Dodgers Reach 3rd Straight NLCS With 4-1 Game 4 Win Over Braves

Q: How did a single regretted changeup completely derail a dominant pitcher and push a contender to the brink of elimination?

It was one pitch, but it flipped the game and the series. Chris Sale had matched Yoshinobu Yamamoto through three scoreless innings in Game 3, yet the Dodgers had already forced him to work, driving his pitch count to 62 through three. Then in the fourth, after Andy Pages singled, Sale doubled up on a changeup to Kiké Hernández. The second one stayed in the zone, Hernández recognized it, and he drove it 406 feet to left for a two-run homer. Sale himself identified that pitch as the one he wanted back. He said one swing “changed the whole trajectory of that game,” and the evidence supports that. Until then, it was a tight ace-versus-ace duel. After Hernández’s homer, Freddie Freeman added another solo shot in the same inning, turning a 1-1 game into a 3-1 Dodgers lead and ending Atlanta’s margin for error. The damage went beyond the scoreboard. Sale still struck out seven and did not walk a batter, but the fourth inning erased what had been a dominant start and put Atlanta behind in both the game and the series. Because Los Angeles won 3-1, Hernández’s mistake-punishing swing became the decisive moment. It also exposed the larger problem for Atlanta: its offense did not answer. The Braves scored only once against Yamamoto, who went seven innings with 10 strikeouts, and Atlanta had managed just seven runs through three games. So the regretted changeup did not just spoil Sale’s night; it gave the Dodgers a 2-1 NLDS lead and pushed the Braves to the brink of elimination.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 8

Andy Pages broke a 1-1 tie with a two-out, two-run single in the seventh, sending Los Angeles past Atlanta and clinching the NLDS in four games.
Tyler Glasnow and four Dodgers relievers held the Braves to one run, while Max Muncy added a ninth-inning homer and Edwin Diaz finished a clean save.
Atlanta scored first when Michael Harris II stole home on a wild pitch, but the Braves again failed to cash in, finishing the series with eight runs and a .145 batting average.
Los Angeles reached its third straight NLCS after winning the 2024 and 2025 titles, and will face either Milwaukee or San Diego next.