For a while, it looked as though the Braves might get shut out in the NLDS. Instead they took advantage of a rookie pitcher’s command issues to open a 5–0 lead in the second inning. The Dodgers clawed back, tying the game in the fifth, but a Freddie Freeman home run off former Brave Alex Wood forced a Game 4.
With one swing, Braves leftfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. ruined Dodgers righty Walker Buehler’s night. The 20-year-old Acuña became the youngest player to hit a postseason grand slam, edging 20-year-old Mickey Mantle, when he deposited a 98-mph fastball in the leftfield stands.