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    • The Dodgers show they are more than just Shohei Ohtani with the NLDS win
    Michigan

    The Dodgers show they are more than just Shohei Ohtani with the NLDS win

    Caradoc Wyn Posted on

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    LOS ANGELES – It may have seemed like a small stepping stone for the Los Angeles Dodgers, a mere triumph in the National League Division Series on Friday night – but this victory felt different.

    This one was special.

    This was the Dodgers’ biggest win in three years and one of their biggest in 36 years, which could lead to their first World Series parade since 1988.

    This is the team that beat the Dragon in the South, the team that ruined their season two years ago, the team that brought them to the brink of elimination, and the team that, quite frankly, undid them has.

    The Dodgers finally quieted the San Diego Padres with a 2-0 victory in the decisive fifth game to advance to the National League Championship Series and face the New York Mets on Sunday night at Dodger Stadium.

    Don’t try to tell Dodgers manager Dave Roberts that this was just a Division Series win.

    “It’s relief, it’s redemption,” Roberts said. “I wanted to beat these guys. We all really wanted to beat these guys.

    “This is the most stress I’ve felt in a long time.”

    Yes, you could see that in the Dodgers’ celebratory clubhouse. It wasn’t just a beer shower with a few bottles of champagne. It was a party. They ran around shirtless, cigar smoke filled the air and music blared from the ceiling.

    “That’s great,” Dodgers outfielder Kevin Kiermaier said. “I think the rivalries have calmed down over the years. Everyone is buddy-buddy. We have great respect for each other. “But we don’t like them, and they don’t like us.”

    It was such a big win, Roberts says, that it might have surpassed even his feelings as a player when he was on the Boston Red Sox team that overcame a 3-0 deficit in the 2004 ALCS.

    “I’m telling you, this rivals 2004 when we beat the Yankees,” said Roberts, whose stolen base in Game 4 of the ALCS helped fuel the Red Sox comeback. “To get to the World Series is comparable to beating the Braves in 2020. This is exactly the right thing.

    “You’re talking about one of the best baseball teams there. “It was a dogfight.”

    The Dodgers didn’t want to provide bulletin board material, but they secretly believe the Padres are better than the Mets. They may be better than the New York Yankees and anyone else still in the American League.

    Now that they’ve conquered the Padres and are finally out of the Division Series for the first time since 2021, they believe no one can stop them.

    “We’ve got a lot of f–you in us,” said Dodgers center fielder Enrique Hernandez, who continued his October magic with a home run in the second inning. “We’re a bunch of 26 guys who are all here for one reason: to win the World Series.

    “On paper we have the best baseball club. “But we have a lot of grown men who want to win at all costs, no matter what it looks like.”

    The Dodgers always believed they had the best team, but they’ve also learned the hard way over the years that the best teams don’t always win. Sometimes it takes more than talent and money.

    “This year, man, whether it was free agency, trade or waiver claim, it just seemed like we kept adding the right piece, after the right piece, after the right piece,” said Hernandez. “This is a ballclub that is not only a complete ballclub, but has the character it takes to survive a 162-game season.

    “Then we come here and play against this team; They’re stacked, bro. “They are a tough team to beat in October.”

    The Padres certainly had the Dodgers under control, leading that series 2-1 in Game 4 at Petco Park in San Diego. But the Dodgers pitching staff became silent killers.

    They shut out the Padres for 24 straight innings, retired the final 19 batters Friday and never gave the Padres a chance to breathe.

    Yes, the same pitching staff that has struggled all season, with 10 pitchers currently on the injured list – leaving them with only three healthy starters available.

    But oh, they had a bullpen that stopped the Padres’ powerful offense.

    “When you talk about a series MVP,” Roberts said, “it’s definitely our bullpen. It was a test and we fought. “We never gave in once.”

    Yoshinobu Yamamoto, her $325 million man, pitched five shutout innings like the highest-paid pitcher in history and allowed just two hits. The bullpen came on in the sixth, and after throwing nine shutout innings in Game 4, it didn’t even allow a baserunner in the final four innings tonight.

    This Dodgers team is so complete that Shohei Ohtani, who will be rewarded with the MVP award in November, played no role at all in the final four games of the series. After hitting a second-inning home run in Game 1, he hit just 3-for-18 (.167) with one RBI and ten strikeouts. Entering Friday, he was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and never stole a base in the series after stealing a career-high 59 bases in the regular season.

    Doesn’t matter.

    “That’s why you have 26 guys,” Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts said. “We’re not just one guy. “We are a whole team.”

    The Dodgers have proven that as everyone plays an important role in this series, making Ohtani’s problems almost meaningless.

    “We rightly have a lot of superstars, but we also have a lot of other first-class players,” said Kiermaier. “We may not be household names like Ohtani, Mookie (Betts), Freddie (Freeman), but with such a great team and so much depth, you never know who will be the hero on any given night.”

    “And these are the most dangerous teams.”

    Kiermaier, who Hernandez had told before the game that he would hit a home run if Yu Darvish threw him a first-pitch fastball, watched in disbelief as Hernandez delivered the ball. “I was so excited,” said Kiermaier.

    And just in case the Padres had any ideas for a comeback, Teoscar Hernandez hit a home run against Darvish in the seventh inning.

    Enrique Hernandez actually told President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman and Roberts that he would personally make sure they won the game.

    “I kept telling myself, ‘They brought you here for a reason,'” Hernandez said. “They brought you here to play in October. I wanted to come back to play with this team because I really want to have a parade.” . …

    “I wanted to find a way to win this game for us.”

    Friedman said: “He said before the game that he was going to win us this game tonight. “He confirmed it.”

    Dodgers owner Mark Walter, who was standing away from the clubhouse watching the party, wiped his eyes and still couldn’t believe what he just saw.

    “That’s unbelievable,” Walter said. “That’s a hell of a team over there. But look at us.”‘

    Friedman, the architect of the Dodgers machine, is certainly used to these celebrations. This is a team that has been to the postseason for 12 consecutive seasons, with seven NLCS appearances, three pennants and a World Series title.

    But this one tasted sweeter than the champagne dripping down their faces because of their epic postseason failures the last two years.

    “Any time you avoid elimination,” Friedman said, “it feels as big as it can be, because the flip side of that is going home.”

    “We were in a bit of a DS (Division Series) crisis. The boys who were here could feel that after the 2-1 defeat. “The new guys wanted nothing to do with it.”

    Now here they are, the red-hot Mets coming to town, the only team standing in the way of the Dodgers’ first trip to the World Series in a non-COVID season since 2018.

    “We know the job isn’t done,” Dodgers reliever Evan Phillips said. “New York is a hot team. They had to work hard to get to the postseason. But what happened here is pretty wild. It’s not like we said, ‘Hey, we’re going to shut them out the next two games.’ They’re never going to score a run again.’

    “But we are a great team.

    “I think we prove that.”

    Follow Bob Nightengale on X: @BNightengale

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    Caradoc Wyn
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