The Dodgers and Kershaw make another October moment.
The longest game in Major League Baseball playoff history lasted four hours and 38 minutes late into last night . . . with Clayton Kershaw on the mound getting his first big league save, two days after throwing 110 pitches for the Bums to even the series back in LA.
The Washington Nationals had highest-paid pitcher Max Scherzer on the mound and through six innings he was golden with a 1-0 lead. But gambles and mistakes doomed the home team. Joc Pederson tied the game with an opposite field home run on a really good slider from Scherzer, his 99th pitch of the night.
The Nationals had missed a chance to pad their lead in the bottom of the sixth when Jason Werth tried to score from first and was thrown out by 40 feet, a classic blunder by the third base coach. And then manager Dusty Baker took out Scherzer in the 7th when, in elimination games, you have to go with your ace until his arm falls off. Scherzer later called it the most disappointing game of his career.
The move by Baker, the veteran skipper who has now lost a record 9 straight games with a chance to advance in the post-season, backfired royally. The Dodgers scored three more times to go up 4-1 edge and then held on for dear life in the bottom of the ninth with a one-run lead. Kershaw, who was ruled out before the game by manager Dave Roberts, said in the dugout he had something left if they needed him in the ninth and went out to the bullpen.
Roberts indeed went to the big lefty, who missed most the summer with a thought-to-be season-ending injury. Kershaw came in with one out and two on base and got nemesis Daniel Murphy to pop out. Then he struck out pinch hitter Wilmer Difo to send the Dodgers to Chicago for the National League Championship Series against the heavily favored and well-rested Cubs that starts Saturday night at Wrigley Field.
Do the Dodgers have a chance against the Cubbies? On paper, absolutely not. But with gutty guys like Kershaw, who recorded two wins and a save in the five-game series against the Nationals, anything seems possible.
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