by Cary Osborne
The bear was poked and poked and poked.
And it had enough. It roared. And it responded.
With five shutout innings from a maligned starting pitcher. With strikeouts and cathartic celebrations from relief pitchers. With one Hernández (Kiké) homering and then another (Teoscar).
The latter — Teoscar — hit a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh inning off San Diego starter Yu Darvish, and he flung his bat as if the handle were on fire.
Instead, the Dodgers burned the Padres and exorcised Division Series demons with a 2–0 victory in Game 5 of the National League Division Series on Friday at Dodger Stadium.
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“We have a bunch of grown men that just want to win at all costs, no matter how it comes, no matter how it looks,” said Kiké Hernández. “We’re all here together for one reason, one thing, and that’s to win the World Series. And obviously step one was win the West, and then winning the Division Series, which was a hard thing to do the last few years.
“We overcame a lot of adversity, not only during the season, but in this series. And we were able to come out on top, and that’s all that matters.”
The Dodgers — after exits in the last two Division Series and after falling behind 2–1 in this series — are back in the National League Championship Series, and they will host the New York Mets on Sunday.
The Padres were said to have a fire and edge advantage in this series. The Dodgers saved it for Game 5, more demonstrative in a nine-inning game than possibly any other this season.
Kiké Hernández hit a solo home run in the second inning off Darvish in the second inning. Teoscar Hernández’s seventh-inning solo home run off Darvish caused an eruption at Dodger Stadium.
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“It was an unbelievable feeling, especially in front of this crowd,” Teoscar Hernández said.
Max Muncy said it was the 10th person who helped fuel the Dodgers.
“I was just telling these guys, our fans found a way to outdo the San Diego fans,” Muncy said. “I just said, I don’t like giving any props to them, but the San Diego fans were top notch, unbelievable. And our fans found a way to top them — and I shouldn’t have expected anything less.
“Wild experience. Wow, that was fun.”
For the first five innings, it wasn’t fire, but the cool of Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Six days after his rough start in Game 1 of the Division Series, Yamamoto was every bit the dominant starting pitcher Japan had seen the last three seasons.
Tormented by the Padres in three previous first innings, the 26-year-old retired San Diego in order, including a strikeout of Fernando Tatis Jr.
He retired the last seven batters he faced.
Yamamoto allowed one baserunner to reach second base in the game — in the second inning. He ended that frame getting Tatis Jr. to ground into a double play.
The Dodgers came into Game 5 with a bullpen game as a consideration after a brilliant eight-pitcher shutout in Game 4. The Dodgers still leaned on the bullpen. Four pitchers — Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia, Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen — didn’t allow a Padre to reach base.
Each one of them left the mound with a fiery reaction, ending with Treinen throwing his firsts in the air after getting Tatis Jr. to ground out to end the game.
“We just don’t give a damn,” Phillips said of the bullpen’s mentality.
NLDS: The Dodgers get the final roar was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.