Dodgers win out, but fall a game short in division

LOS ANGELES — It turned out to be a bridge too far. Going into this week, the Dodgers knew that they would have to essentially win all of their six remaining home games, and hope that the Giants would some how lose two games in the week to the D’backs and the Padres. They accomplished half of that goal.

With their 10-3 win on Sunday afternoon, the Dodgers finished the season with a fantastic run of fifteen straight home wins. Unfortunately, the Giants were not to be caught, as their blowout victory over San Diego in the last game of the regular season assures what we had all feared for a couple of weeks now: the Dodgers and their 106 wins will now be playing a one-and-done play-in game on Wednesday against the red-hot St. Louis Cardinals and Adam Wainwright. Plus, this day may have brought much more than the loss of the division, as Max Muncy went down with an elbow injury from a collision at first base. No telling how long our slugger will be out. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s discuss Game 162.

Buehler comes out breathing fire

Walker Buehler has an ego; this is a well-established fact. And it must have burned him up to hear his new teammate Max Scherzer being described as the “best pitcher in baseball” by Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts. I could see him watching those clips on his iPad and then saying to himself, “Oh really?” Today, Buehler looked elite, and if I were Dave Roberts, I’d keep dissing him all the way to the World Series.

Buehler started the day in attack mode. Though the K has diminished in importance as some of his more efficient ways of getting hitters out have increased, today, he was just playing catch with Will Smith for the first two or three innings. In fact, the first seven outs, with a hit and a walk mixed in there, were via the strikeout.

Muncy goes down in the third

However, it was the eighth out of the ballgame that might be the most costly of the entire season. Brewers second baseman Jace Peterson hit a little nubber in front of the plate that Will Smith pounced on and through a bullet to Max Muncy at first. However, the throw went into the baseline, forcing Muncy to bring his glove toward the foul line.

Peterson, meanwhile was barreling toward first, trying to leg out the hit. He ran out of the base line and got plunked in the back by Smith’s throw, and so was out on the play. However, as he crossed the first base bag, the entire weight of his body snapped Max’s arm back. Muncy immediately fell to the ground, wincing in pain. Anybody who saw it had only one thought, “That’s it. His season is over.” There will be some tests hereafter to be sure, but the chances of his quick return seem to be remote at this point. After losing Clayton on Friday, this hurts. A lot.

Buehler goes five, puts himself back in the Cy Young conversation

The Brewers managed to get one run off Buehler in the top of the fourth on back-to-back doubles from Rowdy Tellez and Avisail Garcia, but that was it. When Walker was lifted for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the fifth, the Dodgers were trailing 1-0, so Buehler was on the hook for the potential loss if the Boys in Blue didn’t come back.

However, Buehler’s outing was everything that Dodger fans were hoping for going into the post season. In total, he struck out eleven Brewers in five innings of work, And more importantly, that dominant swagger had returned. And in so doing, Walker had created a log jam at the top of the NL ERA leaderboard. With Corbin Burnes‘s early exit on Saturday, and Max Scherzer’s subpar start on Wednesday, things have gotten very tight indeed. At season’s end the ERA race looks like this: Burnes: 2.43, Scherzer: 2.46, Buehler 2.47. Mighty interesting, wouldn’t you say, Cy Young voters?

Dodgers explode for six in the fifth

The Dodgers decided to get the offense in gear just in time to get Buehler his 16th win. The Brewers were treating this as an opportunity to get all their relievers some work before the playoffs. And most of the time, that worked just fine. But when you run eight pitchers out there in a game, not everybody is going to have the A-game working when they get to the mound. This time, it was Aaron Ashby who was the weak link in the chain. Though he entered the game with a pretty solid 2.90 ERA, Ashby had trouble finding the plate. And after two walks and an infield single, the bases were loaded.

Mookie Betts, who’d been scuffling a bit on this homestand, came to the plate with a chance to do some damage. However Ashby never gave Mookie a pitch to hit, and instead he took a game-tying walk and passed the baton to Corey Seager. Seager got another scratch hit to first base to put the Dodgers in the lead. The Dodgers were up 2-1, even though they hadn’t gotten a ball out of the infield.

The next hitter was Trea Turner, and he got the ball out of the infield, waaaay out. Turner worked a full count, but finally got a slider that hung up for him a bit, and he mashed it. It went deep to left center, and you guessed it, for the second time this weekend, he hit a grand slam. Which I think is pretty good.

Dodgers pile on and coast to victory

A bunch of stuff happened after that, but it hardly mattered. The Dodgers were completely in control of this one. With the Giants way up in San Francisco, the Dodgers rested some of their veterans and had some guys playing out of position. For a bit, the infield consisted of Pujols at first, Austin Barnes at second, Matt Beaty at third, and Chris Taylor at short. Which is not the usual way the Dodgers roll.

At the plate, the Dodgers got four more runs, including a three-run jack from Matt Beaty. The Hitman has made a very strong case for getting some postseason ABs this year. Especially with the uncertainty surrounding the Muncy injury (Roberts said he’s “unlikely” for either the Wild Card or the NLDS), Matt Beaty might be a good lefthanded option for the team in the near term.

Though the bullpen gave up a few late runs, this one was never in doubt after the Turner jack in the fifth. It was a great ending to the season that was only made bittersweet because of the price that it had taken with the Muncy injury. Hopefully, this deep lineup can regroup and keep rolling in the Wild Card Game on Wednesday.

More on all that later. For now, the Dodgers’ regular season is over. And though the Dodgers will in time appreciate the fact that they have matched their 106-56 record of 2019, they know that they are just getting started.