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Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki throws to the plate during the second inning of their game against the Atlanta Braves on Saturday night in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki throws to the plate during the second inning of their game against the Atlanta Braves on Saturday night in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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ATLANTA — The waiting was the hardest part – and the longest.
Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman each had three hits, including a home run, as the Dodgers waited out a thunderstorm to extend their winning streak to seven games with a 10-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves in a soggy game that took three hours to start – and two days to finish.
The scheduled start time arrived with a dry field, the tarp rolled up and put away. No rain was falling. Blooper was hosting a closest-to-the-pin contest in right field for a $100 gift card and a children’s choir had sung the National Anthem.
And then everyone sat and waited.
It was at least 30 minutes before the prophesied thunderstorm arrived. But when it did, it stuck around for over two hours, complete with lightning flashes and rumbling thunder.
The game didn’t start until 10:21 p.m. ET, Fox’s national broadcast managing to follow the late evening news on the East Coast.
“I’ve been a part of some crazy rain delays,” Freeman said, recalling a three-hour delay in Washington with the Braves when it never rained. “But yeah, I understand. I think they’re in 17 in a row. It’s crazy. We’re in 10 in a row. So when we got to about 8:30, I kind of figured we were gonna be playing this game. Which is okay. We’re here, we might as well play it.”
Both teams had been warned to “hunker down” and expect a late night. So no players were seen on the field or in the dugout as the scheduled start time approached and passed. Both starting pitchers delayed their preparations in lockstep with the storm.
“I decided to eat a little bit, relax a little bit,” Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki said through his interpreter. “But most importantly I got a lot of the routine that I wanted to finish out of the way because I’ve heard that when the game will start, it’s going to happen suddenly. I was ready for that.”
After three hours of watching NBA or NHL playoff action in the clubhouse, playing games on their phones, eating or napping, the Dodgers’ patience was rewarded with another win.
During their seven-game winning streak, they have had it pretty easy, outscoring their opponents (the Pittsburgh Pirates, Miami Marlins and Braves) 63-25 while batting .345 as a team with 17 doubles, four triples and 12 home runs.
“After that first game against the Pirates, obviously we were facing Paul (Skenes). Paul pitched great against us,” Freeman said of the shutout loss to the Pirates’ ace. “You just kind of chalk that one up. But to come back after that one and go out there and score a lot of runs, we just kept adding and adding and adding.
“Just a lot of good things happened in the last week or so. The offense has obviously been swinging the bat really well.”
Will Smith started Saturday’s belated scoring with a leadoff double in the second inning. He moved to third on a fly out and scored on a force out, the Braves failing to turn a potential inning-ending double play.
In the third, Ohtani took over, driving a 415-foot home run over the wall in center field. Mookie Betts followed with a single and scored on an RBI single by Teoscar Hernandez.
In the fourth, Braves starter Spencer Schwellenbach – his name nearly as long as the rain delay – retired the first two batters but ran into more trouble at the top of the Dodgers’ order. Ohtani’s third hit of the game, a single, started it.
With Ohtani running, Betts shot a double down the left-field line to drive him in. Freeman ended Schwellenbach’s night with an RBI single. Lefty reliever Aaron Bummer replaced him and misplayed a dribbler up the first-base line by Teoscar Hernandez that allowed Freeman to score and put Hernandez in scoring position for Smith who drove him in with a single.
Freeman capped the night with a three-run home run in the eighth inning, pushing the Dodgers’ scoring into double digits for the third time in the past four games.
The seven-game win streak has been an example of what the Dodgers’ offense looks like when the top of their lineup is running on all cylinders. Ohtani has gone 11 for 27 with seven extra-base hits during the streak. Betts has gone 10 for 28. Freeman is 12 for 25 and Hernandez 13 for 31. Betts and Freeman have driven in 10 runs each, Hernandez 11.
“It is. It is,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts agreed. “I think we’ve seen it over a good period of time, the consistency of at-bat.
“Obviously Shohei’s back to doing what he does well. We’re just following suit. Mookie’s starting to heat up a little bit. Right now, it just seems like the guys at the top of the order … are carrying us right now.”
Saturday’s offensive muscle gave Sasaki his first MLB victory on a night when he looked less than comfortable working the late shift. He threw an MLB-career high 98 pitches to get through five innings while giving up three runs on six hits, including a solo home run by Ozzie Albies and an RBI triple by Eli White.
Afterward he was treated to the traditional “beer shower” celebration in the clubhouse – “a lot of my teammates said congratulations and a lot was thrown on me,” he said.
“Just really relieved and happy,” he said.
“I’m just relieved that I was able to do what I was supposed to do as a starting pitcher. Knowing the circumstances to which it was getting complicated as the delay was getting a little longer and also knowing the fact that we were gonna play today.”
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