Two of the most important innings of the Braves’ season were entrusted to two pitchers who had combined for about 2½ months of big league experience.
Touki Toussaint and Chad Sobotka pitched consecutive shutout innings in the invaluable sixth and seventh Sunday of the Braves’ 6-5 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 3 of the National League Division Series. Game 4 will be played in Atlanta on Monday afternoon.
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Before Freddie Freeman hit his first postseason home run in the sixth off former Braves pitcher Alex Wood to break the tie, the Braves called on Toussiant to keep the score tied at 5.
“Those guys were huge,” Ender Inciarte said. “For them to be so young and handle that situation so well is incredible. Touki and Chad both worked their way from the minors and are big contributors.”
In the top of the sixth, former Braves outfielder Matt Kemp blasted a double over the head of Inciarte off the left-center field wall. Cody Bellinger then hit a sharp grounder to Ozzie Albies for the first out with Kemp moving to third. Charlie Culberson made a key play, throwing out Kemp at home on a grounder by Kiké Hernández, but then Toussaint struggled with his fastball command and walked Yasiel Puig and Yasmani Grandal.
Toussaint stood on the mound with the bases loaded in a huge spot in an elimination game.
“It’s the biggest inning that I’ve pitched,” Toussaint said. “We came into the game with a must-win attitude. It was tough. I had the leadoff double, then Bellinger moved him over. Charlie made a big play getting the out at home.”
After the walks, the Braves used their fourth of six allocated mound visits, and pitching coach Chuck Hernandez had a brief conversation with Toussaint.
“He told me to slow down,” Toussaint said. “It wasn’t about strategy or anything. He reminded me to trust my stuff and slow the game down.”
Three pitches later, Toussaint induced a groundball from Chris Taylor for the third out.
“Touki got a huge out, huge out,” manager Brian Snitker said. “And he was probably on his last hitter. ”
Freeman hit the homer in the bottom half of the sixth to put the Braves back on top after they had blown a 5-0 lead, and Sobotka came on to pitch the seventh. Sobotka’s inning was the smoothest of the night for the Braves as he got Justin Turner, Max Muncy and Manny Machado in order.
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“I think Chad started in High-A this year, and here he is pitching in the biggest game of his life,” Freeman said when asked about Sobotka and Toussaint. “They’ve been incredible all year. We wouldn’t be here without (Sobotka), and we’re going to continue to need them (Monday).”
Freeman’s quote alludes to the situation the Braves are in. Seven pitchers participated in the season-salvaging win. Sean Newcomb pitched 2-1/3 innings and Kevin Gausman pitched two. After Newcomb and Gausman, the Braves turned to their rookies: Max Fried (one hit and one run allowed in 1/3 of an inning), Toussaint, Sobotka and A.J. Minter (on hit allowed in one inning).
“I’ve said that before, with our lineup, that’s what we are, who we have,” Snitker said. “I think it was really beneficial that they were already in a game. This wasn’t their first postseason game. And I think that probably was a really good thing that they felt that. They felt Dodger Stadium.”
Fried has pitched in every game in this series and gave up a game-tying homer to Muncy in the fifth. It would be tough to pitch him Monday. Toussaint has pitched twice in the series and confirmed that he could go if he gets the call.
“Absolutely, I’m ready,” Toussaint said.
Sobotka pitched in his second game and likely would be ready for another outing. Minter’s eighth inning was his first of the playoffs, and he hadn’t pitched since Sept. 30 against Philadelphia.
Snitker feels comfortable with his young pitchers getting these opportunities.
“This is who we are. That’s what we’ve gotta go with,” Snitker said. “We’re not going to reinvent and bring a seasoned veteran out of there. And they did a great job.”
A seasoned veteran, however, did close the game: Arodys Vizcaino. Joc Pederson singled to start the ninth, and then Turner walked. Vizcaino followed by striking out Muncy and Machado, but the swinging strikeout to Machado came on a pitch that crossed up catcher Kurt Suzuki.
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Suzuki realized he and Vizcaino weren’t on the same page and tried to go talk to him.
“The umpire stopped me,” Suzuki said. “We were out of mound visits. So I had Flow (Tyler Flowers) sending me hand signals, and I was trying to get on the same page with Vizcaino. I was putting down signs, but I didn’t know what he nodded to.”
By rule, the umpire is supposed to allow the extra visit on a cross-up situation, but Gary Cederstrom didn’t grant the wish and physically blocked Suzuki from going to talk to Vizcaino.
“I definitely got crossed up, and I’m thankful that Kurt recognized it,” Vizcaino said through an interpreter. “He motioned to me, and luckily it worked out.”
Vizcaino, who missed 63 games during two stints on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation, struck out Brian Dozier to seal the win for his first postseason save in his second appearance of the series.
“Well, I’ll check with him first. If he feels good, I’m going to go with him,” Snitker said of Vizcaino pitching Monday. “He was probably on his last hitter just because of the pitches, and he hadn’t been out there that long. And that next guy on deck, yeah, I was just kind of hoping he would get Dozier because he was approaching that pitch count. Like I say, we knew we were on — with him, it’s going to be like that.”
“But (Monday), if he comes out and plays catch and loosens up and feels OK and wants to pitch, then shoot, we’ll go with him.”
The Braves confirmed that Mike Foltynewicz will start the game Monday. Foltynewicz struggled in Game 1, but Snitker believes that Foltynewicz is the team’s best option.
“We’re going to go with Folty. He went two innings, 50 pitches. He’s good,” Snitker said. “That’s just a workout. So we’re kind of — quite honestly, I’d rather start him than have him coming in behind somebody. So he’s raring to go and itching to get the ball, and it’s still an elimination game. So we’re going to try and go with the best we’ve got.”
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The Braves carried 12 pitchers on the 25-man postseason roster, and Julio Teheran is the only one who hasn’t pitched in the series. Snitker was asked if Teheran was an option if Foltynewicz has an early exit.
“Yeah. If the wheels fall off, yeah. If something happens early, we still have Julio,” Snitker said. “But, I don’t know, we’ll have to kind of reassess that. We really didn’t have a chance to sit there. But if we win, we’ve got a day off. We’re OK.”
(Top photo of Touki Toussaint: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports)