Atlanta @ Los Angeles preview
Dodger Stadium
Last Meeting ( Apr 1, 2025 ) Atlanta 1, LA Dodgers 3
As the Los Angeles Dodgers reach rarified air for a defending World Series champion, the Atlanta Braves are left to assess all that has gone wrong as the teams get set to meet in the finale of their three-game series on Wednesday.
The Dodgers put together their seventh consecutive victory to start the 2025 season when they upended the visiting Braves 3-1 on Tuesday. Atlanta is 0-6 to start the season for their worst opening to a schedule since they were 0-9 in 2016.
Los Angeles continues to overcome the obstacles in the early going. Freddie Freeman was out Tuesday for the fourth time in seven games, and yet the Dodgers won again. Freeman missed two games early in the schedule with rib soreness and has been out the past two games with ankle soreness.
On Tuesday they had right-hander Dustin May making his first start in two seasons, while the Braves had Cy Young winner Chris Sale on the mound. And yet the Dodgers pulled off the victory when May allowed just one hit and an unearned run and Mookie Betts hit a go-ahead home run off Sale in the sixth inning.
Betts cautioned against getting too complacent.
"It's a really long season," Betts said. "Teams go through stretches like this. It's really important for us to just keep our head down, one inning at a time, same way we've been doing."
It's an easier philosophy to have while knowing two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell (1-0, 3.60 ERA) will be on the mound Wednesday while the team is in search of its eighth consecutive win.
Snell is 0-2 lifetime against the Braves with a 2.95 ERA in four starts.
"I think we just do a really good job of just kind of resetting and getting ready for the next day," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of his club, which matched the 1933 New York Yankees for the best start to a season as defending World Series champion.
Atlanta will alter its rotation by sending right-hander Bryce Elder to the mound for his 2025 debut. Elder is taking the rotation spot of right-hander Reynaldo Lopez, who is headed for arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder after one start this season.
Elder, who was 2-5 with a 6.52 ERA in 10 starts last season, is 0-1 lifetime against the Dodgers with a 5.28 ERA in three starts.
With Ronald Acuna Jr. and Sean Murphy on the injured list, and Jurickson Profar out on an 80-game PED suspension, the Braves have scored just two combined runs over the past four games. They had just three hits Tuesday and four on Monday after being one-hit by the San Diego Padres on Sunday.
"I can't explain it," Braves manager Brian Snitker said, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "... I'm sure they're pressing. That's human nature to press when everybody wants to be the guy."
Atlanta's lone run Tuesday was unearned on a Betts throwing error. The team's only earned run over the past four games came Monday on a home run from Michael Harris II.
After the Minnesota Twins and Milwaukee Brewers each won games Tuesday, the Braves remain the only MLB team without a victory this season.
--Field Level Media