Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
It was a brutal, bloody game of King of the Mountain, a struggle, a scrambling boulder climb between two foes, toe-to-toe, claw to claw, slipping and soaring.
The clock ticked, baseball’s clock of outs counting down in its own unique measure. And when the final one drained away, one team stood.
The New York Mets will advance to play the Chicago Cubs in the National League Championship Series, having beaten back the Dodgers to win the deciding Game 5 of the National League Division Series, 3-2.
What began as a duel between pitchers Jacob deGrom and Zack Greinke was stolen by a lightsaber battle between Daniel Murphy vs. Justin Turner. Each infielder had three hits — two for extra bases — but in the end, Murphy went one better, hitting a tie-breaking home run in the sixth inning that put New York ahead to stay.
That meant the first one-run loss in a winner-take-all playoff game in the history of the Dodgers, coming on the 27th anniversary of Kirk Gibson’s home run in the still-last World Series season of 1988, a slivered defeat that will leave them thinking long about what might have been.
Rocked and rattled through the early going, deGrom allowed nine baserunners (including Turner’s single and two doubles) in his first five innings, the hook creeping toward him again and again, only to duck away with his seven strikeouts.
Given a 1-0 lead in the first inning, the 27-year-old right-hander gave up two runs before he got his second out, slapped with consecutive singles by Corey Seager, Adrian Gonzalez, Turner and Andre Ethier. Turner finished the NLDS 10 for 19, setting a franchise record for a playoff series with six doubles. He had the most hits by a Dodger in any postseason series since Steve Garvey’s 10 hits in the 1981 World Series.
But try as they did, no knockout blow came from the Dodgers, and before they knew it, deGrom steadied himself, retiring nine of his final 10 batters to complete six innings.
From the view up top, Zack Greinke pitched better, looked steadier, but was undone by three mistakes — and all of them involved Murphy.
There was the pitch that Murphy bulleted to left center for an RBI double in the first inning, scoring Curtis Granderson, who had led off the game with an infield-out-turned-single by replay review.
There was Murphy scampering unencumbered from first base to third on a Lucas Duda walk, thanks to the Dodgers’ collective failure to cover the base, and scoring moments later on Travis d’Arnaud’s game-tying sacrifice fly.
Most vicious of all, there was Murphy blasting his third home run in five games, a no-doubt shot to right field with one out in the top of the sixth inning to give the Mets the lead, exactly two hours after the game began.
The Dodgers had missed their chances. They couldn’t get a baserunner in the sixth (against deGrom), seventh (against Noah Syndergaard) or eighth (against Jeurys Familia), their most heroic quest a hopeful drive by Greinke off deGrom, into the gap, that Granderson ran down.
After striking out with two runners on to finish the top of the ninth, Familia came on to finish off the Dodgers. Pinch-hitting for Joc Pederson, Chase Utley hit a solid fly ball but right at Granderson. A.J. Ellis, a late-inning replacement for Yasmani Grandal, struck out on a 2-2 slider.
Howie Kendrick swung and missed at three straight pitches, and the Mets burst to the top of the mountain, and the Dodgers walked down. It was over. We will try again.
Steve Timberlake (@Linkmeister)
Truly a disappointing end to the season.
Mark Hagerstrom
There is only one good way to end a season.
oldbrooklynfan
The end of another season.
Michael Green
First, I think I will keep looking at the photo of Murphy rolling way out of the baseline to get Jimmy Rollins on a double play and think of the phoniness of Joe Torre.
Now on to the game. Whatever I think of Don Mattingly as a strategist–not much, and I think Joe Maddon would have eaten his lunch–this one is on the lineup for its inability to come through when they needed to come through; they are indeed the ones who have a lot to think about. I suspect a lot of fans will criticize Mattingly. He won’t deserve it for this series.
I hope, really and truly, that it won’t be Zack’s last start. I’d rather he had had a better start, but he has been brilliant, and he deserved so much better.
Asher B. Garber
I lost all respect for Joe Torre. I want to write him a letter. Jon, is there an address you can post for MLB’s Czar of Stupidity and Retroactive Rules so that we can send some correspondence?
Christopher Meyer
The ump boned Grandhal on his first two at-bats. He should have walked his first at-bat and that would have loaded the bases with one out, but the ump called strike on an outside pitch — it was so obvious on TV. YG got boned on at-bat #2 too in a very critical point of the game. Either got screwed on an outside pitch that was called strike too and that’s what made him so mad in the dugout. He was forced to protect the plate instead of being in the driver’s seat. I played back the game and studied the balls & strikes and the Dodgers got the business tonight. I am sick and tired of umps injecting themselves into the game, either purposefully or not. It’s time MLB leveraged available technology and moved to digital calling of balls & strikes. It’s feasible and would make the game fair and much more watchable…..nothing worse than some homer in a black suit and mask taking over a game.
