LOS ANGELES — After 130 years of foreplay, the first Dodgers-Giants postseason tussle was destined to go all the way.
Sending Walker Buehler to the mound on short rest to stave off elimination, the Dodgers did just that, beating the San Francisco Giants, 7-2, in Game 4 of their National League Division Series on Tuesday night.
The win evens the best-of-five series and sets up another elimination game – the Dodgers’ third in the first eight days of the postseason – this time at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Thursday. Game 2 winner Julio Urias will start for the Dodgers and Game 1 winner Logan Webb for the Giants.
“This is what baseball wants,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, repeating his pre-series assertion. “As I understand it, all the other series are done so we’re going to be the only show in town. So if you have a pulse or you’re a sports fan, you’d better be watching Dodgers-Giants. It’s going to be a great one.”
It will be the 24th meeting this year between two teams that have now won 109 games each – only the fifth time since 1969 that the teams that had the top two records during the season will meet in a postseason elimination game.
“I feel like our team and the Dodgers team have both been playing meaningful games for a while now,” Giants catcher Buster Posey said. “Obviously this one coming up on Thursday is the most meaningful to this point and it should be fun.”
The Dodgers’ all-or-nothing-at-all offense – a nine-run burst in Game 2, sandwiched between a pair of bagels – was relentless in Game 4. They had 18 baserunners in all (12 hits, five walks and an error) and runners in scoring position in each of the first six innings.
Six different Dodgers had two-hit games – the top four batters in the order, plus Gavin Lux (making his first start of the series) and Cody Bellinger.
“We talked after Game 1 – I think when we’re at our best is when we use the big part of the field,” Roberts said. “You saw that with Trea (Turner’s) double, scoring Corey (Seager), and Corey did that same thing with his base hit for his first hit of the night, and followed that up again in that (Jake) McGee at-bat.
“When we’re at our best, that’s what we do. It just allows us to see the baseball a little bit longer, make better swing decisions. … If we continue to take those at-bats, I like our chances.”
All that activity produced just one run in each of the first two innings. That was enough to chase Giants starter Anthony DeSclafani after just 10 batters with Gabe Kapler implementing a zero-tolerance policy that had him toggling through five pitchers in the first four innings.
“I don’t think he had his best stuff. I don’t think he had his best command and I think the Dodgers were getting good swings off him,” Kapler said of pulling DeSclafani early.
Mookie Betts doubled the score with a two-run home run in the fourth inning off the fourth of those relievers, lefty Jarlin Garcia.
But even that didn’t seem like enough. Half of the Dodgers’ first 18 batters reached base (five hits, three walks and an error) but they went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position, making the least out of those opportunities.
After three consecutive walks with one out in the third, for example, they didn’t score. Chris Taylor’s drive to the wall in left field was run down by LaMonte Wade Jr. to strand the bases loaded. Another bases-loaded situation in the fifth yielded just one more run on a Betts sacrifice fly.
While the offense’s sporadic appearances have drawn the most attention – and angst – the Dodgers’ pitching has slowly tightened the screws on the Giants. They have managed just nine runs in the first four games of the series, half of those in the Game 1 victory, and are batting .184 (23 for 125) against Dodgers pitching in the NLDS.
“We’re facing great pitching,” Posey said. “This time of year, you’re going to face great pitching night in and night out.”
Starting on just three days of rest for the first time in his professional career, Buehler was asked by Roberts to “go as hard as you can for as long as you can.” That turned out to be 13 outs and 71 pitches.
“It’s not something we want to do all the time, but I felt that if things didn’t go our way yesterday that I would feel really weird not pitching a game that we could lose a series,” Buehler said. “I’m very happy that it worked out. … Our offense took care of a lot of it. Bullpen took care of a lot of it.”
Buehler held the Giants scoreless into the fifth inning but left with two runners on and one out. Joe Kelly gave up a single to Tommy La Stella to load the bases. A ground out scored one run and Kelly got Brandon Crawford to bounce out to end the inning.
Brusdar Graterol pumped gas in the sixth inning – five pitches were clocked between 101.6 and 102.5 mph. But the Giants scratched out another run after Crawford’s leadoff double off Blake Treinen in the eighth.
Will Smith landed the knockout blow with a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth.
“For us, it’s just going to be going out and playing our game,” Smith said of Game 5.
“They know us. We know them really well. And it’s just going to come down to who wants it a little more and who is ready to go that day.”
.@treavturner gets the @dodgers off to a fast start. pic.twitter.com/PnFgUu38Cr
— MLB (@MLB) October 13, 2021
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That #postseason Mookie magic. pic.twitter.com/FKmC3XoDGp
— MLB (@MLB) October 13, 2021
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Will Smith ties Roy Campanella for the 2nd-most HR (4) by a @Dodgers catcher in #postseason history. pic.twitter.com/TxB9v7EPx6
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) October 13, 2021
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Absolutely filthy.
pic.twitter.com/wmmWEG3G3m
— MLB (@MLB) October 13, 2021