Albies walks off the eighth: Braves take the Dodgers opener 4-3

The bats were supposed to be dead. Tyler Glasnow was supposed to be the problem. Instead the Braves jumped him for three in the first, coughed the lead back, and let Ozzie Albies finish it.

Atlanta 4, Los Angeles 3 on Tuesday at Truist. First-place vs. first-place. The Dodgers’ six-game streak is done. The East lead is 4 1/2. The bye conversation is three games behind L.A. instead of a rumor.

How the 4-3 actually happened

Four singles before Glasnow recorded his second out. Mauricio Dubón plated Drake Baldwin. Michael Harris II scored Matt Olson. Albies’ sacrifice fly — his 13th of the year, a franchise record, past Hank Aaron and Del Crandall in 1960 — made it 3-0.

Glasnow was making his first start since May 6 (lower back). He settled down: five innings, seven strikeouts, no walks, 89 pitches. The Dodgers chipped. Alek Thomas and Hunter Feduccia singles in the second. Alex Call tied it in the fourth. All of Bryce Elder’s damage was singles — eight of them, three hard-hit, three runs over six innings and 98 pitches. He closed the outing with two straight strikeouts and runners on.

Eighth inning: Olson doubled off Tanner Scott to lead it off. Dubón showed bunt, pulled it back, and moved Olson to third. Harris bounced back to the mound. Two outs, Albies, liner to center. 4-3.

Ninth: Shohei Ohtani triples off the left-field wall to lead off against Raisel Iglesias. Nobody scores. Iglesias’ 28th save in 31 chances. Dylan Dodd got the last out of the eighth and the win (4-1). Scott took the loss (1-4).

Walt Weiss: he never doubts the room. Elder, more useful: everybody knew the last week and a half was ugly, and they had to play good baseball. They did.

What the standings did overnight

Braves 77-55. Phillies 4 1/2 back. Dodgers 80-52, three games up on Atlanta for the NL’s No. 2 seed — the one that skips the Wild Card round. Atlanta is 3-1 against L.A. this year.

Context from Mark Bowman: this club had averaged 2.9 runs while losing 10 of 16 since an eight-game win streak ended Aug. 6. Williamsport stopped the bleeding. Tuesday was the first time the lineup looked like it remembered Glasnow is not invincible and Truist is still home.

A non-reviewable foul call on Mike Yastrzemski with Harris at third probably cost a fourth first-inning run. Weiss argued. It was not reviewable. It did not matter.

Two more against this staff

Wednesday: Roki Sasaki (5-5, 4.42) vs. AJ Smith-Shawver (0-0, 6.23), the kid Atlanta recalled into a six-man, third big-league start of the year, first vs. Los Angeles. Thursday is Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Chris Sale.

After this series: Rockies, Giants, Nationals — six games against clubs not in the mix. Then it gets mean again. Seven with the Phillies, three with the Rays, three with the Cubs.

Tuesday proved they can still beat the club that owns October. It did not prove the slump is over. One eighth-inning single is not a lineup.

Bird Gang bottom line

Albies bought the opener. Elder kept it close enough to steal. Iglesias walked the tightrope after Ohtani. Win the series and the 4 1/2-game cushion stops feeling rented. Lose the next two to Sasaki and Yamamoto and we are back to 2.9 runs a night and holding our breath until Philadelphia.

Play Pick'em Baby