Extra help helps Dodgers move on past Braves

ATLANTA – The Los Angeles Dodgers went through all the expected motions after winning a playoff series.

They broke out T-shirts and caps. They posed for pictures in the middle of SunTrust Park. They doused each other with beer in the clubhouse.

Then, just like that, their focus turned to bigger goals. For a power-packed team that hasn't won a World Series since 1988, nothing less will do.

"We all know that there's a lot more work to be done," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after his team finished off the Atlanta Braves with a 6-2 victory Monday in the NL Division Series. "We have eight more wins to go."

Manny Machado hit a three-run homer and fellow midseason acquisition David Freese came through again in October to send the Dodgers into the NL Championship Series for the third year in a row. Los Angeles will face the Milwaukee Brewers after taking out the Baby Braves 3-1 in the best-of-five series.

"We prepared ourselves to get here," Machado said, "and we're not going to stop till we get what we want."

Machado, the star infielder acquired at the All-Star break, had only three hits in the series, but two were homers to go with six RBI. He got the Dodgers going in Game 4 with a run-scoring double in the first inning, and effectively wrapped up the series with his seventh-inning homer.

Coming off a tense victory in Game 3, Atlanta grabbed the lead on pinch hitter Kurt Suzuki's two-run single in the fourth. But Freese, the 2011 World Series MVP with St. Louis, countered with a pinch-hit single of his own in the sixth off Brad Brach, driving home Cody Bellinger and Yasiel Puig for a 3-2 lead.

"You just have got to be ready," said Freese, who was traded to the Dodgers Aug. 31. "Whether you're in high school, college, whatever, just be ready. You don't have to be the best player in the world, you don't have to make the most money, but you're going to have a shot to do something cool. I learned that early in my career."

Atlanta, which won the NL East for the first time since 2013, has lost nine playoff appearances in a row, its last victory coming in 2001.