The Dodgers’ eight World Series championships are individually worthy of a movie. With that in mind, we begin an eight-part series today that takes one regular season game — a microcosm game for the team’s championship season — and treat it like a screenplay to a movie. The following is a true story of the 2024 World Series champions. The game is Dodgers vs. Padres, Sept. 25, 2024.
by Cary Osborne
This is why he is a hero in San Diego and a heel in Los Angeles. He’s so good that his hometown fans adore him. And he’s so good that he gets under the skin of the fans on the road.
Whether it was good fortune or just being good, San Diego Padre Manny Machado was in the right place to snag a sharp grounder. He stepped on third base for one, threw to second for two and watched the ball land in first baseman Donovan Solano’s glove to complete a triple play and end the game.
Machado — the hero/heel — pumped his fist in celebration.
And then he bounced around the Dodger Stadium infield grass after a replay confirmed the triple play.
Maybe 20 yards of distance separated the celebration of the San Diego Padres team and veteran Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
He stood — top step of the Dodger dugout, left side.
He’s a man who generally wears his heart on his sleeve. Unafraid to give a hug, not afraid to slam his fist when he’s angry, not afraid to pump his own fist when he’s happy.
But after the 157th game of the 2024 regular season, he took a beat before stepping down from his perch. He then walked through cracked sunflower seed shells and discarded paper cups on his way to his office — not showing outward emotion.
He hung a left out of the dugout, went down some steps, then back up a longer set of steps, eventually settling into his space. There, he reflected on the game with the postgame thinktank group. He gathered his thoughts. Then he walked a carpeted path toward the interview room at Dodger Stadium.
The door swung open to reveal an audience of reporters, cameras (red lights on) and spotlights shining on him.
Still, calm. No outward emotion. The demeanor never changed.
Even with this: His Dodgers’ lead in the National League West over the San Diego Padres had now shrunk to two games. The Padres, with the win, had clinched a spot in the postseason and were coming for more.
Two years ago, in an eardrum-beating San Diego stadium with an amped-up crowd, the Padres ended Roberts’ and his Dodgers’ season with a stunning loss in the National League Division Series.
Here they were again, this time playing tug-of-war for a division title with the possibility of meeting the Dodgers again in the postseason with momentum on their side.
The Padres again were testing the Dodgers’ mettle. And to do it with a triple-play game-ender?
“It was shocking. The least likely outcome, obviously looking how the game’s played and how many triple plays are turned in a year,” Roberts said.
After eight minutes of answering reporters’ questions, Roberts went back to his office and packed up.
There was tomorrow. And the opportunity to fight back.
It was 4:33 p.m. that next day — Sept. 25. The door opened to the same interview room to the same assemblage of reporters and cameras and lights.
The questions began about the night before and the unthinkable ending.
Same demeanor from the manager. But a message.
“Athletes, baseball players, you get tested with your character quite often. And I’ve seen our guys bounce back. They’re resilient. They’re tough. No one’s going to feel sorry for you. You got to go out there and be a pro and win a baseball game. That’s just what it boils down to.”
After 11 minutes and 26 seconds, the manager finished answering questions. He transferred his focus to winning that night’s baseball game.
From 7:10 p.m. to 9:57 p.m., he was mostly glued to the top step, left side of the Dodger dugout.
The second inning tested his patience, especially when San Diego’s Jackson Merrill scored to give the Padres a 2–1 lead.
Fight back, he thought.
All season long, Roberts witnessed one of the most incredible performers in baseball history live up to that label. In the fourth inning, he gazed in and watched Shohei Ohtani do it again — a double to tie the score.
Ohtani was fired up. The team was fired up.
Then Roberts saw the lead go away as the Padres pulled back on the rope.
Fernando Tatis Jr. — like Machado, magnificent but a magnet for Dodger fans’ ire — hit a baseball into the upper reaches of the Left Field Pavilion. Roberts, hands in blue bomber jacket, watched quietly, plotting the next moves in a now 3–3 game in the fifth inning.
To win this game with starting pitcher Jack Flaherty reaching the 100-pitch mark, it was going to take a team being resilient and a manager and coaching staff making the right moves.
This moment was the future playing out.
If the Dodgers were going to win this game and later get through the National League playoffs and win the World Series, they would need to lean on a bullpen and make the right pitching moves and in-game adjustments. The offense would have to take quality at-bats, take advantage of mistakes and get the big stars rise in the big moments.
The first stage was reliever Alex Vesia starting things off with a zero in the sixth inning. Then in the bottom of the seventh, it was back-to-back, full-count walks from Will Smith and Tommy Edman. This little thing, pushing Smith to second base, was possibly big.
The crowd could feel it and the noise swelled at Dodger Stadium.
But the next two Dodgers made outs.
At the beginning of the inning, there was a flashback to the night before. The thought before the triple play was: Get Ohtani up.
Ohtani was in the on-deck circle when the triple play was made.
This time, Ohtani came up.
Roberts could feel the urgency of the moment as music blared in the stadium and Ohtani’s name was announced.
Roberts had quiet confidence. Even with the count 0–2. He watched as Padres left-hander Adrián Morejón tried to spin him away, then go hard and away.
He’s waiting for his pitch, Roberts thought.
And on a 2–2 pitch, the most valuable player hit a single up the middle. He ran down the bases shouting in celebration.
It was 4–3 — a comeback. But it needed to be completed.
From Vesia to Evan Phillips to Blake Treinen to Michael Kopech — the bullpen gate opened to let the dogs out of the cage.
Bottom of the ninth, tying run on second base, the triple-digit throwing Kopech on.
Roberts stood in the entryway to the dugout, hands in his pockets. Rows of Dodger fans stood up behind him. They also stood with him.
He pulled the right levers through the first 157 games, helping to navigate a unit that experienced devastating injuries, personal anguish and withstand the grind to overcome the challengers.
The kind of recipe that makes a champion.
Kopech’s 101-mph was swung on and missed.
Comeback complete.
The manager clapped. His left hand formed into a fist — like that of a fighter.
Now it’s win tomorrow and win a division. Then win 11 and become legendary.
2024 Championship Year, a Symbolic Game: The Dodgers fight back was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.