs this October have come via the home run, the longest such streak to open a postseason in MLB history. Game 4 is Wednesday night at Truist Park.