The Cycle, Issue 104: Atlanta Wins The Pennant
Recapping Atlanta’s pennant-clinching Game 6 victory, and bidding farewell to the 106-win Dodgers
In this issue of The Cycle . . .
League play is over, as the Braves beat the Dodgers to claim the National League pennant. I recap their pennant-clinching win in Game 6 of the NLCS, and bid farewell to the defending champion Dodgers in the penultimate edition of Wait ‘Til Next Year.
National League Championship Series
Braves 4, Dodgers 2
Game 6
With the memory of the Dodgers’ comeback from a 3-1 deficit in last year’s National League Championship Series fresh in their minds, the Braves never trailed in Saturday night’s Game 6, but their lead was never quite comfortable either.
Pitching on three day’s rest in place of a dead-armed Max Scherzer, Dodgers starter Walker Buehler worked with constant traffic on the bases, but he never fully let the game get out of hand. In the bottom of the first, Buehler erased a leadoff single by deserving series MVP Eddie Rosario via a double play. Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley followed that twin killing with a pair of two-out doubles to give the Braves an early run, but Buehler held it there, stranding a two-out single in the second and a pair of runners in the third.
Meanwhile, Braves starter Ian Anderson was sharp, retiring the first six men he faced, then preventing AJ Pollock from advancing past second base after a leadoff double in the third.
In the top of the fourth, however, Trea Turner drew his first walk of the postseason, moved to second on a Will Smith single, and scored when Cody Bellinger shortened up and poked a two-out single the other way, beating the shift. That tied the game at 1–1.