Belli RBI wins a thriller for the Dodgers!

SAN FRANCISCO — Wooboy! What a game! In one of the most intense and consequential games of this storied rivalry, the Dodgers came up clutch late to defeat the San Francisco Giants 2-1 in their own park. It came down to a little one-out rally in the ninth that did it. A hit batsman, a single through infield, and then Cody Bellinger delivered yet again, ripping a single into right centerfield to score Justin Turner with the go-ahead run. And then, just for fun, we had a crazy bottom of the ninth with a fielding error on the Dodgers and a questionable call from the first base umpire to end the series. Wooboy!

Doc’s opener strategy works

The internet was all abuzz this afternoon when it was announced that Julio Urias would not be starting this game. “What the heck is Roberts up to?” was essentially the emotion, although expressed with saltier language. However, Roberts strategy worked, if not quite to perfection, it worked nevertheless.

After Logan Webb (who was great again tonight) pitched a scoreless first, Corey Knebel stepped to the mound as the Dodgers’ opener in this fifth and decisive game. It was a bold strategy that must have come straight from the analytics department, because conventional wisdom would say to run Urias out there right away. However, Knebel came through in the bottom of the first. He gave up a two-out double to Buster Posey, but then came back and struck out Brandon Crawford to retire the side. The first step of the strategy had worked.

Then in the second, it was not Urias as many expected, but Brusdar Graterol bringing his heat to the mound. He too pitched a scoreless inning, but just barely. He gave up singles to Kris Bryant and Wilmer Flores, but caught a break when he faced the pitcher’s spot and struck out Logan Webb to end the inning. Two openers. Two scoreless innings. Mission accomplished.

Urias and Webb settle in for a pitcher’s duel

Logan Webb, meanwhile, wasn’t giving the Dodgers much that they could handle. In the first five innings, Webb only surrendered two hits and gave up no runs. Keeping the Dodgers at bay, just as he had during the first game of the series, Webb was doing more fielding than his position players in this one as he got numerous weakly hit comebackers for easy outs.

However, Julio Urias, entering the game in the bottom of the third, was every bit Webb’s equal. He gave up only one single in his first three innings of work, and in the bottom of the fifth came very close to an immaculate inning, striking out the side and only throwing one ball along the way. These guys were both locked in.

The Mookie and Corey Show is back

Though they haven’t come through with the fireworks in the postseason quite yet, can we say that it is a good thing to have Mookie Betts and Corey Seager at the top of the lineup. Tonight, the Dodgers’ two brightest stars came through in the sixth inning to put the Dodgers’ out in front. After Julio Urias grounded out, Betts drilled a single into left field to put a runner on board. With Corey Seager at bat, Betts timed up Webb perfectly and broke for second. He picked a good pitch to go on as it was in the dirt, forcing Giants’ catcher Buster Posey to field it and throw in one motion. The throw was late and Betts had stolen second base to get into scoring position.

Then, Corey Seager did Corey Seager things. He took a 2-0 changeup from Webb and went the opposite way, drilling a ball down the left field line. Betts was easily able to score on the play and Seager slid into second with a run-scoring double. The Dodgers had finally broken through against Webb, and were in the proverbial cat-bird’s seat with a 1-0 lead.

Ruf quickly ties it up with a bomb

The lead was pretty short lived. After the Dodgers were unable to push Seager across in the top of the inning, Julio Urias went back out for the bottom of the sixth. The leadoff hitter in the inning was Darin Ruf, he of the bogus check swing call during the season. Ruf had just missed a home run a couple of times earlier in the game, but this time, he absolutely didn’t miss. He pulverized an Urias fastball on the 3-2 count, and just as suddenly as the Dodgers had taken the lead, the Giants had answered. It was now 1-1, heading into the late innings.

Treinen, Jansen get the game into the ninth

No fooling around now. Dave Roberts was bringing out the big guns to face the Giants’ hitters from here on out. First, he gave the ball to Blake Treinen in the seventh. And, as he has so often during the year, Treinen came through again with a clean inning. He got a first pitch lineout from Wilmer Flores, and then struck out both Evan Longoria and Alex Dickerson.

The Dodgers had a little traffic in the top of the eighth, but couldn’t score when they got a couple of one-out singles from reliever Tyler Rogers. Rogers was able to strike out Corey Seager for the second out, but then his night was done. However, hot young rookie Camilo Doval got a one-pitch flyout from Trea Turner to end the threat and end the Dodgers’ eighth inning.

