Dodgers suffer excruciating loss, in more ways than one, with walk-off to Braves

ATLANTA –– Roki Sasaki left the game early. Then, the Dodgers gave it away late.

In an excruciating 6-5 defeat to the Braves on Wednesday night, the Dodgers first lost Roki Sasaki to a middle finger blister. Then, they lost an early lead on a costly Teoscar Hernández fielding mistake in the fourth. And to top it all off, after they left the bases loaded twice in the seventh and eighth innings, they lost the game on a walk-off single by Ha-Seong Kim in the bottom of the ninth.

The Dodgers were in a good spot early, leading 3-1 after Tommy Edman doubled and scored in the second on a Hunter Feduccia RBI single, then hit a two-run homer in the third to further snap out of a 14-for-82 slump over his last 23 games.

But in the bottom of the fourth, everything went sideways –– starting with the blister on Sasaki’s throwing hand.

Though Sasaki hadn’t shown any signs of concern through his first three frames, bouncing back from a run in the first by retiring seven of his next nine, he ran into immediate trouble in the fourth, allowing a leadoff walk, a single, a run-scoring sacrifice fly and a double.

That prompted a visit from pitching coach Mark Prior and interpreter Will Ireton. Before long, Prior was motioning to the dugout for head athletic trainer Thomas Albert. Manager Dave Roberts also made his way out to the mound. 

Another brief discussion ensued, with Albert inspecting Sasaki’s right hand, which broadcast cameras later showed he had been reaching at earlier in the inning.

Finally, the 24-year-old departed from the game.

For Sasaki, it represented a speed bump in what had been a resurgent second half this season (he entered Wednesday with a 2.31 ERA over six starts since the All-Star break).

For the Dodgers, meanwhile, it was only the beginning of a disastrous inning –– one that would get worse on Hernández’s mistake in left field.

Facing Edgardo Henriquez fresh out of the bullpen, Braves slugger Drake Baldwin hit a high fly ball deep into the left-field corner. Hernández appeared to have a bead on it, tracking the drive all the way to the foul line. But then, his misjudged its flight, overrunning the ball as it landed just fair for a two-run double.

That gave the Braves a 4-3 lead. Two innings later, Sean Murphy would extend it with a solo home run off Eric Lauer.

The Dodgers did respond in the seventh, scoring twice on three hits (including a leadoff double from Shohei Ohtani that was aided by a curious decision from right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. to not throw the ball in with Ohtani caught out on the base paths) and two walks (the latter of which was a bases-loaded free pass from Edman that leveled the score).

But from there, even with the bases still loaded and no outs, the Dodgers would come up empty, after Kyle Tucker flied out and Alek Thomas bounced into a double-play (part of 0-for-5 nights from each).

Then in the eighth, the Dodgers left the bags full again, with Max Muncy chasing a splitter –– following seven-straight fastballs from Braves reliever Didier Fuentes –– to strike out at the end of a nine-pitch at-bat.

The Braves squandered their own chances along the way, none bigger than when Mauricio Dubón hit into a double-play grounder that took a fortuitous bounce off Mookie Betts’ glove at shortstop.

In all, both teams left 11 runners on base.

The difference, however, came in the bottom of the ninth.

Tanner Scott gave up a two-out double to Lane Thomas. An intentional walk to Austin Riley prompted the Braves to pinch-hit Kim. And though he walked up to the plate with an historically bad .066 batting average this year, he managed to work an eight-pitch at-bat that ended with his walk-off line drive to left.

Thus sealed a painful loss for the Dodgers, in more ways than one.