As of about 1:50 a.m. EDT Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, the Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 in Game 2 of the National League Division Series on Sunday night, tying the best-of-five series at one win each.
The game was played at UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium. First pitch was at 8:03 p.m. EDT and the game lasted 198 minutes, according to the official MLB Stats API game data, which puts the finish at about 11:20 p.m. EDT by our arithmetic. Atlanta used a bullpen game and held a lead from the fifth inning on. Los Angeles cut the margin to one run with a two-out home run in the ninth, and the Braves then got the final out.
Where the series stands
The Dodgers won Game 1 on Saturday, Oct. 3, by a score of 5-3, per the MLB data. The schedule data lists Tarik Skubal as the winning pitcher and Victor Mederos as the losing pitcher, without naming their teams. Sunday’s result sends the series to Atlanta tied 1-1. The Braves reached the division series by beating the Phillies 2-1 in the Wild Card Series.
How the Braves scored
The official MLB play-by-play shows runs in three innings for Atlanta:
- First inning (1-0 Braves). Ronald Acuña Jr. singled and Matt Olson walked, with Acuña stealing second. Ozzie Albies walked to load the bases, and Michael Harris II popped out. Then, in the official description, “Mauricio Dubón singles on a ground ball to shortstop Mookie Betts. Ronald Acuña Jr. scores. Matt Olson to 3rd. Ozzie Albies to 2nd.” Sean Murphy struck out swinging to end the inning. Blake Snell was pitching for Los Angeles.
- Fifth inning (2-1 Braves). With two outs, Harris tripled on a line drive to left fielder Teoscar Hernández. FOX Sports wrote that Harris poked a sweeper “well outside the zone the other way” off Kris Bubic and that Hernández’s route and failed attempt to make the play helped Harris “stretch his double into a triple”; the official data lists it as a triple. Harris told FOX: “I knew I didn’t fully get it. I knew it was slicing away from them. As I got closer to first, I was kind of blocked by his body, so I didn’t know if he caught it or not. Then I had seen it bounce off the wall, and I just had to keep digging.” Dubón then walked, and the play-by-play records: “Wild pitch by pitcher Kris Bubic. Michael Harris II scores.” Evan Phillips came in and retired Rowdy Tellez to end the inning.
- Seventh inning (3-1 Braves). Olson singled, and with two outs: “Michael Harris II doubles (1) on a sharp line drive to right fielder Kyle Tucker. Matt Olson scores.” Dodgers reliever Edgardo Henriquez was pitching.
Los Angeles scored in the fourth and the ninth. In the fourth, “Freddie Freeman homers (1) on a fly ball to right field,” a solo shot off Braves pitcher Grant Holmes that made it 1-1. FOX Sports described it as a game-tying homer and noted that Freeman had hit “just one home run after the All-Star break and one extra-base hit in all of September.”
The Braves’ bullpen game
Atlanta started a bullpen game, and the official box score shows how it was divided:
- Ray Kerr: 2.2 innings, 2 hits, no runs, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts, 42 pitches.
- Grant Holmes: 0.2 innings, 2 hits, 1 run (Freeman’s homer), 1 walk.
- Dylan Lee: 0.2 innings. He is credited with the win, listed as (W, 2-0) in the MLB box score.
- Robert Suarez: 1.0 innings, credited with a hold.
- Didier Fuentes: 3.2 innings, 1 hit, 1 run, 3 strikeouts, 47 pitches, also credited with a hold.
- Raisel Iglesias: 0.1 innings, 3 pitches. His save is listed as (S, 2).
Lee’s work came in two pieces, according to the official play-by-play. He entered in the bottom of the fourth after Holmes gave up Freeman’s homer, with Tucker on second after a single and a walk to Andy Pages and one out. Lee struck out Max Muncy on a foul tip and Tommy Edman popped out to end the inning. In the bottom of the fifth, with the Braves ahead 2-1, the feed reads: “Mookie Betts challenged (pitch result), call on the field was overturned: Mookie Betts walks.” Lee then allowed a single to Shohei Ohtani, and Robert Suarez retired the next three batters, Will Smith, Freeman and Hernández, to end the threat.
