Coming into Game 5 of the NLCS one thing was very clear. If the Dodgers were to have any chance of keeping their title defense alive, they needed their offense to come alive. They certainly responded as the Dodgers league best offense lit up the Atlanta Braves in a 11-2 victory, forcing a Game 6 in Atlanta on Saturday.

The game started off in terrific fashion for Atlanta. After Ozzie Albies got on, Freddie Freeman homered to give the Braves an early 2-0 lead. That hit would end up being the only scoring of the night for Atlanta. After a solid first inning, Braves starter Max Fried began to struggle in the 2nd inning. The fastball kept hanging over the middle of the plate. First it was AJ Pollock hitting a solo home run to get the Dodgers on the board. Then after Albert Pujols reached, Chris Taylor launched a fastball into the Dodger bullpen. Boom, just like that, the Dodgers had the lead.

Chris Taylor was far from done. In the 5th inning after Pujols again reached, Taylor hit another one over the wall to make it 6-2 Dodgers. After another run in the 7th, the Dodgers unloaded on the Atlanta bullpen in the 8th. Chris Taylor hit his 3rd home run of the game and AJ Pollock hit his 2nd of the night leading to the eventual 11-2 scoreline.

Some news and notes

• Give credit to the Dodger bullpen tonight, in a must win game and after a rough first inning, the bullpen gave LA exactly what they needed shutting down the Atlanta offense the rest of the way.

• Game 6 is Saturday night in Atlanta. It’ll be a rematch of Game 2 with Max Scherzer now on full rest starting against Atlanta’s Ian Anderson.