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Chris Taylor hits 3 home runs, leads Dodgers to huge NLCS Game 5 win over Braves

ryan young
Staff writer
·3 min read
147

The Los Angeles Dodgers, thanks to a wild night from Chris Taylor, aren’t done just yet.

The Dodgers, facing elimination in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series, flew past the Atlanta Braves 11-2 behind three home runs from Taylor to keep their World Series hopes alive.

The Dodgers now trail the Braves 3-2 in the NLCS heading into Game 6 in Atlanta on Saturday night.

Taylor is just the 11th player in MLB history to have a three-homer game in the postseason, and the first since Kiké Hernández did so for the Dodgers in 2017 against the Chicago Cubs.

“It’s just a cool night, definitely surreal,” Taylor said on SportsNet. “The biggest thing was that we were able to get the win and answer, and now we get to go to Atlanta which is what we wanted to do. For me I’m feeling good up there and not thinking too much, which is good.”

Chris Taylor lifts Dodgers past Braves

It looked like the Braves were going to pick up right where they left off on Thursday after their dominant 9-2 win in Game 4. Freddie Freeman hit a deep shot to center field in the first inning that put them up 2-0 almost instantly.

Dodgers opener Joe Kelly left in the middle of that first inning, too, due to right bicep tightness.

The next inning, however, the Dodgers hit back. A.J. Pollock hit a homer to left off of Braves pitcher Max Fried, and then Taylor hit a similar shot of his own to bring in Albert Pujols and take a 3-2 lead.

Taylor — after hitting an RBI single in the third to push their lead — hit another two-run blast in the fifth, which gave the Dodgers a huge 6-2 lead.

With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Taylor hit a third homer off of Dylan Lee to give them a five-run lead.

Though the win was already in hand, the Dodgers didn’t stop there.

Trea Turner hit an RBI single in the eighth inning before Pollock hit a three-run homer over the left field wall. Taylor finished the night with four hits and six RBIs

Pollock finished the night with three hits, two homers and four RBIs in five at-bats, and Taylor had four hits and six RBIs to go with his three home runs. The Dodgers matched a franchise postseason record with their five total home runs, and they’re just the third team in MLB postseason history to have two players with multiple home runs in a single game.

Game 6 of the series is set for Saturday night in Atlanta. A win there for the Braves would earn them their first World Series trip since 1999.

And even though he knows that Thursday’s game “kind of got out of control,” Braves manager Brian Snitker isn’t stressing headed into Saturday.

“I have no worries at all about anything like that,” Snitker said, via Bally Sports. “I think it’ll be good to get back home, and it’s a tough row to hoe when we get home. But these guys will come out on Saturday, and they’ll do like they did yesterday”