Chris Taylor crushes a walk-off homer as the Dodgers squeak by the Cardinals
Los Angeles, California-- After spending all season as one of the elite teams in baseball, amassing 106 wins, the Los Angeles Dodgers were a few plays away from being eliminated by the hated St. Louis Cardinals.
Suddenly, the fabled October magic showed up, and boy did the Dodgers need it.
One big swing by Chris Taylor in the bottom of the ninth inning propelled the Dodgers to a 3-1 victory Wednesday night in a scintillating NL wild-card game.
The 106-win Dodgers advanced to a best-of-five Division Series against the NL West champion San Francisco Giants, who won 107 games.
“Giants-Dodgers,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “One of the greatest rivalries in sports. It’s happening.”
Game 1 is Friday night in San Francisco.
"That's gonna be fun. Yeah, two of the best regular-season records of all time. We've been battling all year, so I expect a hard-fought series," Taylor said.
The former UVA star and All-Star was 7-58 (.121 BA) since September 1st so it was quite understandable why he was on the bench.
"That's huge, knowing I don't have to do too much," said Taylor, batting in the No. 9 slot after entering to play left field as part of a double switch in the seventh. "It kind of settled me down a little bit."
It was the fifth walk-off home run in a winner-take-all postseason game, after Pittsburgh's Bill Mazeroski in the 1960 World Series, the Yankees' Chris Chambliss in the 1976 AL Championship Series and Aaron Boone in the 2003 ALCS, and Toronto's Edwin Encarnación in the 2016 AL wild-card game.
The Cardinals, coasting into the playoffs after their record 17-game winning streak, took a lead in the first inning after a wild pitch from Max Scherzer that scored Tommy Edman.
They had 12 baserunners and scored only a run, which is abysmal.
Cardinals were zero-for-12 with runners in scoring position. Tyler O’Neill and Nolan Arenado combined to go hitless in six of those dozen.
“Couldn’t get the proverbial big hit to give us the lead,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said.
The Dodgers on the other hand were completely shut down by the ageless wonder Adam Wainwright and the revamped Cardinals bullpen.
"They were relentless," Wainwright said of the Dodgers. "We had our chances to win that game."
Justin Turner tied it at 1 in the fourth on a leadoff shot into the Dodgers' bullpen in left. It was the first homer Wainwright has ever given up on a curveball in the postseason. Turner's 13 postseason homers are the most in franchise history.
Although Turner hit another postseason homer, the offense was anemic even though they were on fire heading into Wednesday night.
The reason the Dodgers won was because of the stifling pitching from the Los Angeles bullpen.
Roberts pushed all of the right buttons after he pulled Scherzer in the 5th inning.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner took the mound out of sorts, mirroring the pitcher who faltered in his final two regular-season starts over the dominant hurler from his first nine outings as a Dodger.
“I was just pitching on pins and needles,” Scherzer said.
Roberts had seen enough so he walked out to take the ball from his ornery pitcher.
He stuck his right hand out for it. Scherzer shook the hand instead. Roberts then grabbed the ball from Scherzer’s glove and Scherzer stormed off the field.
“I would never expect to be happy,” Roberts said, “but that was my call.”
Roberts recalled Joe Kelly to face Nolan Arenado, who hit into a force out at third base for the inning’s second out. Kelly then struck out Dylan Carlson after falling behind 3-0 with a beautiful curveball.
Kenley Jansen was the final reliever Roberts called on. The longtime closer and approaching free agent entered knowing it could’ve been his last outing in a Dodgers uniform after 15 years with the organization.
He began by getting DeJong to strike out swinging at a cutter. Edman followed with his third single and then stole second. But Jansen locked it back in. Goldschmidt struck out swinging at a slider and O’Neill whiffed on a cutter.
Jansen pounded his chest five times. A beautiful sight to see.
"We won the game. That's all that matters," Scherzer said.
“Now,” Scherzer said, “we can party.”