ARLINGTON, Texas — The Los Angeles Dodgers were hoping to ride whatever momentum they built in Tuesday’s ninth inning into Game 3, and they wound up doing so in unprecedented fashion.
The Dodgers, losers of the first two games of this best-of-seven National League Championship Series, scored 11 runs in Wednesday’s first inning, setting a postseason record en route to a 15-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves.
The 11 runs in the first topped 10-run innings amassed by four other teams — the 2019 St. Louis Cardinals, 2002 Los Angeles Angels, 1968 Detroit Tigers and 1929 Philadelphia A’s — for the most in any inning in postseason history.
The Cardinals were the only other team to score their runs in the first, doing so in Game 5 of last year’s NL Division Series, which ended the Braves’ season. The Dodgers tied those Cardinals for another postseason record by sending 14 men to bat in the first inning Wednesday.
Corey Seager got the Dodgers on the board with an opposite-field line drive to score Mookie Betts, giving Seager three extra-base hits in nine at-bats this series. Will Smith followed with an RBI double to center. Joc Pederson and Edwin Rios, mildly surprising additions to the lineup, followed with back-to-back homers off Braves starter Kyle Wright, who faced nine batters.
Max Muncy, whose towering home run highlighted a four-run ninth inning that came up just short in Tuesday’s 8-7 loss, punctuated the scoring with a grand slam.
The Dodgers amassed 18 total bases in the 32-minute top of the first, the most in any inning in postseason history. Ten of their 11 runs were scored with two outs.
The Dodgers’ three home runs and five extra-base hits tied records for a postseason inning. Cody Bellinger and Seager added solo homers in the second and third innings, respectively, making it 13-0 and setting a Dodgers franchise record for home runs in a postseason game.
