Dex Ponce: It's Thursday

I said ask me Thursday.

It's Thursday.

Ha-Seong Kim walked to the plate last night hitting .066 in August. That's not a slump. That's a ghost. The Dodgers looked at Austin Riley on first base, looked at Kim in the box, and said yeah, we'll take our chances with the ghost.

The ghost won.

Kim singled to left. Lane Thomas scored from second. And for the second straight night, the hottest team in the National League walked off a field in Atlanta they came to own.

Here's what I keep circling. The Dodgers arrived at Truist on a six-game win streak. Best record in the NL. The team everyone picks in October. They're leaving 0-2 against a Braves lineup that was 6-11 in its last 17 before Monday.

But I'm not going to sit here and tell you the Braves just announced themselves. Los Angeles is still two games better in the standings. A sweep tonight doesn't erase that math. It just changes the story we tell about it.

What Sale vs. Yamamoto decides tonight isn't the pennant. It's the narrative. Who owns the October conversation. And right now — after an Albies go-ahead single in the eighth Tuesday and a Kim walk-off Wednesday — the conversation belongs to Atlanta.

I called this series a verdict before Game 1. The verdict came back 2-0 with the option of making it unanimous tonight.

Bookmark this. Come back in October. I'll still be right.