LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers held off the Atlanta Braves 5-3 in Game 1 at Dodger Stadium, overcoming a strong bullpen-game start from Dylan Dodd and a late two-run push to take the series opener. Atlanta opened with Dodd against Tarik Skubal and the Dodgers, but Los Angeles built a decisive lead in the middle innings and survived a ninth-inning rally.
The early innings were marked by an erratic strike zone from home plate umpire Roberto Ortiz, with a flurry of challenges and missed calls affecting both teams. Dodd matched Skubal with 3.0 scoreless innings on four strikeouts and 46 pitches, following in Ray Kerr's footsteps from Thursday. Skubal cruised through the fourth with some BABIP luck before Victor Mederos took over for Atlanta and recorded one out, walking Freeman on four pitches and allowing a massive two-run homer to Teoscar Hernandez. After a bloop single to Tucker, AJ Smith-Shawver entered and stabilized the game at 2-0 through five.
Sean Murphy cut the deficit to 2-1 with a solo homer leading off the sixth, turning on a 99 MPH Skubal sinker at the top of the zone. Ha-Seong Kim followed with a walk to push Skubal near 100 pitches, but Baldwin and Acuna chopped out and Olson flied out after Ozzie drew a walk to end the threat. The Dodgers answered immediately in the bottom of the sixth when Smith-Shawver allowed a single and back-to-back homers to Kyle Tucker and Max Muncy, stretching the lead to 5-1 and erasing Murphy's momentum. The decision to leave Smith-Shawver in to face Tucker and especially Muncy in a close game was debatable.
Atlanta went quiet against the first arm out of the Los Angeles bullpen and was set down 1-2-3 in the eighth, while Brent Suter delivered two scoreless innings working around a Freeman single. The Braves finally broke through in the ninth against Tanner Scott, as Ronald singled to lead off and Ozzie, swinging from the right side, hit a two-run homer to make it 5-3 with no outs. Olson and Harris gave Scott two quick groundouts before the Dodgers went to Evan Phillips for the platoon split and Dubon drew a walk to bring Austin Riley to the plate as the tying run with two outs.
Riley grounded out on a hanging breaking ball to end the game, leaving questions about bullpen management from Weiss after the sixth-inning sequence. Two home runs from Murphy and Albies offered encouragement, but three runs were unlikely to win a bullpen game started by Dodd against the Dodgers. The series continues with Game 2 at 8 PM ET before heading back to Atlanta.