LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto is set to start a crucial Game 3 with the National League Division Series tied 1-1 after the Atlanta Braves beat the Dodgers 3-2 in Sunday's Game 2.
Yamamoto is scheduled to battle former Cy Young winner Chris Sale in a duel between two of the NL's top starting pitchers at Truist Park on Tuesday.
The Braves bounced back from their 5-3 Game 1 loss to split the series after Los Angeles starter Blake Snell left the mound following just 3-2/3 innings of Game 2 at Dodger Stadium.
Mauricio Dubon drove in Atlanta's opening run in the first inning, and Michael Harris II scored on a wild pitch for a 2-1 lead in the fifth before adding an RBI double in the seventh.
Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy hit solo home runs for the Dodgers, while Shohei Ohtani went 1-for-4, singling to left field in the bottom of the fifth.
Roki Sasaki pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth inning of relief for the Dodgers, including a bases-loaded double play to get out of the eighth unscathed.
"It was a situation where I couldn't afford to give up even a single run, so I wanted to keep them off the board no matter how I did it," Sasaki said. "It turned out to be the best possible outcome."
The right-hander recorded his fastest pitch since moving to MLB with a 102.1 mile (164 kilometer) per hour fastball, getting Ozzie Albies to ground out for the second out of the ninth inning.
"I threw it with my usual feel," Sasaki said.
