ATLANTA — Build him a statue.

Retire his number.

Let him press his golden right hand into wet cement on Hollywood Boulevard.

Might as well.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto is only in his third season with the Dodgers, and the 28-year-old Japanese right-hander is already one of the greatest postseason pitchers in franchise history.

Tuesday night in Atlanta, Yamamoto scaled the mound at Truist Park for a start against the Braves in Game 3 of their National League Division Series.

With the Dodgers’ season on the line, just pitching well wouldn’t suffice.

His unspoken assignment was to outpitch Chris Sale, the former Cy Young Award winner who pitched a complete-game shutout against the Dodgers in late August.

Yamamoto delivered another heroic October performance, limiting the Braves to one run over the first seven innings of the Dodgers’ 3-1 victory.

The reigning World Series MVP did more than win a game. He wrestled back control of the best-of-five series for the Dodgers, who now have a two-games-to-one advantage. The Dodgers can close out the series on Wednesday.

By completing as many innings as he did, Yamamoto minimized the exposure of the Dodgers’ untrustworthy bullpen. By dominating the Braves the way he did, he made Shohei Ohtani’s diminished role on the team a nonfactor.

Yamamoto allowed only one hit over the first three innings, and that came on a bunt by Michael Harris II. 

Sale broke before he did, the Dodgers taking a 3-0 lead on a two-run homer by Kiké Hernández and a solo shot by Freddie Freeman.

Yamamoto’s first and only encounter with trouble came in the fifth inning. Yamamoto started the inning by giving up back-to-back singles to Mauricio Dubón and Lane Thomas. Drake Baldwin grounded out to first base to push in a run, but Yamamoto ensured there would be no further damage by retiring Ronald Acuña.

The Braves never threatened Yamamoto again, as he retired the side in both the sixth and seventh innings. Yamamoto struck out the last two batters he faced, Thomas and Austin Riley.

The Dodgers scored only three runs, but Yamamoto made them stand.

Yamamoto gave up only four hits. He struck out 10, a career playoff high.

While the Dodgers made Sale work — he threw 24 pitches in the first inning alone — their offense was clearly missing something as Ohtani continued to look overmatched.

The Dodgers basically conceded Ohtani would be a nonfactor when they unveiled their lineup.

Ohtani was batting fifth, his lowest place in a batting order since 2020. In that pandemic-shortened season, Ohtani finished with a .190 average and was handicapped by knee problems.

Dropping Ohtani in the order represented an uncomfortable compromise for the Dodgers, who boxed themselves into a corner by how they managed him earlier in the season.

Slow to address his physical problems, the Dodgers allowed Ohtani to play through obvious discomfort in the middle of the year, allowing him to injure his right arm and left knee to where there was no chance of him making a reasonable recovery before the offseason.

But the Dodgers also weren’t about to bench Ohtani. He’s been the best player in the game for the better part of the last six years, and who was to say he couldn’t deliver a Kirk Gibson moment at a critical juncture in a must-win game?

Manager Dave Roberts said he made it a point to speak to Ohtani the night before the game about dropping him in the lineup.

Roberts described Ohtani as understanding, saying the four-time Most Valuable Player even joked that he came close to telling the manager last month that he should move him into the No. 7 spot.

But no amount of lighthearted banter could change reality. Ohtani remained helpless in the batter’s box.

With two outs and two runners on base in the first inning, Ohtani was thrown a down-the-middle fastball by Sale.

He didn’t swing.

Three pitches later, he struck out by waving at a slider that was in the middle of the batter’s box on the other side of home plate.

Ohtani reached base twice — on a catcher’s interference call in the second inning and on a walk in the seventh — but he never looked threatening.

Didn’t matter.

Not on this night.

Not with Yamamoto on the mound.