The heroic kind of ace usage gets applauded on the day and invoiced later. Chris Sale closed out Philadelphia in a four-out relief job on one day of rest, and on Tuesday the bill arrived in the form of Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

That is the matchup everyone circled: Sale against the Dodgers' right-hander, Game 3 of a series that stood level at 1-1. Yamamoto dominated it. Kiké Hernández hit a two-run homer, Freddie Freeman was in the middle of the Dodgers' night, and Los Angeles won 3-1 to take a 2-1 series lead. One run is what Atlanta had to show for its ace's start. Our scoreboard has it final, Dodgers 3, Braves 1.

Sale is not the reason Atlanta lost. The point is that Atlanta spent its best pitcher's October on a series it needed to win, won it, and arrived at the next one with the lineup that had to beat Yamamoto and did not. Sale's four outs against Philadelphia read as a gift to the bracket. Against the Dodgers they read as a loan.

The Dodgers bet big on a Japanese right-hander and a Japanese designated hitter. Yamamoto is the half of the bet that showed up on the night it counted, against the other team's best.

For anyone following from Hong Kong, this was a Wednesday-morning result: the game finished while the city slept, and the 3-1 was waiting on the phone like a bill slipped under the door.

Game 4 is Thursday in Atlanta. The Dodgers need one win to reach the NLCS, and Atlanta needs a pitcher who has already thrown his October.