Dodgers put up hours of cringe in NLCS Game 4 loss to Braves

Momentum? Couldn’t find it.

Inspiration? Never had it.

Season? About to lose it.

One night after one of the most emotional comeback playoff victories in franchise history, the Dodgers inexplicably strolled into Chavez Ravine on Wednesday night without focus or fight.

They followed one game’s miracle with nine innings of nothingness.

They surrendered one night’s intimidation with three hours of cringe.

They shrugged, sighed and were sucker punched.

The Atlanta Braves beat the Dodgers with six relief pitchers, beat them while facing 20-game winner Julio Urías, beat them silly and sideways and maybe even beat them into next season.

The 9-2 victory by the Braves in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium gave them a three-games-to-one lead that is the exact same edge they held in this exact same series last year before the Dodgers came storming back to win it.

“No one needs to tell us we can do it, because we’ve done it,” said AJ Pollock. “We’ve been here.”

But they’ve never been here like this.

Last year they had to win three straight games in the same Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. This year they must win Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, then win the last two games in Atlanta.

They’ve also never been here with a team that is slowly collapsing like this one.

It turns out, Tuesday’s comeback win against a relentless and resilient Braves team may have been fool’s gold. After inspiring hopes by winning a thrilling wild-card game against the St. Louis Cardinals and an historic series against the San Francisco Giants, the Dodgers may simply be out of gas, out of luck and out of time.

Their Dodgers’ pitching is a self-made mess, their hitting has disappeared, they just lost Justin Turner for the rest of their season with a hamstring injury, they miss earlier injured Max Muncy, they really miss the depth of departed Kiké Hernández and Joc Pederson, and they’re wiped out from the monumental Giants series that stretched to the final inning.

“You can be tired and execute,” said Pollock.

Well, they’re clearly tired, but they’re clearly not executing, and none of it was working after a night when everything worked.

Remember, Tuesday, eighth inning, Cody Bellinger three-run homer, Mookie Betts’ RBI single, 6-5 comeback victory, series entirely flipped?

Turns out, even though they showed up barely 24 hours later in front of a Dodger Stadium crowd still roaring from the night before, nothing was flipped from the previous weekend.

The Braves were once again, better. The Dodgers were once again, baffling.

“I really don’t have an answer,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “They just outplayed us in all phases.”

The Dodgers didn’t get a hit against reliever Jesse Chavez and demoted starter Drew Smyly…