Last night’s match looked all too familiar as Hiker Buehler gave up two runs in the third and the Dodgers couldn’t fix the situation Charlie Morton through the first four innings. They broke through with a run in the fifth and a run in the seventh, and Buehler miraculously got through six innings on 97 pitches after needing 70 pitches to get through the first three. Michael Kopech got in and out of trouble in the eighth inning to keep it tied 2-2, and the Dodgers exploded for seven runs with two outs in the ninth inning for a comfortable 9-2 victory. It was a much-needed performance in many ways. They needed a pitcher who actually looked like a playoff-caliber starter, they needed the offense to break out, and they needed a win, as the Padres and Diamondbacks won again. Today, they wrap up their four-game weekend series in Atlanta hoping for a split and to retain control of the division.

	4:20 pm		Atlanta
DH	Ohtani (L)	CF	Harris II (left)
RF	bets	RF	Sun
LF	T. Hernández	DH	Ozuna
1B	Freeman (left)	1B	Olson (left)
C	Blacksmith	LF	laurean
CF	Edman (S)	C	Murphy
SS	Red	SS	Arcia
3B	Muncy (left)	3B	Ursela
2B	K. Hernández	2B	Merrifield
P	Yamamoto (right)	P	Baked (L)

Yoshinobu Yamamoto is making his second start back from the IL and 16th of the season for the Dodgers. Yamamoto’s return last week couldn’t have gone much better. He allowed one unearned run and three hits in four innings, and eighth of his 12 outings have come by strikeout. He struck out the top of the Cubs’ order in both the first and third innings, collecting 11 whiffs on just 59 pitches. Since his pre-injury days, Yamamoto hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last 17 innings and has struck out 23 with three walks in his last four outings.

Harvard-Westlake alumnus Max Baked makes his 27th start tonight for Atlanta. Fried’s stellar 2023 season was interrupted by a forearm issue that cost him nearly three months, but he’s made some money back with a solid 2024 campaign thus far. He missed a month of this season with another minor forearm issue, but was an All-Star and has a 3.46 ERA/3.51 FIP in 153 2/3 innings this season. He’s struggled a bit since returning from the IL in early August, posting a 4.34 ERA in eight starts. He tied a single-season record last time out by allowing 11 hits in a four-run, six-inning start at Washington. He pitched pretty well when he faced the Dodgers in May, starting the game with a walk Mookie Betts and hit a home run Shohei Ohtanibut kept the Dodgers in check until an Ohtani single and Teoscar Hernandez homer in the sixth inning put the Dodgers up 4-0. It was the first of only three starts so far this season in which Fried has allowed more than one homer. He has generally been very good against L.A., allowing a .610 OPS and 3.02 ERA in nine career starts against the Dodgers.

Fried has the second-highest groundball percentage among qualified pitchers at 58.8 percent, despite not being much of a sinkerballer. He’s thrown a sinker 15.8 percent of the time this season, his highest usage of one of his career, but it’s still his third-most used pitch. He’s thrown a four-seamer 32.9 percent, curve 21.2 percent, changeup 13.7 percent and a slider/cutter/sweeper less than eight percent of the time each. He shares the fifth-lowest average exit velocity (86.3 MPH) among pitchers with 350+ batted balls against. Fried has even thrown reverse splits this season, with righties posting a .562 OPS and lefties posting an .870 OPS to his.

Enrique Hernández starts at second over Gavin Lux against a left-hander. Max Muncy starts at third and Teoscar Hernandez bats for Freddie Freeman again after he said that on Friday Chris Sales.

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As expected, Austin-Barnes was placed on the IL and Hunter Feduccia is back online.

Austin Barnes is officially headed back to the IL after suffering a new broken toe. Dave Roberts still left the door open that Barnes could return for the postseason.

— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) September 16, 2024

Barnes has a fracture in his big toe that appears to be in a different location than the one he broke last month. They hope he can be back in October to hit that one big single and force a dominant starter out of the game.

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In other injury news, Joe Kelly is in Atlanta and Anthony Banda could be back before the end of the season.

Some Dodgers updates from Dave Roberts:

— Austin Barnes is headed to the IL with a broken toe. Hunter Feduccia is currently traveling and is expected to be here by game time

— Joe Kelly rejoined the team today and will likely be activated this week in Miami

—Anthony Banda…

— Jack Harris (@ByJackHarris) September 16, 2024

Kelly has rejoined the team and will likely be activated while they are in Miami. Banda is playing catch in Arizona and they hope to have him back soon.

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The first pitch is scheduled for 4:20 p.m. PT and will be broadcast on SportsNet LA.