LOS ANGELES, CA — As the Dodgers now wait to see if they play the Brewers or the Cubs in the National League Championship Series next week, let’s see what happened in their 2-1 walk-off win against the Phillies to clinch the NLDS Thursday night at Dodger Stadium.
It was another well-pitched game by Los Angeles right-handed starter Tyler Glasnow and Phillies’ LHP Cristopher Sánchez, La Romana, Dominican Republic. And as we have seen throughout the year, when the bullpens get involved, the game can turn in a flash.
With no score in the game going into the seventh inning, the Phillies scored one run that was aided by reliever Emmet Sheehan’s error in covering first base on what would have been a double play. 1-0 Philly. The Dodgers would tie the game in the bottom half of the inning on a bases-loaded walk.
And now in comes the Dodgers’ new closer, 23-year-old Roki Sasaki, who has been lights out in the postseason. He proceeded to get the Phillies out in order for the next three innings.
Alex Vesia got the Phillies out in the top of the eleventh inning.
After Freddie Freeman struck out to begin the bottom of the eleventh inning, Tommy Edman singled to left field and Hyeseong Kim was put in to run for him.. Max Muncy followed with a single on the first pitch, sending Kim to third with two outs. That was all for Jesús Luzardo, Lima, Perú, who had gone a clutch 1.2 innings in relief.
Jesús Luzardo did all he could in his 1.2 innings on the mound in Game 4 of the NLDS vs. the Dodgers – Image Credit: Simon Lindenblatt/Latino Sports
He was relieved by 24-year-old Orion Kerkering, who grew up a few miles from Dodger Stadium and he would now have to face one of the most dangerous postseason hitters, Kiké Hernández, from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Kiki has been more than clutch in these playoff situations.
The Phillies allowed Muncy to take second base uncontested, leaving first base open. It was the perfect move by Phillies manager Rob Thomson, as Kerkering could now give Hernández very little to hit. And the reason for that was that on deck was Andy Pages, Havana, Cuba, who was having an awful postseason, batting .042 in this series. And it worked.
Hernández walked to load the bases, and Pages hit a broken bat dribbler to the mound that should have ended the inning. Instead, Kerkering bobbled it, and then threw wild to home instead of first, where his catcher J.T. Realmuto was signaling him to throw. Pages would clearly have been out to end the inning. instead Kim scored, sending the Dodgers to the NLCS.
Just how manager Dave Roberts and the Dodger analytics department scripted it!
“I thought Kiké took probably one of his best at-bats of the year, you get a guy that’s very tough on right-handed hitters, to go down in the count and to earn a walk was huge,” said Roberts following the 2-1 Game 4 NLDS clinching-win. “And with Andy, obviously Andy has been scuffling. But to keep fighting and to put the ball in play to create something, I give him a lot of credit.”
The Dodgers advanced to their seventh NLCS in the last 10 years with their Thursday night clinching-win in Game 4 of the NLDS vs. the Phillies – Image Credit: MLB
Though the Dodgers won the series three games to one, most of their hitters had to work very hard to get on base, especially their left-handed batters. Shohei Ohtani struggled at the plate, striking out in seven of his 15 plate appearances. His only hit was an RBI single in game two. He was 1 for 18, batting .148 in the four-game series. Freeman had three hits in fifteen plate appearances, striking out five times, and batted .217 in the series.
The Dodgers got lucky in this series against a very good Philadelphia club. Sometimes luck helps in the postseason.
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