ARLINGTON, Texas — Corey Seager homered again, Walker Buehler pitched six scoreless innings and the Los Angeles Dodgers pushed the NL Championship Series to Game 7 with a 3-1 win over the Atlanta Braves on Saturday.

The Dodgers avoided elimination for the second time in less than 24 hours, and now have a winner-take-all game to try to get to their third World Series in four years. They haven’t won a championship since 1988.

“I’m still sort of recovering from this one, but already thinking about Game 7,” Manager Dave Roberts said. “That’s what you live for.”

Justin Turner also homered for Los Angeles, and Jansen threw a six-pitch ninth for his 18th career postseason save.

“We did what we had to do to force a Game 7,” Turner said.

The NL West and East champions play again Sunday night, with the potential for two rookie starters in a Game 7 for the first time in big league history.

Roberts was keeping his options open for his starting pitcher, while the Braves plan to go with rookie right-hander Ian Anderson, who has thrown 15 2/3 scoreless innings in his three postseason starts. Tony Gonsolin and three-time NL Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw are among the possibilities for Los Angeles.

“Shoot, we’ll go out there and let ’er fly. A Game 7 is another baseball game,” Atlanta Manager Brian Snitker said. “You have to treat it as such.”

The Braves were hoping to celebrate Snitker’s 65th birthday Saturday with the franchise’s first World Series berth since 1999. But Max Fried took his first loss all year, working into the seventh inning after surrendering three runs during a rocky first inning.

Buehler, using Stan’s Rodeo Ointment to deal with bothersome blisters, threw 65 of his 89 pitches for strikes. He allowed seven hits while striking out six without a walk.

After Atlanta loaded the bases with three singles in a row to start the top of second – the last hit by his Vanderbilt roommate, Dansby Swanson – the right-hander really brought the heat, with 10 consecutive fastballs to get out of the jam.

Austin Riley struck out on a 98.7 mph pitch before Nick Markakis took a called third strike on 99.7 mph. Cristian Pache, the 21-year-old rookie who had an RBI in each of his first four NLCS starts, was retired on an inning-ending groundout.

“His mound presence is just unbelievable,” Turner said.

Buehler said he has never felt that calm in a game, especially a situation like that. He credited catcher Austin Barnes – and past experiences.

“I’ve failed in those moments. I’ve been through it and I’ve been good after it, but that failure doesn’t really scare me anymore,” Buehler said. “The more times you go through things like that, your heartbeat kind of changes and can slow down.”

It was a much different result than Buehler’s postseason debut two years ago in Game 3 of the NL Division Series, when the Braves also loaded the bases against him in the second inning. After a walk drove in a run, Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a grand slam on the next pitch.

Fried, who struck out five and walked four in 6 2/3 innings, allowed only two homers in his 11 starts while going 7-0 during the regular season. But the Dodgers went deep twice in three pitches in the first.

Seager pulled a towering shot to right on a 73-mph curveball, and Turner connected on a 93-mph sinker that went 418 feet to straightaway center. Max Muncy walked and scored after back-to-back singles by Will Smith and Cody Bellinger that made it 3-0.

“I came out in a game like this and kind of put us behind the eight-ball real quick.” Fried said. “To me, that’s unacceptable.”

Seager, who homered twice in Game 5 on Friday night, has NLCS records with five homers and 11 RBI. His six homers overall this postseason are already a Dodgers record.

Mookie Betts, the 2018 AL MVP and first-year Dodger, made a leaping catch against the right-field wall to end the fifth. While it wouldn’t have been a homer, it robbed Marcell Ozuna of extra bases and a likely RBI.

Betts let out a emphatic shout while pumping both fists, then celebrated with center fielder Bellinger while Buehler held his right arm high in the air.

With Buehler out of the game, Nick Markakis greeted Blake Treinen with triple to right leading off the seventh and came home on a one-out double by Ronald Acuña Jr.

But the Dodgers’ bullpen closed it out from there, with Jansen finishing the victory in an encouraging performance heading into Game 7.

It was Jansen’s first save chance in five appearances since closing out the Dodgers’ first playoff win this season in the wild-card round. He struck out the side on 12 pitches in Friday night’s 7-3 win.

“Two huge outings, not only for us, but him personally, you can just see the confidence he has on the mound attacking guys,” Turner said. “That’s the Kenley Jansen I and all of us in there all know and love.”

STRANGE PLAY

Ozzie Albies hit a slow chopper down the first-base line in the top of the sixth that was fielded by Muncy, who then made the tag before the ball popped out. Albies thought he was out and never touched first base. Muncy tossed the ball to Buehler, who tagged the runner already heading back to the Atlanta dugout.

Swanson followed with his third single, before a stolen base and throwing error by Barnes sent him to third base. Riley then hit a long, loud foul ball into the upper deck only feet foul in the left-field corner before he struck out.

GAME 7s

The Dodgers are playing in a Game 7 for the third time in four years. They beat Milwaukee 5-1 in the deciding game of the 2018 NLCS, after losing 5-1 to the Houston Astros in Game 7 of the 2017 World Series. Atlanta hasn’t played in a Game 7 since its 15-0 win over St. Louis in the 1996 NLCS.

SHORT HOPS

The 14 homers by Los Angeles are tied for the most in an NLCS, and two behind the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays for the most in any LCS. … Only once before have the Dodgers won three consecutive potential elimination games to take a series. That was in the best-of-five NL Division Series in 1981. They won the World Series that year. … It was the first time in 10 postseason starts that Buehler didn’t have at least seven strikeouts. He shares the record with Randy Johnson with nine consecutive postseason starts with at least seven strikeouts.