Dodgers erupt for postseason record 11 first-inning runs to open Game 3 of NLCS vs. Braves
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ARLINGTON, Texas — Through two games of the National League Championship Series, it seemed likely the Los Angeles Dodgers’ streak of seasons without a championship would extend to 32 with scarcely a whimper.
It took just 32 minutes of Game 3 to dispel that notion in record-setting fashion.
The Dodgers teed off on a pair of Atlanta Braves pitchers for a postseason record 11 runs, a stunning power show that extended the top of the first inning longer than your late local news. And it pumped life into a Dodgers club that managed just one run in the first 15 innings of this LCS.
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The Dodgers clubbed three home runs in the inning, capped by Max Muncy’s grand slam, and every player in the lineup reached base at least once as they came to bat 14 times. Atlanta starter Kyle Wright faced nine of them and retired just two, immediately after Mookie Betts and Corey Seager jumped him for an infield single and RBI double.
Turned out the Dodgers were just getting started.
Will Smith smoked an RBI double to center field. Cody Bellinger drew a walk. And then Joc Pederson took Wright out to the opposite field, into the same spot in the Atlanta bullpen where reliever Mark Melancon caught a pair of Ozzie Albies home run balls in Game 2.
In Game 3, it only served to get the Braves bullpen stirring.
Edwin Rios, making his first start since the wild-card series, smoked a first-pitch fastball out to center. A Chris Taylor walk finished Wright.
And then things just got downright absurd for the Braves.
After Betts drew another walk and Corey Seager followed with another RBI hit, a Grant Dayton pitch went to the backstop for an apparent run-scoring wild pitch.
But wait! Replays indicated the ball struck Justin Turner’s foot, and the Braves successfully challenged, figuring the extra baserunner was worth wiping a run off the board.
Six pitches later, Muncy rewarded their eagle eye by crushing a Dayton offering 435 feet to right field, his second homer in as many days and the 20th in LCS history.
The inning was done. The Dodgers, clearly, are not.
“If we remain steadfast,” manager Dave Roberts said before Game 3, “we will emerge victorious.”
By the third inning, they’d tied an NLCS record with 15 runs scored, and an LCS record with five home runs. Dayton, gamely trying to save the remainder of the Braves bullpen, threw 62 pitches, but recorded just six outs and gave up eight runs.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dodgers erupt for postseason record 11 first-inning runs to open Game 3 of NLCS vs. Braves