LOS ANGELES—The Dodgers’ dormant offense re-emerged in a barrage of home runs, and Mookie Betts ended his sweet swing with a blown kiss to his mother in the stands.
Julio Urías earned his major league-leading 15th victory and Los Angeles beat Atlanta 5-3 Monday night, stopping the Braves’ franchise-record 13-game road winning streak.
Betts homered on his bobblehead night after catching a ceremonial first pitch from his mom. He blew a kiss to her as he crossed the plate.
Max Muncy, Will Smith and Corey Seager also went deep to help the Dodgers close within 1 1/2 games of first-place San Francisco in the NL West.
Freddie Freeman, Jorge Soler and Adam Duvall homered for NL East-leading Atlanta.
The Braves brought the potential go-ahead run to the plate in the ninth inning. With one out, Travis d’Arnaud singled and Dansby Swanson followed with a broken-bat single off Blake Treinen.
But Duvall took a called third strike and pinch-hitter Stephen Vogt flied out to center to end it, earning Treinen his fifth save.
Urías (15-3) retired his first 12 batters before the Braves finally broke through in the fifth. Third baseman Justin Turner made a diving, backhand stop on Austin Riley’s shot, but Muncy couldn’t handle the short-hop throw, giving Atlanta its first hit. Duvall later singled with two outs.
“All three pitches were working early on,” Urías said through a translator. “I felt good all the way through.”
In the sixth, Urías gave up back-to-back, two-out solo homers to Soler and Freeman. Duvall homered off Phil Bickford in the seventh, leaving the Braves trailing 5-3.
Urías allowed two runs and four hits in six innings. The left-hander struck out seven without a walk. He’s unbeaten in his last 11 starts, and helped himself with a single leading off the second.
After managing just three hits in a 5-0 loss to Colorado on Sunday, the Dodgers pounded out eight hits and scored five runs by the third inning against the Braves.
Muncy hit his 29th homer off Drew Smyly (9-4) in the first. Smith went deep for his 22nd homer with two outs in the second, his fourth homer in five games.
“They just came out really aggressive,” Smyly said. “It just seemed like every time I threw a fastball, they were ready for it. I guess their plan was to swing early because that’s what they were doing.”
The Dodgers extended their lead to 5-0 in the third. Betts led off with his 18th homer and Seager added a two-run drive hitting in the sixth spot for the first time this season.
Smyly gave up five runs, including a season-high four homers, and nine hits, struck out five and walked none in 4 2/3 innings. The left-hander lost for the first time since May 26 at Boston, snapping a seven-game winning streak.
“It wasn’t a great outing for him,“ Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He wasn’t throwing that bad, it’s just the location wasn’t good. He left some balls down the middle. We hung in there and gave ourselves a chance to win, but it’s hard to come back when you get down that far.”
The three-game set with Atlanta is a rematch of last year’s NL Championship Series, won in seven games by the Dodgers. They went on to beat Tampa Bay in six games for their first World Series title in 32 years.
Betts’ mother, Diana Collins, was on hand for her son’s bobblehead night. After going through a variety of comical poses, she threw a strike from in front of the mound to her son behind the plate. Betts’ brother, Mark, gave the traditional pregame shout of “It’s time for Dodger baseball!” Collins later approved of her son’s homer, pumping both arms from her seat behind the plate.