FOX Sports reported that Kerr found out the morning of the game that he would start. “I was like, ‘All right, let’s get it,'” Kerr said. “Just another Sunday, right?” Braves manager Weiss, identified by FOX only by surname, said: “Ray Kerr is amazing, man. He did it again.” FOX also wrote that Kerr, 32, started the deciding Wild Card game against the Phillies and threw 3.1 scoreless innings against Aaron Nola, and that the Braves needed “two bullpen games to get through the first two games” of this series.
Catcher Drake Baldwin, who drew three walks in the game, told FOX: “That was a huge start, or open, or whatever you call it, in two huge games for us.”
Snell’s outing
Snell pitched 3.2 innings for Los Angeles and allowed 3 hits and 1 run, with 5 walks and 5 strikeouts on 90 pitches, per the box score. FOX reported that he needed four pitches or more against each of the last 10 batters he faced. Snell had a 1.13 ERA in his final eight starts after returning from an elbow procedure, FOX wrote, and a groin injury limited him to five innings over the final two weeks of the regular season.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts addressed that injury after the game. “He just was fighting himself with his delivery all game,” Roberts said. “I think that just, overall, it wasn’t the groin. He just wasn’t sharp tonight.”
Kris Bubic pitched 0.2 innings, allowing a hit and the run on the wild pitch, and was charged with the loss. FOX noted it was just his sixth appearance as a Dodger after he returned from an elbow injury.
The ninth inning
Roki Sasaki retired the Braves in order in the top of the ninth. In the bottom half, Fuentes got two outs, then “Max Muncy homers (2) on a fly ball to right center field,” making it 3-2. With two outs and no runners on, Iglesias came in and got Josue De Paula, who FOX says was making his first career playoff appearance, to pop out to third baseman Austin Riley in foul territory to end the game.
Box score highlights
- Both teams had 6 hits and no errors. Atlanta left 11 runners on base, Los Angeles 7.
- Harris II went 3 for 5 with a double, a triple and 1 RBI.
- Dubón went 1 for 3 with an RBI and a walk. Freeman was 2 for 4 with a home run and an RBI, and Muncy was 1 for 3 with a home run and an RBI.
- Dodgers relievers after Snell: Stewart 0.1 innings, Bubic 0.2, Phillips 0.1, Edwin Díaz 1.0 with 2 strikeouts, Henriquez 1.0 with 2 hits and 1 run, and Sasaki 2.0 with 2 walks, 1 strikeout and 36 pitches.
- Attendance was 50,729. The temperature at first pitch was listed at 95 degrees, partly cloudy.
The official play-by-play also shows a missed chance in the eighth. With the Braves ahead 3-1, Sasaki walked Tellez and hit Riley with a pitch. After Mike Yastrzemski’s sacrifice bunt and an intentional walk to Baldwin, “Ronald Acuña Jr. grounds into a double play,” and no runs scored.
What comes next
Per the MLB schedule, the series moves to Atlanta:
- Game 3: Tuesday, Oct. 6, 6:00 p.m. EDT (22:00 UTC in the MLB schedule).
- Game 4: Wednesday, Oct. 7, 6:00 p.m. EDT (22:00 UTC in the MLB schedule), in Atlanta.
- Game 5, if necessary: Friday, Oct. 9, at 8:00 p.m. EDT in Los Angeles.
FOX Sports writes that Chris Sale is expected to pitch Game 3 in Atlanta “on four days of rest since his wild-card relief appearance and six days of rest since his last start.” FOX noted that Sale faced the final five batters in Wild Card Game 3 two days after starting Game 1, which made him unavailable for the first two games here. Weiss defended that decision: “We needed to win that series, and that was our best chance to do it. So, I have zero regrets about pitching Chris Sale in that last game.”
Separately, FOX writes that Yoshinobu Yamamoto is beginning “his World Series MVP postseason follow-up campaign,” and calls the Game 3 matchup “about as star-studded of a pitching matchup imaginable for Game 3.”