Major League Baseball

MLB playoffs top plays: Los Angeles Dodgers rout Atlanta Braves in Game 5

Updated Oct. 22, 2021 1:17 a.m. ET

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The Atlanta Braves were one win away from the World Series. Chris Taylor and the Los Angeles Dodgers had other ideas.

Taylor put on a show in Game 5 of the NLCS on Thursday night, smashing three home runs and driving in six runs as the Dodgers avoided elimination with an 11-2 victory. L.A. still trails 3-2 in the series, which continues with Game 6 at Atlanta on Saturday. 

The Dodgers erased a 3-1 deficit against Atlanta in last year's NLCS, but if they're going to do it again they'll have to do it without the services of injured players Clayton Kershaw, Max Muncy and Justin Turner.

In Game 5, Taylor was enough, becoming the first player to hit three home runs in a potential playoff elimination game.

The Dodgers have now won seven straight games when facing elimination, the third-longest such streak in MLB history. The San Francisco Giants set the record by winning 10 straight elimination games from 2012-2016, and the Kansas City Royals won eight straight from 1985-2014.

Here are the highlights from Thursday:

Los Angeles Dodgers 11, Atlanta Braves 2

Atlanta wasted no time jumping on Dodgers' emergency starter Joe Kelly in the first inning. After Ozzie Albies beat the shift with a single to left field, Freddie Freeman stepped up and gave the Braves a 2-0 lead by doing this …

Kelly left the game with biceps tightness a short time later, recording only two outs.

The Dodgers struck back in the bottom of the second when A.J. Pollock hit a solo home run off Max Fried. Albert Pujols followed with a single, and Taylor's first homer of the game, a two-run blast, gave the Dodgers a 3-2 lead.

The Dodgers pushed their advantage to 4-2 in the third inning. Again, Taylor was the hero, driving in Pollock with an RBI-single.

Through the first three innings, Pujols was 2-for-2, the 28th multi-hit playoff game of his career.

By the fifth inning, Taylor already had a couple of big hits and three RBIs off Fried, so the Braves weren't about to let their lefty face him again. But Fried's replacement, right-hander Chris Martin, couldn't stop Taylor either, surrendering a two-run homer as the Dodgers extended their lead to 6-2.

In the seventh inning, Taylor struck with his third homer of the night, this time off Dylan Lee.

The Dodgers piled on in the eighth inning, scoring four more runs to make it 11-2, the stretch capped by Pollock's second homer of the night.

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Los Angeles Dodgers

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MLB - Atlanta Braves vs. Los Angeles Dodgers - 10/22/2021

Freddie Freeman

Joe Kelly

AJ Pollock

Mark Friedman

Chris Taylor