dembums55
Tough way to end a season. That steal of third will haunt the thoughts of the Dodgers for a very long time. Oh, that and going 0-9 with RISP after the first inning. So many chances…
paulgarzajr
I hate to say it because I did want this team to go all the way, but I felt relieved to not have to watch this team play another game. This has been the most painful Dodger team to watch I can recall . . . so much promise but too many holes. The bullpen finally got to be reliable thanks to Hatcher’s recovery but the starting rotation, after Greinke and Kershaw, was so spotty (Anderson pitched well most of the time). But this team was the poorest I can recall hitting with runners in scoring position. The offense was barely respectable especially in the second half. And, the front office were total failures in building a better team to compete this year. The failures were compounded by not acquiring the pitching needed in the second half. I sure hope Mattingly doesn’t lose his job because of their failures, not his. We can all second-guess him but he handles the personnel exceptionally well. Latos and Johnson were cruel jokes who are already gone and Alex Wood was sure uninspiring. Lots of praise for Grandal early and then he gets hurt – but he always gets hurt – that is his history. I don’t know what he was doing in the lineup tonight. Pederson looks like he may need some more time in Triple A. Took a big risk in signing two mid-level starters with injury history. One self-destructed out of the box, the other (Anderson) was decent. Rollins, Utley, Kendrick. Guerrero, Heisey, gone for sure next year. Probably Greinke is gone – sad. The Dodgers still have Crawford for $2
paulgarzajr
Slipped on the keyboard. . . Dodgers have Crawford for $21 M for four more years. OMG what a colossally bad deal. And, Ethier for four more at $17M. Hope they retire. I am not looking forward to the bad deal they have in place and the mess than Friedman and Zaidi will create next year.
Mark Hagerstrom
Heaven’s, reading your rant one might not realize that the Dodgers were able to reload and make the playoffs for the third straight year, with essentially the same record as the last two, including a .593 clip in Sept/Oct that let them run away with the division title. Every team has it’s weaknesses, except the Cards who lost earlier this week. For veracities sake, only two years left on Ethier/Crawford contracts. Dre actually had his best season as a Dodger as measured by OPS+ and CC only got 193 PA, so hard to blame them. CC was part of a larger deal and looking at him in isolation seems to be cherry picking, or sour grapes picking. Both were signed by the previous FO so attributing the “mess” to them is a bit outlandish.
Al Kenderes (@Coach__K)
Changes need to happen, starting with the FO and the coaching staff. FO strategies not working and Mattingly is not a good game manager. Would be interested in finding out what the argument between Mattingly and Eithier was. That was embarrassing and played out on national TV. Not a good time to be a Dodger fan….
throwdeuce
If you believe Plaschke, he said that Etheir yelled “shut up and manage”. Mattingly claims he was trying to keep Etheir from being tossed as he was yelling at ump.
Anyway Mattingly is gone, have to think some deal will be worked out with Msrlins so he can go there. Gabe Kapler will probably be new manager as he’s more in line with the FO thinking.
The pen seems to be in good shape now. The IF will probably be Agon, Pereza, Seager, Turner and Kike supersubing the latter 3. The OF I have no idea, could be completely different. But have to think at one of Etheir, Pederson, and Puig are still here. I think Barnes gets more time next year with Grandel and AJ behind the plate.
Starting pitching, well there’s Kershaw and Wood for sure and Ryu probably will be back. Have to think Greinke is high on the list to resign, maybe Queto and Leaks as well. Sad thing is they are good to win the West but Mets, Cubs, Cards and maybe Pirates are all better and that won’t change for a few years at best. And that’s just in the NL.
artieboy
Speaking of the FO where are their comments on the series? Have they released a statement or spoken with the press? Where are there comments on that embarrassing steal of 3B? I’m sure they will call it an anomaly. Where are their comments on the overall performance, on being out homered by one man, on basically scoring in only one or two innings a game? A link or a quote would be nice. Thanks
Mark Hagerstrom
We lose by one run in the final game of the series and you are looking for some sort of mea culpa and finger pointing? That would be pretty dysfunctional.
artieboy
Everyone else spoke: players, manager. No mea culpa..just their thoughts in what transpired. Is that asking too much?
Gary Johnson (@1cornflak1)
I don’t want to pile on Mattingly for the playoff crapola.
I’ve been bitching about him for a couple of years. He is playing with a lot of chips. The Dodgers have a lot of talent. But, Mattingly wants to sit on his Dodger blue butt and wait around for a big home run to win things. It’s the “Yankee” way and it was what propelled them for decades. Well, the Dodgers aren’t the Yankees. We need to manufacture runs and be creative in how we play the game. We don’t steal, we don’t hit and run, we don’t bunt, and evidently, now we don’t cover third, either….
Michael Green
Ron Darling said of the play at 3B that Kendrick had told Greinke to cover, and then Darling said the play was six pitchers later and Greinke had other things on his mind. To which I thought, Darling went to Yale and can’t keep more than one thought in his head? But the problem about covering 3B has to do with the Dodgers going along with the “new thinking” about shifts. They’ve been using them constantly, and I have no doubt that’s from the front office. And I’d like D. Baseball even more if he told the front office to upstick that theory bottomwards.
Mary Ann Bui
What happened? I was so…disappointed and sad. I was wishing you’d win so you can play against the Cubs. I guess there’s always next time. I will still be your fan whether or not you win or lose because I believe in you all. Long live the Dodgers!