Austin Riley’s 9th-inning home run ignites Atlanta in Game 1 win over Dodgers

Austin Riley led off the ninth inning with a tiebreaking homer that sparked a four-run rally Monday night for a 5-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first major league game with fans allowed to attend during this virus-altered season.

“It was awesome — fun to play in front of fans again,” Freddie Freeman said. “11,000 people, really felt like 50,000 to us because we haven’t had any all year.”

Riley greeted reliever Blake Treinen with a 448-foot drive to left-centre, drawing quite a reaction that only got louder.

And Atlanta wasn’t done after Riley’s shot gave them a 2-1 lead, making him the youngest player with a go-ahead homer in the ninth inning of a post-season game or later since Atlanta star Chipper Jones in 1995.

“I didn’t feel my legs when I was running around the bases, so it was a good feeling,” said the 23-year-old Riley, left off the post-season roster last year.

‘Austin was the guy tonight’

“That’s a pretty good 9-hole hitter we’ve got,” Freeman said. “We believe in every single guy, and Austin was the guy tonight.”

Ronald Acuna Jr. followed with a double and scored on a single by Marcell Ozuna that chased Treinen before Ozzie Albies’ two-run homer off Jake McGee.

“It’s what these guys do. I’ve said we’re like an NBA game, you don’t want to leave because a lot of things don’t happen until the last third,” Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said. “These guys never quit, they keep grinding at-bats and doing their thing, and it’s a pretty neat trait for a ballclub to have.”

In a matchup of teams that ranked 1-2 in the majors during the regular season for runs and homers, and in the first NLCS opener since 2007 with both teams undefeated in the post-season, Atlanta had another impressive pitching performance even without a shutout.

Will Smith, the third Atlanta pitcher, worked a perfect eighth for the win before Mark Melancon closed it out. Atlanta, which threw four shutouts in its first five playoff games against Cincinnati and Miami, has allowed a total of six runs while going 6-0 this post-season.

Los Angeles had won nine straight going back to the regular season.

Before the ninth, the only runs came on a pair of solo homers. Freeman went deep in the first and Kike Hernandez led off the Dodgers fifth with a home run.

Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Tuesday, with Atlanta rookie Ian Anderson set to face three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw.

Fans in stands for 1st time since March

It was the first time since March 12, the day spring training was suspended because of the coronavirus, there were fans in the stands for an MLB game.

All 10,700 tickets available to the general public were sold, in addition to another 800 or so utilized by MLB and the teams. That was about 28% of the 40,518 capacity at the new Texas Rangers ballpark, where the retractable roof was open for the first NLCS game played at a neutral site.

Atlanta had the bases loaded in the eighth after reliever Dustin May hit pinch-hitter Pablo Sandoval with a pitch. Victor Gonzalez came on and struck out pinch-hitter Charlie Culberson, punctuating the inning-ending out with an emphatic fist pump on the way back to the dugout.

Dodgers starter Walker Buehler pitched past the fourth inning for the first time in his three playoff series openers this fall, while apparently now dealing with blisters on both his middle and index fingers and with his seemingly tight pants trending on Twitter.

Buehler struck out seven in five-plus innings, joining Hall of Famer Randy Johnson as the only pitchers with at least seven strikeouts in nine consecutive post-season starts — coming in the first nine for Buehler. He also walked five, a career high.

“I feel like I’ve been decently successful,” Buehler said. “I don’t want to walk guys. We’re trying to keep runs off the board. I can go deeper. I can be better.”

Max Fried had nine strikeouts and two walks while allowing one run over six innings in his start, two years after pitching in relief for Atlanta in every game of the 2018 NL Division Series when they lost to Los Angeles in four games.

The left-hander was born in Santa Monica, went to high school in Los Angeles and was the seventh overall pick by the San Diego Padres in 2012, two years before he got traded to Atlanta.

MVP chants for Freeman

There were chants of “M-V-P! M-V-P!” when Freeman homered in the top of the first — a 429-foot solo shot to right that landed among fans well beyond the roped-off first five rows closest to the field. It was his first homer this post-season.

While  Atlanta had the five walks against Buehler, they didn’t get another hit until consecutive singles opening the sixth that chased him. Busdar Graterol got out of the jam with a popout, strikeout and comebacker.

Hernandez got his first start this post-season with Atlanta starting a lefty, and tied the game 1-1 when he pulled a homer to left leading off the fifth. Hernandez, 0 for 6 in the playoffs until then, was the first player to homer on a curveball by Fried since Bryce Harper on Sept. 10, 2019.

Fried induced 14 swings and misses, his second-most in any game this season — including his 11 starts in the regular season when he was 7-0 with a 2.25 ERA.