It was on to the bottom eighth, and though the game was still tied, Kenley Jansen came on for the Dodgers. Donovan Solano led off with a hot shot down the third base line that looked like it was headed for extra bases. However, Justin Turner was able to snag the liner in mid-air for the first out of the inning. After that, there was much less drama in the inning. Darin Ruf struck out swinging for the second out of the inning.

Then, Dodger nemesis Buster Posey came to the plate and made solid contact on a Jansen cutter, but was way out ahead of it. The ball landed harmlessly in the stands for the second strike of the at-bat. Now with a 2-2 count on Posey, Jansen reared back and fired. The 94 mph pitch was swung on and missed for the third out of the inning. Though there is still a ways to go in this postseason, it had to feel good for Jansen to deliver in such a big spot for his teammates.

Small ball for the big win!

In the ninth, the Dodgers had no home runs. They had no extra base hits. They only made solid contact with two balls. However, it will go down as one of the most glorious innings in Dodger history. First, the struggling Justin Turner came to the plate. In the very first pitch of the AB, Turner got plunked with a triple-digit fast ball. It just makes sense that the guy who holds the Dodger record for HBP would start the go-ahead rally off this way.

Then up came Gavin Lux, the phenom whose sheen had worn off through a season and a half of struggles at the plate. However, since his call up on September 10, he has been a different player, staying inside himself and tracking balls out of hand very well. Tonight was no different. He battled a bit with the flame-throwing Doval, but he got a 2-2 four-seamer that he could handle. He ripped the ball through the shifted infield for a solid single and suddenly the Dodgers were cooking with gas.

With two men on and one out, Cody Bellinger came to the plate. Yes, Cody Bellinger with his sub-.200 batting average and injury-plagued regular season. However, Belli’s play of late has given Dodger fans hope that at long last, he had found his swing. He was hitting .308 in the postseason coming into the game, including clutch double that opened up the floodgates in Game 2.

However, the match-up was not fantastic for Cody in that he’s been struggling with the heater all year, especially up in the zone. For some unknown reason, Doval and Posey decided to stay away from the hard stuff. They threw Bellinger four straight sliders, which is close to malpractice given Belli’s track record with the high cheese. On the fourth slider of the at-bat, Belli stroked a beautiful single into right centerfield. There was plenty of green between the ball and right fielder Austin Slater, so Justin Turner was able to score standing up. Believe it or not, it was now 2-1 Dodgers. Though the Dodgers couldn’t convert either Lux or Bellinger, they went into the bottom of the ninth clinging to a one-run lead.

“Closer” Max Scherzer gets it done

Though Dave Roberts protested to the contrary in pregame interviews, you just knew that if the game was on the line, Max Scherzer was going to get the ball. And he did indeed record the save to secure the Dodgers’ victory, but not without some drama and controversy. Mad Max got ahead of Brandon Crawford 0-2 before Craw flew out to the opposite field with Chris Taylor making a fairly routine play on the ball. Then, Kris Bryant hit a bounding ball down the third base line. There is no easy way to say this. Justin Turner gacked it. He failed to field the ball cleanly and when it popped out of his glove, he had no chance to get the speedy Bryant at first.

Now with one on and one out, so-called “Late Night” LaMonte Wade Jr. stepped into the box. Wade had gotten the nickname from the many heroic hits he’d had late in ballgames, so the San Francisco partisans were hoping for one more hit in Wade’s bag of tricks. However, it was not to be. Scherzer pounded Wade inside and got a couple of foul balls before absolutely tying him up on a cutter away. It was a masterpiece of pitching.

The Giants were down to their last out, and it was first baseman Wilmer Flores. The veteran utility man had been absolutely owned by Scherzer in his career (0-for-17), so the matchup looked good for the Dodgers. He started him off with a slider that Flores took for strike one. Then, Flores got a piece of the next pitch and fouled it off for strike two.

Now if we freeze time right there and ask Giant fans their level of confidence that Flores would come through with this count, it would be hovering around zero. However, first base umpire Gabe Morales gave them something that they can whine about for years to come. Scherzer went to a slider outside of the zone, and Flores seemed to check his swing. But Will Smith appealed to first, and Morales rang up Flores for the final out of the ballgame. To be honest, Dodger fans would probably prefer that this call had gone against them, because now Giants’ fans can pretend that this is the reason they aren’t moving on. As if Scherzer wouldn’t have struck him out on the next pitch.

Anyway, game over. Dodgers win! See you in Atlanta!