LOS ANGELES – Dave Roberts had every reason to feel good going into Game 2 of the NLDS on Sunday. The Los Angeles Dodgers had just powered their way to a 5-3 series-opening win over the Atlanta Braves the day before behind homers from Teoscar Hernández, Kyle Tucker and Max Muncy and a six-inning gem from Tarik Skubal. And with the Braves opting for a second straight bullpen game and Blake Snell set to start, it looked as if the Dodgers were about to take a chokehold on the series.
But things went awry almost instantly at Dodger Stadium.
Snell walked Matt Olson and Ozzie Albies back to back after Ronald Acuña Jr. got on base with a one-out single. The former Cy Young winner needed 27 pitches to get out of that bases-loaded jam in the first inning and limited the damage to just one run, but 90 pitches in just 3⅔ innings later, Snell was out of the game. The Dodgers went through six relievers in a 3-2 loss to Atlanta in what turned out to be a bullpen game of their own.
“He just was fighting himself with his delivery all game,” Roberts said. “The fastball was really good. The change-up was good at times. I think in total didn’t have fastball command, didn’t have slider command, and the change-up wasn’t there. He was pulling it. … He just wasn’t sharp tonight.”
The metrics on Snell all looked good on Sunday. His velocity across all four pitches was up as he drew 12 whiffs in his outing, leading all pitchers. Crucially, his velo didn’t go down as the game went on, so there was nothing in the numbers to suggest that Snell was still dealing with the left groin tightness that pulled him after just one inning in his penultimate start of the season in Cincinnati on Sept. 16. While Roberts admitted he didn’t think Snell looked sharp when he pitched four innings in San Francisco in his return to the mound on Sept. 26, he still felt good coming out of it.
He was encouraged further when he threw an inning earlier this week during the bye.
“There were no concerns,” Roberts said.
Where things went wrong was Snell’s inability to find the strike zone as he walked five batters. His induced vertical break was down across his entire arsenal, and he only threw 13 called strikes for a combined called strike plus whiff rate of 28%, just slightly lower than the 32% of all his pitches that found the zone. The command just simply wasn’t there on Sunday.
Snell was unavailable to the media postgame due to a family matter, per Dodgers PR.
“He was fighting himself all game.”
Before Freddie Freeman’s game-tying solo home run, Dave Roberts spoke with @Ken_Rosenthal about Blake Snell’s outing today and what his plans are for the bullpen. pic.twitter.com/GeOO2xA1Te
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 5, 2026
What a turn of events for the Braves, though. Just when it looked like their season was about to be over, they created enough traffic on the bases to chase the Dodgers’ second ace and steal a win on the road to tie the series up heading back to Atlanta, where they’ll have a rested Chris Sale waiting to take the mound. Suddenly, they now have the upper hand in a series they once seemed desperately out of.
The pressure now lies on Yoshinobu Yamamoto more than it does on the 37-year-old Sale.
“We’re in a good position,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “… Look, we’ve got to face more Cy Young Award winners for them. Every starter on their staff is a Cy Young guy. It doesn’t get any easier, but I like the fact that we go back home even and we have Chris Sale.”
For the Dodgers, the inconsistent offense that plagued much of their summer reared its head again at the worst possible time. Shohei Ohtani still doesn’t look right at the plate. Andy Pages is struggling in October once again, despite posting the best season of his career at the plate in 2026, which Roberts admitted has given him “a little bit” of concern. Collectively, the Dodgers left seven runners on base and went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position on Sunday. No matter who’s on the mound, that can’t happen. Especially in the postseason.
The momentum has been snatched from the Dodgers. Yamamoto has shown he’s more than capable of getting it back. But the Braves showed on Sunday this won’t be the cakewalk some thought it would be.
“It’s a good team offensively. They’re going to fight,” Roberts said. “(Michael) Harris (II) is swinging a good bat. We knew it was going to be a battle. So, we knew those guys weren’t going to go down. Expecting to see Sale Game 3. We’ve got our work cut out. So now it’s a three-game series.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Blake Snell’s sluggish Game 2 start was worst-case scenario for Dodgers
