Elimination game, facing the Braves top pitcher, Max Fried, and the Dodgers, besides the obvious need to win, had several objectives:
1. get off to a good start;
2. run up Fried’s pitch count;
3. Keep Buehler’s pitch count down;
4. Keep the Braves off the bases; and
5. Score more runs than the Braves.
The Dodgers were successful on four of the five. The Braves had 9 hits, but thankfully, Dodgers pitching did not issue any walks.
Because of work commitments, I followed the game on Gameday and have tried as best as I could to summarize the game.