SAN FRANCISCO — Ever since they lifted the trophy in a mostly-empty Globe Life Field last October, the Dodgers’ short-season, bubble-championship has been denigrated by many fans of opposing teams as less than legitimate.
There can be no such charge if this year’s postseason run ends in another championship.
In a compacted, five-game re-enactment of all the shpilkes the two franchises have inflicted upon each other over the previous 130 years, the Dodgers finally prevailed on Cody Bellinger’s RBI single in the top of the ninth inning, giving them a 2-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants in Game 5 of their National League Division Series on Thursday night and sending them to the NL Championship Series for the fifth time in the past six seasons.
The Dodgers will travel to Atlanta to start the NLCS with Game 1 on Saturday at 5 p.m. at Truist Park.
The Dodgers and Giants part company with 110 and 109 wins, respectively, having split their 24 head-to-head meetings. Even the decisive Game 5 was as close as could be – it was scoreless through five innings, tied through eight with six hits apiece.
Viewed from space, the only way to tell these two teams apart would have been the orange glow of Gabe Kapler’s shoes.
For all of their run-prevention strategizing – starting reliever Corey Knebel and following him with Brusdar Graterol before Julio Urias entered the game in the third inning – the Dodgers showed no signs of having forged a more successful approach to facing Game 1 winner Logan Webb.
Through the first five innings of Game 5 – it looked a lot like Game 1.
The Dodgers had just two hits (both by Mookie Betts who had two of their five in the Game 1 loss) and hit just two other balls out of the infield (both fly outs) while striking out five times against Webb.
When Urias led off the sixth by grounding a ball back to Webb it was the sixth ball the Dodgers had hit into the dirt in front of home plate, all resulting in outs (including a double-play grounder by Trea Turner).
When Betts followed with the third of his four singles in the game, the rest of the Dodgers’ lineup had gone 0 for 15 to start the game. But Betts stole second base and actually scored a run when Corey Seager sliced a ball (a meager 74.3 mph off the bat) down the left field line for a double.
It was the Dodgers’ first run off Webb since … he faced them in July.
But the lead was temporary. The relay from Knebel to Graterol to Urias had produced five scoreless innings. But Darin Ruf had fired two warning shots – a first-inning fly ball to the wall in right field and a deep drive to center field in the third. The two balls were hit 377 and 378 feet, respectively.
He topped that leading off the sixth and tied the game with a 452-foot drive to straightaway center field.
The fuse for the series-deciding rally was lit when Giants rookie reliever Camilo Doval hit Justin Turner (1 for 20 in the series) with a pitch, putting the go-ahead run on base with one out in the ninth.
Gavin Lux followed with a single and Bellinger drove his through the shift on the right side of second base, scoring Turner with the winning run.
Having burned through Blake Treinen and Kenley Jansen in the seventh and eighth innings, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts turned to Max Scherzer to close it out.
It was Scherzer’s first relief appearance since he pitched the eighth inning of the 2019 NLDS between the Washington Nationals and the Dodgers.
It did not go smoothly. Justin Turner committed an error to put the tying run on base but Scherzer struck out late-night Giants hero LaMonte Wade Jr. and Wilmer Flores to close it out.
More to come on this story.