{"id":1028834,"date":"2026-08-28T04:51:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T04:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1028834\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T04:51:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T04:51:23","slug":"dodgers-swept-by-braves-after-complete-game-shutout-by-chris-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1028834\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers swept by Braves after complete-game shutout by Chris Sale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ATLANTA\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Dodgers<\/a>\u2019 recent offensive woes were punctuated Thursday by a complete-game shutout by Braves left-hander Chris Sale<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe ran into a buzz saw,\u201d manager Dave Roberts<\/a> said after the 1-0 loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers (80-54), who\u2019ve been swept three times this month, are clinging to a one-game lead over the Braves (79-55) for the second-best record in the National League. They are three games behind the Brewers (83-51) for the best record in baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish we\u2019d played better,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI wish we\u2019d have won the game. I wish we\u2019d won the series. It didn\u2019t happen. But right now, there\u2019s nothing we can do but just go out there and keep trying to get better and win a baseball game [Friday].\u201d <\/p>\n

What was expected to be a pitchers\u2019 duel between Dodgers rotation leader Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> and Sale lived up to the hype.<\/p>\n

Yamamoto gave up a home run to Drake Baldwin on his first pitch, but he quickly settled in and gave up just three more hits while striking out eight over 6\u2153 innings.<\/p>\n

Sale was even better. He mowed down the Dodgers with 11 strikeouts, limiting them to just five hits in nine innings. <\/p>\n

The Dodgers went up against an even crisper version of Sale. His velocity was up overall, and the 100.1-mph fastball he threw to Shohei Ohtani<\/a> the second time through the order was his hardest-thrown pitch since 2018, according to MLB.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat guy, he\u2019s doing things no one\u2019s ever seen,\u201d Sale told reporters, after striking out Ohtani and holding him hitless in four at-bats. \u201cTit for tat, he\u2019s probably the best I\u2019ve ever seen. When you\u2019re facing the best, you gotta bring your best. Tonight it worked out. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t hang your hat on that kind of stuff. You never anticipate or expect that because of who he is and his talent and what he brings to the table. This is a game of small battles. He\u2019s going to win some, I\u2019m gonna win some. When you\u2019ve got a guy like that, you gotta step on the gas a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The Dodgers have struggled at times since the All-Star break, but Will Smith\u2019s return from injury and Shohei Ohtani\u2019s return to pitching should help.<\/p>\n

Sale got a standing ovation when he walked out for the ninth inning. And they booed when a safe call at first withstood replay review instead of ending the game on a double play. But Sale remained and had an even bigger final moment of the game: one more strikeout.<\/p>\n

\u201cSale had it, and we didn\u2019t have much of an answer,\u201d said Mookie Betts, the only Dodger with two hits. \u201cWe\u2019ve been able to score runs [the last couple months]. We might not score 10 a night, but we\u2019re scoring runs and giving ourselves a chance to win games. We just got to figure out other ways to win and be able to push a couple more runs across and whatnot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thursday marked the 13th one-run game the Dodgers have played since the beginning of the month. And the constant small margins seem to be taking a toll, as the Dodgers\u2019 bullpen and defense have wavered.<\/p>\n

The solution would be to get the offense back to scoring in bunches. But that\u2019s not a simple button the Dodgers can press, especially against pitchers of Sale\u2019s caliber.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers lost all three games in Atlanta by one run.<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers against the Atlanta Braves in the first inning Thursday.<\/p>\n

(Erik S. Lesser \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed like we were always chasing,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to play from behind. Your margins are much thinner, smaller. And when you don\u2019t capitalize on opportunities, then you come up on the short end. But like I said, they\u2019re a good ballclub. They do things the right way. And we\u2019ll look forward to seeing them in October.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers entered the series riding a six-game winning streak against the Rockies and Pirates. But it\u2019s been a long time since they\u2019ve won against a good team. In fact, they haven\u2019t won a series against any team that entered Thursday in playoff position since taking two of three from the Phillies on July 20-22.<\/p>\n

In the interim, the Dodgers have gone 1-12 against teams currently in a playoff spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking about it tonight: the game tests you,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cAugust is that third leg of a mile, and it\u2019s the hardest leg, and you know we\u2019ve got to get through it and grind. And there\u2019s a new series, a new team. We\u2019ve got [Tarik] Skubal going<\/a> [Friday against the Tigers]. We\u2019ve just got to flush it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\" Tucker takes day off<\/p>\n

Roberts sat still-slumping right fielder Kyle Tucker<\/a> against Sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to feel like I\u2019m piling on against a really tough starter,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cGet him ready for the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Roberts said that wasn\u2019t a reflection of how he\u2019ll approach the postseason. If the Dodgers face the Braves in the playoffs, Roberts would expect to start Tucker in right field against Sale.<\/p>\n

Roster move<\/p>\n

As expected, the Dodgers put right-hander Roki Sasaki on the 15-day IL with a blister on the middle finger of his right hand on Thursday. In a corresponding move, they recalled hard-throwing reliever Seth Halvorsen.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s probably our most rested reliever, and it\u2019s going to come in hot,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cSo I\u2019m going to run him out there if the situation calls for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Dodgers\u2019 recent offensive woes were punctuated Thursday by a complete-game shutout by Braves left-hander Chris Sale. \u201cWe…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1028835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[22900,1582,276,4139,411423,2442,1910,296731,108358,3688,2961,35699,224,5337,109455,26804,6166,8330,2450,83104],"class_list":["post-1028834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-braves","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-chris-sale","tag-complete-game-shutout","tag-dodgers","tag-game","tag-good-pitcher","tag-good-team","tag-inning","tag-la","tag-long-time","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-playoff-team","tag-roberts","tag-series","tag-strikeout","tag-thursday","tag-yamamoto"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117171344614313206","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1028834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1028835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1028834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1028834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1028834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}