Taylor and Pollock blast the Dodgers back into series

LOS ANGELES — The slumbering giant has awoken. After being practically read last rites on Wednesday night, the Dodgers came roaring to life in Game 5 of the NLCS. Against the Braves’ ace no less. They absolutely refused to lose in this one, pummeling Atlanta pitching for 11 runs on 17 hits, including five (count ’em five!) home runs, two by AJ Pollock and an amazing three dingers off the bat of Chris Taylor. Their 11-2 victory pulls the Dodgers to within one game of the Braves as they head to Atlanta for at least one more game on Saturday.

Freeman goes yard in first for bummer of a beginning

It’s a good thing many Dodger fans were still in the parking lot during the top of the first inning, because things got off to a very rocky start for your Boys in Blue. Joe Kelly got the start, and seemed to be pitching okay. However, Ozzie Albies went the other way for a nice opposite field single with one out, and Freddie Freeman just blasted a 2-0 pitch from Kelly for a home run.

Three batters into the game and it seemed the rout from last night was still lingering in the air at Dodger Stadium. You could feel the entire Southern California area heave a restless sigh as Freeman headed around the bases for a 2-0 Braves lead. To make matters worse, Kelly had to be removed from the game with some shoulder stiffness in the middle of an at-bat against Adam Duvall. The first arm out of the pen was the seldom-used Evan Phillips, who got Duvall to chase a slider on the first pitch he threw and got out of the inning. Phillips would come back to the mound in the second and pitch a strong 1-2-3 inning and end up with the win in this one. Quite an accomplishment for a guy who only pitched for the team seven times all year in the regular season.

AJ Pollock & CT3 answer quickly

After giving up the two runs in the first, the Dodgers were eager to get on the board quickly in this one, at least to keep the Braves from running away with it. They did that and more in the bottom of the second. They didn’t waste any time getting things going in the inning. After taking a first pitch strike from Braves starter Max Fried, AJ Pollock just laid into one for a solo home run to left field. After a rocky start in the NLDS, Pollock has really come alive, hitting .353 in the League Championship Series. With the injury to Justin Turner on Wednesday, Pollock can be assured of a lot more opportunities in Atlanta this weekend.

Pollock’s home run was important to puncture Fried’s aura of invincibility. He came into Thursday’s game on a roll, and even though the Dodgers measured him up pretty good in Game 1, the Braves still managed to come out of his first start with a win. So, now that Fried was proven to be hittable, the hits started coming hot and heavy. Albert Pujols was up next and ripped a solid single into the left. After his 2-for-4 night tonight, the Machine is now hitting .333 in the postseason, proving once and for all that he still has plenty of “gas in the tank” as he put it when he joined the club in May.

With two straight solid hits off Fried, Chris Taylor came up smelling blood in the water. He pounced on Fried’s first pitch, a 95-mph fastball, and obliterated it, hitting a two-run home run into the Dodgers’ bullpen in left. The bummer mood of the first inning had completely evaporated into the October night. And, the best thing of all, CT3 was just getting started.

Bullpen terrific in a must-win game

After Joe Kelly gave up the long fly to Freeman in the first, it was nothing but zeros from the pen thereafter. The Braves would only get three more hits the rest of the night, two singles and a double from the still-dangerous Eddie Rosario. Other than that, nada. Diddly squat. Bupkes. After Kelly and Philips, five more pitchers would toe the rubber for the Dodgers in this one: Alex Vesia, Brusdar Graterol (two particularly good innings), Blake Treinen, Corey Knebel, and Kenley Jansen.

It was a bullpen game on steroids, and every pitcher came through with flying colors. One hopes that the injury to Joe Kelly can be resolved quickly so that he can pitch in either of the two possible games in Atlanta. Regardless, take a bow, bullpen. You stood toe-to-toe with the Braves’ best starter and YOU were the better man.

CT (hits) 3

After the strong comeback in the second, the Dodgers kept piling on in the middle innings. They got one run in the fourth on a Chris Taylor single that scored AJ Pollock. And then in the fifth, CT3 was at it again. After Tio Albert walked with two outs to end Max Fried‘s night, Taylor ripped an 0-2 pitch from reliever Chris Martin over the center field fence for this second home run of the night. It was now 6-2 and the train was rolling.

But Taylor wasn’t done. Coming to back again in the seventh inning, CT3 went yard again. This time, mashed a 2-2 changeup from Dylan Lee and sent it out amongst the great unwashed in the left field pavilion. A three home-run night with 6 RBI. Think he isn’t going to get paid this offseason?

Mookie, Trea, and AJ combine for 4 more

By the time the bottom of the eighth rolled around, the outcome of this one was no longer in doubt. There would be a Game 6 in Atlanta on Saturday. The only question was what the final score of this rout would be. The Braves sent out second-tier guy Jacob Webb to pitch the inning, tasked with the thankless job of finishing this one with no more use of Brian Snitker‘s bullpen. And it got a little ugly for the young lad, I must say. Mookie Betts led off with a solid single to left, and promptly stole second during Trea Turner‘s at-bat. Betts was on the move again when Turner drilled a liner to left that nearly took Mookie’s head off. Luckily, Betts was about to go into a slide to third and the ball sailed harmlessly into left field. Betts got off the turf and came home with the only run of the night not driven in by Taylor or Pollock.

And speaking of Pollock, AJ put a cherry on top of this one with a three-run blast to left later in the inning. Webb got behind 3-0, and then he just through a meatball heater down the pipe to get a strike on Pollock. But hey, this is the playoffs. You throw a pitch like that, 3-0 or not, rout or not, somebody’s gonna get hurt real bad. Pollock blasted the pitch to left for his second round-tripper of the night. In all Taylor and Pollock were amazing on Thursday. Taylor: 4-for-5, 3 HR, 6 RBI. Pollock: 3-for-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI. Not too shabby for two guys who’ve not even started every game of this postseason.

Max Scherzer gets his spotlight game

With two sub-Max performances in the postseason, Max Scherzer is now going to get a moment he was built for. Pitching with full rest, he will take to the mound in Game 6, hoping to pitch his new team into a winner-take-all Game 7 on Sunday, a scenario that looked close to impossible just 24 hours ago. But these are the Los Angeles Dodgers, now winners of SEVEN straight elimination games. Let’s f’n go!