(Photo credit: Dale Zanine)

ATLANTA -- Though they resorted to a pair of bullpen games to begin their National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Atlanta Braves head home for Game 3 on Tuesday with the series tied 1-1.

The Braves' bullpen outdueled two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell in Game 2 on Sunday as six pitchers combined to allow just six hits in a 3-2 road win.

The performance was anchored by opener Ray Kerr -- who has started two of Atlanta's five postseason games and thrown six shutout innings -- and nearly closed by 21-year-old fireballer Didier Fuentes, who entered in the sixth and retired the first 11 batters he faced to get Los Angeles down to its last out.

In short, the Braves' gamble paid off.

'It was a grind getting through that game, but the bottom line is our relievers came in and pitched great,' said Braves manager Walt Weiss. 'It's satisfying. We took a lot of shots at how we approached that game, but in the end, it all worked out.'

The decision to keep Chris Sale off the mound on Sunday means the ace left-hander gets to work on four days' rest in his bid to give the Braves a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series.

Sale, who had the third-best regular-season ERA in the majors at 2.16, allowed three runs on four hits over 6 1/3 innings in Game 1 of last week's wild-card series against the Phillies. Then, on one day's rest, he came out of the bullpen to get the final four outs of Game 3 on Thursday.

The southpaw faced the Dodgers twice this season and allowed two earned runs over 16 innings. He last pitched against Los Angeles on Aug. 27, striking out 11 and walking none in his first shutout since 2019.

The Dodgers also enter this critical Game 3 feeling good about their pitching situation as they send right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the mound.

It marks his first postseason appearance since he was named the World Series MVP last November, earning the decision in three of Los Angeles' four wins -- including getting the final eight outs of Game 7 on zero days' rest -- with a 1.02 ERA over 17 2/3 innings to help the Dodgers win a second straight World Series.

'I think what I experienced in the postseason last year, that will benefit me,' Yamamoto said. 'But I take this postseason freshly, and then I just take one game at a time.'

Yamamoto carried that over into this season, which he finished 14-9 with a 2.53 ERA over a team-high 185 innings. He's 1-1 with an 0.55 ERA in three career starts against Atlanta. The Braves' only run off him came on Drake Baldwin's leadoff homer Aug. 27 that enabled Sale to beat Yamamoto, 1-0.

Los Angeles, which scored the fourth-most runs in the regular season, didn't rely too much on home runs as it finished tied for seventh with 204.

Through two postseason games, however, that's where all the Dodgers' production has come from. All seven of their runs have come via five homers, including one in each game from Max Muncy and one on Sunday from former Brave Freddie Freeman.

Los Angeles is 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and has stranded 13 runners through two NLDS games.

'I think so. I am concerned. I think that's a very fair question,' Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said when asked whether he was considering lineup changes. 'I think that I have to be mindful of, it's two games, and then with the two games, what have I seen?'

The Braves' six homers, including a pair by Ozzie Albies, were the most among postseason teams entering Monday's action.

They've been effective to date despite minimal impact from former NL MVP Ronald Acuna Jr. He has three singles, three walks, three steals and four runs to show for his 21 postseason plate appearances over five games.

The slow start, though, hasn't shaken the team's confidence in him.

'We all have confidence in him to go out there. He can change a game with one swing of the bat, and that's really all it takes this time of the year,' Sale said. 'You don't have to hit .400 in the postseason to be a hero. Sometimes it's just one game or it's one swing or it's one play. I feel like that's brewing for him.'

--Curt Weiler, Field Level Media