ATLANTA -- A collection of red foam tomahawks sat harmlessly stretched across the top of the Braves' dugout, silent and waiting for a reason to come to life.
It didn't happen, Clayton Kershaw saw to that.
The Dodgers' ace dazzled, striking out 12 and allowing three hits in seven innings to win Game 1 of their National League Division Series 6-1 Thursday night.
"He's the best pitcher in baseball," said Los Angeles first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, "and he showed it tonight."
While Kershaw fought to get into his groove early -- Justin Upton worked him for a 10-pitch at-bat before grounding out in the first and he walked Andrelton Simmons in the third, followed by a wild pitch -- as the Braves pushed him to 77 pitches through four.
"It seemed like we battled, we got his pitch count up, we just didn't score any runs," said catcher Brian McCann, who was 0 for 2. "I thought we had a good game plan."
They battled, but they couldn't capitalize.
McCann's potential three-run home run in the fourth inning fell short and after Chris Johnson's RBI single later in that frame, the Braves wouldn't get another hit on Kershaw, who struck out nine of the last 11 batters he faced.
"He is what he is," said Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez. "He turned it up the next three or four innings and we didn't get good swings at him."
In all, the Braves struck out 15 times in the loss, a microcosm of a season for an all-or-nothing offense that, on this night, bordered on nothing.
It's also a loss that puts even more emphasis on Friday's Game 2, as the postseason's worst road team can't afford to go to Los Angeles needing to win twice just to keep its season alive.
"We need wins," McCann said. "We're very confident going into tomorrow. We're down 0-1 and we need to bounce back tomorrow and get a W."
Here are three observations from NLDS opener.
A year ago, Kris Medlen took the mound at Turner Field in the postseason riding a wave of dominance that saw him named NL Pitcher of the Month in September. But he would allow five runs -- two earned -- as the Cardinals won the Wild-Card Game 6-3.
Twelve months and another stunning September -- in which he was again named the NL's top pitcher -- later, Medlen was starting another playoff game at home.
Medlen believed it was different, saying afterward "I felt like I made some good pitches, they still found places to put them." But the results would be all too familiar.
He got off to an impressive start, striking out Carl Crawford, Mark Ellis and Hanley Ramirez. But the next 20 batters he faced tagged him for nine hits, including Adrian Gonzalez's two-run home run and two doubles to A.J. Ellis, and five runs -- all earned. In all over that stretch he would strike out one, walk one and hit Yasiel Puig two batters into the fifth inning before being pulled in favor of Luis Ayala.
"Any time you have a guy like Kershaw, like I said, he's obviously the game's best and you can't mess up like that," Medlen said.
Medlen's postseason ERA is now 6.10 and his WHIP at 1.25, stunningly massive figures considering his career numbers in September (1.54 ERA and 0.87 WHIP) are his lowest of any month.
Making his outing Thursday even more confounding is the past success Medlen has had against the Dodgers. Those five earned runs were two more than he had allowed in 29 1/3 career innings against them, which included zero earned runs in 13 2/3 innings vs. Los Angeles coming into Game 1.
He may have to get back on track in a hurray, because unless the Braves can win the next three games, Medlen could be facing the Dodgers again in a decisive Game 5 back at Turner Field.
If dealing with Kershaw, the NL Cy Young favorite, weren't bad enough, now the Braves will have to face Zack Greinke in Game 2.
Since the All-Star break, Greinke (15-4) has gone 7-2 with a 1.85 ERA and 80-to-19 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 92 2/3 innings. He also has a win over the Braves this season, yielding four hits and zero runs over seven innings with seven strikeouts on June 6 in L.A.
Avoiding a 2-0 hole before the series shifts to California is going to rest largely on Mike Minor (13-9), who unlike Greinke, has been erratic over the season's final months.
He has a 3.63 ERA and 5-7 record since the break, which includes five games in which he's given up four earned runs and four of those have come in his last nine outings.
Further complicating matters, Minor been stronger on the road (2.76 ERA) compared to at home (3.62) but he did got two cracks at the Dodgers already, going 1-0 with a 2.25 ERA and 15 strikeouts in 12 innings.
The power of Evan Gattis and the struggles of B.J. Upton has forced Gonzalez to reconfigure his outfield to better fit the inclusion of Gattis' bat in the lineup.
Playing together 13 times and in five of the last nine regular-season games Gold Glove winner Jason Heyward (moving from right to Upton's spot in center), Justin Upton (going from left to right) and Gattis (left) had combined for just one error, which came on Sept. 28 against the Phillies.
It was a look that, despite Gattis overall struggles in left -- he had minus-10 defensive runs saved and only four players with at least 300 innings were worse -- hadn't made many costly mistakes.
But there would be two in four innings Thursday.
With Juan Uribe at second in the second inning, A.J. Ellis sent a sharply hit line drive down the right-field line and Gattis dove, the ball glancing over his glove as Ellis delivered a run-scoring double.
*It was just part of a rough inning for Gattis, who after a bloop single that fell between three defenders, was doubled up at first base by Puig after he ran down Chris Johnson's fly to shallow right.
"I got deked," Gattis said. "One of the outfielders threw his glove up like they're going to catch it but they're not. I didn't think he was and I took a hard step toward second and it was just a mistake."
In the fourth, with the Dodgers already up 4-0, Ellis sent a deep fly ball to the right-field corner that Upton misplayed, giving him his second double of the game. Three batters later, Ellis would add to L.A.'s lead, scoring off Mark Ellis' single.
