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ATLANTA (AP) — Max Scherzer fatigued early, Julio Urías faltered late, and when Kenley Jansen couldn’t strand an inherited runner in the bottom of the ninth inning, Los Angeles fell into a 2-0 hole in the NL Championship Series.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has made it clear he’ll use any pitcher at any time. He just hasn’t been able to find the right times in Atlanta.
Eddie Rosario delivered the Braves’ second straight walk-off hit, lining a ball against Jansen that caromed off shortstop Corey Seager’s glove and gave Dansby Swanson an easy path home for the game-ending run in Atlanta’s 5-4 victory Sunday night.
The defending World Series champions are headed home for Tuesday’s Game 3 with a taxed pitching staff and nothing to show for it in the best-of-seven series.
Game 2 was there for LA to take. Seager hit a two-run homer in the first inning before Scherzer even took the mound, but the three-time Cy Young Award winner was hardly himself.
Three days after a gutsy relief appearance earned Scherzer his first career save in the clinching Game 5 of an NL Division Series against San Francisco — and a day after he was scratched from starting Game 1 with arm fatigue — Scherzer simply didn’t have much in the tank.
“I would just say my arm was dead,” he said. “I could tell when I was warming up that it was still tired.”
He worked three scoreless innings before Joc Pederson pounded a two-run homer in the fourth that tied it at 2.
The Los Angeles ace didn’t last much longer, getting pulled after 4 1/3 innings. He allowed four hits and three runs with one walk and seven strikeouts, throwing 52 strikes in 79 pitches.
There was no fight from the often-feisty Scherzer when Roberts came for the ball. Alex Vesia relieved, gave up a single and struck out Freddie Freeman and Ozzie Albies to end a fifth-inning threat.
“After the fourth inning I was like, ‘Hey, if this is a long inning, you’re going to have to pull me, but if it’s a quick inning I can go back out…
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Source : yahoo
