LOS ANGELES — That might have been a winter wind blowing through Chavez Ravine on Monday night.
With gusty winds turning Dodger Stadium into a throwback version of Candlestick Park, the San Francisco Giants pushed the Dodgers to the brink of elimination with a 1-0 victory in Game 3 of their National League Division Series.
The Dodgers will try to extend their postseason a little longer Tuesday night with Game 4 at Dodger Stadium – their second must-win game just one week into the postseason.
“That’s something that you cannot control. It’s part of the game,” Albert Pujols said of the blustery conditions. “You can’t think it was cold. You can’t think (about) the wind. Hey — it is what it is. So you can’t blame it on the wind because we lost the game tonight. It’s just part of the game, Mother Nature, and you have to respect that.”
Mother Nature was no friend of the Dodgers Monday. They hit four balls with exit velocities over 100 mph. Only one of them (a single by Justin Turner) was a base hit. Two others — fly balls by Chris Taylor in the sixth inning and Gavin Lux to end the game — were knocked down by the wind.
The Giants hit four balls over 100 mph. One of them was a solo home run by Evan Longoria in the fifth inning, blasted through the wind at 110 mph for a solo home run that produced the only run of the game.
“I’m sure many of you have seen a lot of nights in Los Angeles. I grew up here,” said Giants manager Gabe Kapler who was born in Hollywood and grew up in Reseda. “I don’t remember a lot of nights at Dodger Stadium where the wind was blowing like this.
“Super strange.”
Gusts early in the game ranged from 25 to 40 mph in the Dodger Stadium area. In an homage to Stu Miller – the pitcher who was famously (or at least according to myth) blown off the pitcher’s mound by a wind gust at Candlestick Park during the 1961 All-Star Game – Dodgers starter Max Scherzer had to abort his delivery before a pitch in the first inning when the winds were at their strongest.
“The conditions tonight were crazy,” Longoria said. “I don’t think I stepped out of the box as many times in my career as I have mid-at-bat tonight. A couple times I felt like I was going to get blown over by the wind, a lot of dust in the eyes.
“It was definitely a little bit more difficult environment to hit in and play in tonight.”
This NLDS has certainly been a difficult environment for the Dodgers hitters. The feast-or-famine nature of the Dodgers’ offense was the creamy nougat inside the NL’s leaders in runs scored during the regular season and it has been exposed by the Giants. The Dodgers have been shut out twice, breaking out for nine runs in their Game 2 victory but managing just five hits in each of their two losses.
The Dodgers’ only hits through the first five innings of Game 3 were a pair of singles from 41-year-old Albert Pujols (his 91st and 92nd career postseason hits, eighth all-time). Dodgers who were under 40 years old went 0 for 16 against Giants starter Alex Wood and reliever Tyler Rogers before Turner’s two-out single in the sixth inning.
The Dodgers entered the game on a franchise-record 16-game winning streak at home (including their wild-card victory over the St. Louis Cardinals). They averaged six runs per game in those 16 wins with eight or more in five of the last six.
But the closest the Dodgers came to scoring was after Pujols led off the third inning with his first hit, a bloop single down the right-field line.
After Will Smith flew out, Max Scherzer bunted Pujols to second base and a passed ball by Giants catcher Buster Posey allowed him to advance to third with two outs. But Wood got Mookie Betts to pop out.
No other Dodger baserunner advanced past first until back-to-back singles by Steven Souza Jr. and Smith with one out in the seventh inning.
Austin Barnes struck out as a pinch-hitter, bringing Betts to the plate for his second try at a two-out at-bat with a runner in scoring position. This time, Betts scalded a ball over shortstop Brandon Crawford’s head – but Crawford leaped in the air and snagged it to end the inning.
“He got up pretty good,” Kapler said. “And I also think he got a great read and perfect timing on that ball. The ball was hit really hard and had good carry to it. Just another exceptional play from Craw and another play that was really meaningful in our season.”
Rebounding from three sub-par starts in succession, Scherzer went seven innings, allowing just three hits and one walk while striking out 10.
But Longoria got him in the fifth inning. Hitless in his previous 24 at-bats, Evan Longoria got a fat 0-and-2 fastball over the heart of the plate, leading off the fifth inning and drove it into the left-field pavilion for the only run of the game.
“You get to the postseason you can always lose by one pitch,” Scherzer said. “That comes into play. Tonight I lost on one pitch.”
Sent up as a pinch-hitter with two outs in the ninth against Camilo Doval, Lux thought he had tied the game on one pitch. He shot his right arm out in partial celebration as the ball left his bat at 106.9 mph. It died 370 feet away in center fielder Mike Yastrzemski’s glove.
“Yeah, I did (think it was gone,” Roberts said. “I think any other night the CT ball, the Gavin Lux ball, would have been home runs.”
Roberts called the wind a “huge” factor in determining the outcome of Game 3.
“He hit that ball pretty well,” Pujols said of Lux’s game-ending fly out. “Until the ball goes over the wall, you never know. He hit that ball really well. I think CT hit the ball really well.
“It’s tough to swallow, tough game to swallow. We lost today but, hey, you need to flip that page and come back tomorrow. … Hopefully it’s not done tomorrow. Hopefully we can keep going and push this thing to Thursday.”