For a guy rumored to be traded, Matt Kemp certainly drove up the asking price. Kemp homered twice and Yasiel Puig had four hits to help the Dodgers come from behind to beat the Braves 8-4.
Atlanta jumped out in front early against Josh Beckett, snapping a 23-inning scoreless streak he had against them dating back to 2006. B.J. Upton led off the game with an infield hit, stole third after a walk and scored on his brother's sacrifice fly, sliding in just ahead of Puig's throw from center.
Kemp's first homer bounced off the top of the outfield wall in right, giving LA a 2-1 lead in the second inning. Later in the inning, Tommy La Stella made a nice play on a ground ball with Juan Uribe at third that would have extended LA's lead. Fortunately, the lead remained at one and Freddie Freeman answered with a two-run homer of his own in the third inning reclaiming the lead for the Braves. An RBI double by Andrelton Simmons in the fifth inning signaled the end of the line for Beckett.
Aaron Harang held the Dodgers to 0-6 with RISP through four innings, but LA tied the score in the bottom of the fifth. Following Puig's one-out triple, RBI hits by Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford knotted the score at four apiece.
Puig already had three hits by the time he faced Anthony Varvaro in the seventh, but he was at it again, reaching on an infield single that had Chris Johnson trying to make a leaping throw heading into foul territory. He was at third with one out, and it took a weak groundout by Crawford to give LA the lead, but the big blow was Kemp's second two-run homer of the game two pitches later.
Down by three in the eighth, Atlanta had the tying run at the plate, but failed to capitalize against Kenley Jansen. Any further hopes of a comeback were shot down when Adrian Gonzalez doubled home an eighth run in the bottom of the inning.
Atlanta left 14 on base, eight in scoring position.
The series doesn't get any easier with Zack Greinke pitching tomorrow.
Win Expectancy