Dodgers Scratch and Claw their way to the NLCS

By Djack

This postseason gets better and better with each game I swear, we're only just finishing up with division series play, and the amount of thrillers we've had is insane. October baseball is certainly living up to the hype this year. In the first and only game 5 of the divisional series round, the Dodgers went into Washington looking to get back to NLCS for the first time since 2013, the Nationals on the other hand were looking to reach the NLCS for the first time in the franchises history. Rich Hill would start for the Dodgers facing off against Nationals ace Max Scherzer, so clearly the Nats had the upper hand from the get go. Rich Hill wouldn't even make it through 3 innings of work before being pulled by Dave Roberts, this put the Dodgers bullpen in a position where they had to get the last 19 outs of the game. Joe Blanton and Julio Urias pitched 3 1/3 innings for the Dodgers in this game, and they put the game on lock down for those 10 outs. The 7th inning where was things got interesting, the inning literally lasted an hour by itself, it was that action packed. Pederson tied up the game at 1 when he hit a solo blast off of Marc Rzepczynski. Carlos Ruiz who has had plenty of postseason experience with the Phillies got a RBI single, that was followed by a Justin Turner triple that would drive in 2, and the game was now 4-1 Dodgers. The Nationals knew they needed to get to work fast, they would do just that as Grant Dayton for the Dodger let up a two run pinch hit home run to Chris Heisey. Dayton would stay in game despite letting up the homer, not for long though, the next batter got a single, and he was pulled by Roberts as the top of the Nationals order was coming up. Roberts made a bold move and went to his closer Kelly Jansen knowing he needed to get out of this inning with a lead. The move worked to perfection as Jansen would make it through the 7th and 8th inning with the lead for the Dodgers. Jansen would come out for the 9th to close it out and send his team to the NLCS. He struck out the first batter, but then walked the next two. Roberts would then make an even bolder move by bringing in Clayton Kershaw to get the final two outs of the game. Kershaw was coming off of one day's rest so I can't imagine many fans had much faith in Kershaw to come in and shut it down like he did. He would get the final two outs as the Dodgers advance to the NLCS for the first time since 2013. Dave Roberts proved he's a big time manager after pushing all the right buttons in that game to pull out a win. Dusty Baker made some salty comments saying how Roberts may have won the war, but that his team is going to be paying the price against the Cubs in the next series. Really Dusty really, Roberts will actually be playing in the next series that's all he could've hoped for at this point, you'll be sitting on your couch once again after your ninth straight loss in elimination games, embarrassing. Dodgers will probably get swept by Chicago, but I don't think many people saw this team making it this far, hell of a game, hell of a series, and hopefully we'll get more of this in the NLCS.