LOS ANGELES _ No team in the past century had a better 35-game stretch than the blistering-hot Los Angeles Dodgers brought into their series opener against the Atlanta Braves on Thursday night, but the Braves probably figured that meant the Dodgers were due for a defeat.
The Braves took a 2-0 lead in the first inning and led 6-1 after four innings on the way to a 6-3 victory at Dodger Stadium, snapping the Dodgers' 11-game winning streak and handing them just their fifth loss in 36 games and second loss in 20 home games.
Kurt Suzuki had a two-run homer and Freddie Freeman had a pair of RBI singles for the Braves, while Mike Foltynewicz (8-5) allowed six hits and three runs in 6 1/3 innings to win his fifth consecutive decision. The Braves have won eight consecutive games started by Foltynewicz.
The win wasn't secured until second baseman Johan Camargo made a spectacular, twisting catch in shallow center field with his back to the plate with two runners in scoring position to end the game.
It had been more than two years since the Braves won a game at Dodger Stadium. Thursday's win came in the opener of a four-game series and an 11-game, three-city road trip, and came against a Dodgers team that still has the best record in the majors at 66-30 and the best home record at 39-12.
The only negative for the Braves: Second baseman Brandon Phillips left the game after the top of the fifth inning due to right hamstring soreness and was listed as day-to-day. He tripled to start the third inning and could be seen trying to shake the soreness out of his leg after he stood up at third base. He scored on a Freeman single in the inning to push the Braves' lead to 3-1.
After he left the game, Camargo moved from shortstop to second base and Dansby Swanson entered the game at shortstop.
Before Thursday, the Dodgers' .780 home winning percentage had them on pace for the best single-season mark by a National League team since Cincinnati's "Big Red Machine" went 64-17 (.790) at home in 1975.
The Braves entered the series with a 1-8 record at Dodger Stadium since the beginning of the 2014 season, with their only win in that span coming in a May 2015 game when Alex Wood started and got the decision for Atlanta. The Braves will face Wood on Friday and try to be the first team this season to beat the Dodgers left-hander, who is 11-0 with a 1.56 ERA and pitched in his first All-Star game last week.
It's not just advisable but almost a requirement to take an early lead if a team is to have a chance to beat these Dodgers, and the Braves did that by scoring twice in the first inning against Brandon McCarthy, the only right-hander scheduled to pitch for the Dodgers in the four-game series. The Dodgers have a major league-record streak of 44 consecutive wins in games in which they led at any point, one more than the previous record by the 1906 Cubs.
Ender Inciarte singled on the second pitch of the game, advanced on a Phillips ground-out and scored on Freeman's single. Matt Kemp followed with another single before Matt Adams bounced a double over the left-field fence to push the lead to 2-0.
The Braves still had two runners in scoring position with one out, but left them there after pop-ups by Nick Markakis and Kurt Suzuki. That duo would make amends in the fourth inning when Markakis drew a leadoff walk and Suzuki hit a two-run homer into the Dodgers bullpen beyond left field.
The Braves tacked on another run in the fourth when Camargo singled, advanced on a Foltynewicz bunt and scored on Inciarte's single for a 6-1 lead.
Foltynewicz allowed only four hits and one run until the sixth inning, when Chris Taylor hit a one-out double and Yasmani Grandal followed with his 13th home run of the season, cutting the Braves' lead to 6-3. Before Thursday, the Dodgers led the majors with 72 homers during their 35-game tear since June 7 and led the National League in both ERA (2.86) and scoring average (5.8) during that torrid stretch.
Foltynewicz is 5-0 with a 3.33 ERA in his past nine starts, which included eight earned runs allowed in 3 1/3 innings of a June 12 game at Washington that the Braves won, 11-10. In his other eight starts in that period he has a 2.17 ERA, allowing three runs or fewer in all eight starts and one or no runs in four.
The Braves improved to 13-5 against NL West opponents _ more wins than they had against that division in any of the previous three seasons _ and have six more games against them on this trip, including three in L.A., then three at Arizona.
A year ago the Braves were 11-22 against NL West teams, and during 2014-2016 they were a combined 35-64 against the division.
