NLCS Game 6 GameThread: Los Angeles Dodgers at Atlanta Braves

Los Angeles Dodgers’ skipper Dave Roberts was asked after his club’s season-extending 11-2 win over Atlanta on Thursday if they would have a mental edge over the Braves if they won Game 6 and got to a decisive Game 7?

“I think we’ve got a mental advantage right now, getting back on that plane and going back [to Atlanta] playing Game 6,” Roberts said. “History’s a powerful thing to the mind and so we feel good and I think that we’re going to use it to our advantage, but at the end of the day we still got to go out there and play a good baseball game. So, win tonight and pick up the pieces and once you get to Game 7, like everyone who’s been a part of a Game 7, anything can happen. But I think that us being in elimination games and all that stuff bodes better for us, but again, that’s all moot, you still got to go play and execute.”

Atlanta dropped Game 3, after jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, but the NL East champs came back with a 9-2 win in Game 4, so does Braves’ manager Brian Snitker have any concerns about how his club will respond to their loss in Game 5?

“No, no, I have no worries at all about anything like that. I think it will be good to get back home, and we got, it’s a tough row to hoe when we get home,” Snitker said.

“But these guys will come out on Friday and then Saturday and they will do like they did yesterday — they’re going to prepare, they’re going to give everything they got like they always do.”

There are, of course, worse situations to be in than up 3-2 with two chances to win the NLCS matchup.

“We got to win one of two games,” Snitker said. “If we can’t, then we don’t deserve to be the next, you know, but I like our chances, you know? And we got two starting pitchers that are well rested and so this is what this NLCS is about. I mean, there’s two really good ball clubs and you got to play, you got to execute and everything in order to get out of this. So I like where we’re at.”

The big news last night was that Max Scherzer, who was originally scheduled to start, is not going to be able to go, so Walker Buehler is starting for LA against the Braves’ Ian Anderson.

Will the Braves move on to a World Series matchup with the Astros or will the Dodgers force a seventh game? We find out at 8:08 PM ET when Game 6 states in Atlanta’s Truist Park.