I’ve got some good news and some bad news.

First, the good news.

When the Dodgers faced Atlanta Braves left-hander Sean Newcomb at Dodger Stadium on June 10, 2018, they beat him rather handily by a final score of 7-2. In fact, Newcomb allowed five runs on seven hits (including home runs by exiled former Dodgers second baseman Logan Forsythe [no, really] and Dodgers eventual 2018 home run champion Max Muncy), while walking two and striking out six in his 5.1 innings of work.

Left-handed-hitting Max Muncy is 1-for-4 in his career (all this season) against left-hander Sean Newcomb. That one hit was this solo home run on June 10 in the Dodgers 7-2 pounding of the Braves at Dodger Stadium.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

That’s the good news.

The bad news, and we’re talking serious bad news here, is that when the Dodgers faced Newcomb for the second time during the regular season on July 29, 2018 at Sun Trust Park in Atlanta, he came within one out of throwing a no-hitter against them.

In that near-historic game, the 26-year-old Brockton, Massachusetts native and 2014 first-round draft pick (by the Angels out of the University of Hartford) had made 133 pitches before giving up a two-out, top-of-the-ninth-inning single to Dodgers shortstop Chris Taylor (keep that in mind) on his 134th pitch, to lose his bid for baseball immortality and leading to his immediate removal from the game which, interestingly enough, ended in a 10-5 Dodgers loss. (Keep that in mind as well).

On Saturday afternoon, Braves manager Brian Snitker announced that Newcomb will start Game-3 of the National League Division Series for his team on Sunday evening at (wait for it…) Sun Trust Park, with the Braves down 0-2 in the best-of-five series.

As for that Chris Taylor thing, in the first two games of the 2018 NLDS at Dodger Stadium, the strike-out-prone / right-handed-hitting Taylor started neither and is 0-for-1 in his only pinch-hit at-bat thus far. That being said, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told the media on Saturday afternoon that he will shuffle his starting line-up somewhat for Game-3, with Newcomb on the mound for Atlanta.

“There might be a little bit of a tweak or two,” Roberts said, after learning that Newcomb would be the Braves Game-3 starter. “He pitched a couple days ago (in relief in Game-1) and they’ve got [Julio] Teheran and [Kevin] Gausman in the pen. You never want to expose yourself to a complete line change. We’re not completely set on how we’re going to go about it.”

And then there are those five runs that the Dodgers scored off the Braves in that July 29 contest – one charged to Newcomb and the other four to the Braves bullpen – all with two outs in the top of the ninth inning in Newcomb’s near no-hitter. And even though the Dodgers would lose that game by a score of 10-5, the fact that they were able to score all five of their runs with two outs in their final at-bats is indisputable proof that Roberts’ never-say-die team is not – and will not be – intimidated by Snitker’s bullpen, which went a combined 30-26 with a 4.15 ERA during the 2018 regular season.

Play Ball!