LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers canceled their flight.
In danger of losing back-to-back games at home to send the National League Division Series back to Philadelphia to be decided, the Dodgers instead eliminated the Phillies with a 2-1 victory in 11 innings on Thursday.
The game was decided with the bases loaded and two outs in the 11th when Phillies reliever Orion Kerkering broke Andy Pages’ bat and Pages dribbled a ball back to the mound. Kerkering bobbled it and then panicked, firing the ball over the head of catcher JT Realmuto, allowing the winning run to score.
The Dodgers move on to the NL Championship Series for the fourth time in the past six years and the seventh time in the past 10 years under Manager Dave Roberts. They will play either the Milwaukee Brewers or the Chicago Cubs with the Brewers having home-field advantage over the Dodgers if they are the opponent. Game 1 is Monday at 5 p.m. PT.
Game 4 had enough October theater to require the extra-large tub of popcorn. A scoreless duel between starting pitchers Tyler Glasnow and Jesus Luzardo segued into late-inning tension. The Dodgers turned to their bullpen savior, Roki Sasaki, for three perfect innings in relief. With their backs to the wall, Phillies manager Rob Thomson tried to get an eight-out save from his closer, Jhoan Duran, then, a day after using two starters (Aaron Nola and Ranger Suarez) to stay alive, he used two more, bringing Jesus Luzardo (presumably their Game 5 starter) on in relief.
Glasnow started slowly, allowing a first-inning double to Kyle Schwarber and walking Alec Bohm to put two on with two out. But he struck out Brandon Marsh to end the inning and retired eight in row and didn’t allow another hit until Bohm’s two-out single in the sixth.
Sanchez was even better.
He gave up just one hit in the first four innings, breezing through the overanxious Dodgers hitters and pounding the strike zone. He needed just 42 pitches to get through four innings, 33 of them strikes.
The only time the Dodgers made him sweat came in the third inning – and his defense caused it.
With a runner on and two outs, Shohei Ohtani hit a hard ground ball to the left of Bohm, shifted wide off of third base. Bohm whiffed on it, letting it go into left field. The error put runners on the corners but Mookie Betts grounded out on the first pitch he saw.
That was the only time the Dodgers got a runner past first base in the first five innings. And that was the only time Ohtani reached base as his postseason slump continues. The Dodgers finally put their own pressure on Sanchez in the sixth. Back-to-back singles by Betts and Teoscar Hernandez put two on with one out. A force out put them at the corners for Tommy Edman – but he bounced harmlessly back to Sanchez.
Though he had retired six of the previous seven Phillies batters, four on strikeouts, and had only thrown 83 pitches, Roberts pulled Glasnow and went to the bullpen for the seventh.
Sheehan ranks high on Roberts’ “trust tree” of bullpen options – despite being a starter for most of the season. He gave up a leadoff single to JT Realmuto to start his troubles.
Max Kepler bounced a ball to Freddie Freeman, wide of first base. Freeman threw to Betts at second for the first out. Betts’ throw to first base was on target but Sheehan didn’t catch it. The ball went into the photo well, putting Kepler on second base for Castellanos, who dropped a double just inside the left field foul line.
The Dodgers chased Sanchez from the game in the bottom of the seventh when a walk of Alex Call and a single by Kiké Hernandez put two runners on with one out. Thomson went to his closer.
Duran got one out when Pages bounced to first. The runners advanced, giving Thomson another decision to make – should he use the open base to intentionally walk Ohtani? Despite Ohtani’s 1 for 17 slump in this series, Thomson opted to walk him and load the bases for Betts.
Betts worked the count full, fouling off a 101.1 mph fastball to get there then taking a 101.4 mph fastball high for ball four to force in the tying run.
The game stayed tied as Sasaki faced nine batters and retired them all. Then Alex Vesia stranded a runner at second – there are no free runners in extra innings during the postseason – in the 11th.
The Dodgers put runners at the corners with two outs in the 11th on singles by Tommy Edman and Max Muncy. Kiké Hernandez drew a walk to load the bases and Pages sacrificed his bat for the cause.
More to come on this story.