Braves 4, Dodgers 3: Bats stall out early and they blow a golden chance late to end 6-game win streak

Chad Moriyama 08/25/2026 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

The series battle for a playoff bye began with Tyler Glasnow getting BABIP’d to death for an early deficit, but he settled down after that in his return from injury, and the Dodger bats clawed back into the game against Bryce Elder to tie things up going into the later innings. Once there, the Dodgers gave up a run first via a two-out Ozzie Albies single off Tanner Scott, while the Dodgers weren’t able to get Shohei Ohtani in from third with nobody out in the 9th in a 4-3 loss to the Braves.

Six-game winning streak over.

======

The main story was the return of Tyler Glasnow, who made his comeback after like four months off with what was initially termed back spasms.

Well, things got off to a disastrous start, as a lead-off groundball single was followed by a one-out groundball single to corner things up. Then a Mauricio Dubon golf swing bloop single scored a run and cornered the runners again, which led to a Michael Harris II groundball single that scored yet another run and cornered things yet again.

After a steal of second, Ozzie Albies flew out to center for a sac fly to make it 3-0 Braves before a strikeout mercifully ended the inning, though the Dodgers got lucky on that as there was a passed ball that would’ve scored the runner from third but it was ruled a foul ball instead.

Oof.

Fortunately, Glasnow did come back and prove that inning was mostly a fluke, starting by eliminating luck entirely in the 2nd and striking out the side.

He got another strikeout to start the 3rd and then got two fouls outs for a clean frame, including a stellar one from Alex Call

A one-out single and wild pitch in the 4th stopped his streak of retired batters, but Glasnow worked around that, and he did the same to a two-out single and steal in the 5th.

The long 1st cost him another inning or two (and the runs), but he looked great otherwise: 5 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 7 K, 89 Pitches.

——

On the other side was Bryce Elder, who never seems to grade out well at all in terms of stuff, but mostly gets the job done for the Braves.

He started by cruising through the top of the order in the 1st but running into trouble against the bottom in the 2nd, which would be a theme. Max Muncy led off that 2nd with a single, and then with one-out Kyle Tucker blooped a single to center to put a pair on. After a strikeout, back-to-back singles from Alek Thomas and Hunter Feduccia plated a run each to cut the deficit to 3-2 Braves.

That was where it stopped as Shohei Ohtani had a frustrating at-bat where three Elder fastballs basically beat him for a strikeout.

Elder rebounded with a clean 3rd, but the 4th started with a Tommy Edman single. He later stole second with one out, which was pivotal when Alex Call singled to score him and tied things up at 3-3.

With two down, Feduccia singled again to corner things, but Ohtani lined out and another rally died there.

Elder came back with a clean 5th, but then hit a batter to start the 6th and gave up a one-out single to give the Dodgers another chance, but back-to-back strikeouts got him out of the jam and ended his night.

——

For the Dodgers pen, it was Alex Vesia to start things in the 6th, and he performed something of a miracle by getting a clean frame. That meant … no walks.

Jack Dreyer followed him in the 7th, getting the first two batters but then giving up a walk and single to create trouble. Evan Phillips then entered and it … well, it worked, as he got a groundout to end that threat.

Tanner Scott got the 8th and started by giving up a double, after a groundout advanced the runner to third, he got a comebacker that prevented the runner from scoring. However, Ozzie Albies dropped a two-out single to score the go-ahead run to give the Braves a 4-3 lead before the inning was up.

——

Meanwhile, out of the pen for the Braves was Dylan Lee in the 7th, and he gave up a two-out single but nothing more. Victor Mederos was given the 8th and got two quick outs, but then issued back-to-back walks to Call and Thomas. Dylan Dodd then entered and Miguel Rojas pinch hit, but flew out to center as the bats continued to struggle to go ahead.

Raisel Iglesias started out as poorly as possible as Shohei Ohtani started off with a lead-off triple to left that clanked off Lane Thomas‘ glove.

But Freddie Freeman struck out, Mookie Betts grounded out to a drawn-in infield, Max Muncy was intentionally walked, the Tommy Edman flew out to end the game.

Pathetic.

——

Miguel Rojas had some fun with Kyle Tucker.

======

NL SeedingRecordGB
Brewers81-50*–
Dodgers80-521.5
Braves77-554.5

The series continues tomorrow on MLB Network at 1:15 PM HT/4:15 PM PT/7:15 PM ET with Roki Sasaki on the bump against AJ Smith-Shawver.

About Chad Moriyama

Avatar photo
"A highly rational Internet troll." - Los Angeles Times
Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2014-2026 | Dodgers Digest | All Rights Reserved