Dodgers edge Giants with 9th-inning rally, advance to NLCS

SAN FRANCISCO — Ever since they lifted the trophy successful a mostly-empty Globe Life Field past October, the Dodgers’ short-season, bubble-championship has been denigrated by galore fans of opposing teams arsenic little than legitimate.

There tin beryllium nary specified complaint if this year’s postseason tally ends successful different championship.

In a compacted, five-game re-enactment of each the shpilkes the 2 franchises person inflicted upon each different implicit the erstwhile 130 years, the Dodgers yet prevailed connected Cody Bellinger’s RBI azygous successful the apical of the ninth inning, giving them a 2-1 triumph implicit the San Francisco Giants successful Game 5 of their National League Division Series connected Thursday nighttime and sending them to the NL Championship Series for the 5th clip successful the past six seasons.

The Dodgers volition question to Atlanta to commencement the NLCS with Game 1 connected Saturday astatine 5 p.m. astatine Truist Park.

The Dodgers and Giants portion institution with 110 and 109 wins, respectively, having divided their 24 head-to-head meetings. Even the decisive Game 5 was arsenic adjacent arsenic could beryllium – it was scoreless done 5 innings, tied done 8 with six hits apiece.

Viewed from space, the lone mode to archer these 2 teams isolated would person been the orangish glow of Gabe Kapler’s shoes.

For each of their run-prevention strategizing – starting reliever Corey Knebel and pursuing him with Brusdar Graterol earlier Julio Urias entered the crippled successful the 3rd inning – the Dodgers showed nary signs of having forged a much palmy attack to facing Game 1 victor Logan Webb.

Through the archetypal 5 innings of Game 5 – it looked a batch similar Game 1.

The Dodgers had conscionable 2 hits (both by Mookie Betts who had 2 of their 5 successful the Game 1 loss) and deed conscionable 2 different balls retired of the infield (both alert outs) portion striking retired 5 times against Webb.

When Urias led disconnected the sixth by grounding a shot backmost to Webb it was the sixth shot the Dodgers had deed into the ungraded successful beforehand of location plate, each resulting successful outs (including a double-play grounder by Trea Turner).

When Betts followed with the 3rd of his 4 singles successful the game, the remainder of the Dodgers’ lineup had gone 0 for 15 to commencement the game. But Betts stole 2nd basal and really scored a tally erstwhile Corey Seager sliced a shot (a meager 74.3 mph disconnected the bat) down the near tract enactment for a double.

It was the Dodgers’ archetypal tally disconnected Webb since … helium faced them successful July.

But the pb was temporary. The relay from Knebel to Graterol to Urias had produced 5 scoreless innings. But Darin Ruf had fired 2 informing shots – a first-inning alert shot to the partition successful close tract and a heavy thrust to halfway tract successful the third. The 2 balls were deed 377 and 378 feet, respectively.

He topped that starring disconnected the sixth and tied the crippled with a 452-foot thrust to straightaway halfway field.

The fuse for the series-deciding rally was lit erstwhile Giants rookie reliever Camilo Doval deed Justin Turner (1 for 20 successful the series) with a pitch, putting the go-ahead tally connected basal with 1 retired successful the ninth.

Gavin Lux followed with a azygous and Bellinger drove his done the displacement connected the close broadside of 2nd base, scoring Turner with the winning run.

Having burned done Blake Treinen and Kenley Jansen successful the seventh and eighth innings, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts turned to Max Scherzer to adjacent it out.

It was Scherzer’s archetypal alleviation quality since helium pitched the eighth inning of the 2019 NLDS betwixt the Washington Nationals and the Dodgers.

It did not spell smoothly. Justin Turner committed an mistake to enactment the tying tally connected basal but Scherzer struck retired late-night Giants leader LaMonte Wade Jr. and Wilmer Flores to adjacent it out.

More to travel connected this story.