This is Game 2 of the Dodgers-Braves series, and the pitching setup is what caught my eye. Blake Snell, a lefty, takes the ball for Los Angeles, while Atlanta goes with lefty reliever Ray Kerr as an opener and then has to cover the rest of the game with a bullpen that has barely had a break. My judgement turns on the Dodgers lineup getting to see a parade of relievers against a staff that is already stretched, not on them simply being the better-known team.
The Braves arrive with a thin offence right now. Over their last 10 games they hit just .209, and the Dodgers deliberately lined up their lefties for this series because Atlanta has struggled against left-handed pitching. Skubal showed what that looks like in Game 1, going six innings and allowing one earned run on two hits.
Atlanta's bullpen workload is the other half of it. It has covered 10.2 innings and 184 pitches over the last three days, and the Braves had only one day off after three straight games. Kerr threw 47 pitches in the Wild Card finale just a few days ago, so a short start followed by a long relay of arms is the likely shape of this game.
The Dodgers have been scoring well at home, with 36 runs in their last seven games there, and they have been winning by margins rather than by inches. Los Angeles has covered the same kind of spread in 13 of its last 20 games. A comfortable win, rather than just a win, is the way I see this one going.
