By Jon Weisman
Though the Dodgers haven’t announced their full starting lineup for Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Friday, Dave Roberts did tell reporters today that Andrew Toles will be the left fielder.
Category: Postseason (Page 6 of 11)
Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
Tomorrow really is just a day away. Friday’s opening game of the National League Division Series between the Dodgers and Nationals comes in about 24 hours, depending on when exactly you’re reading this.
Here’s what been percolating …
Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
This is exorcism time.
Though it has been nearly 28 years since the Dodgers last reached the World Series, they have come tantalizingly close — closer than you might realize. The list of turning points — any one of which might have redirected the Dodgers from a title — doesn’t merely boggle the mind. It jengas the mind. It gnip-gnops the mind.
In all, there have been four National League Division Series (1996, 2006, 2014, 2015) and three National League Championship Series (2008, 2009, 2013) that might have gone the Dodgers’ way if not for a single play. There are 17 such plays captured below, and that’s not even an all-inclusive list.
Perhaps by confronting this chamber of horrors at once, we can spiritually move the Dodgers forward …
At dusk, the Dodgers were in a workout ahead of their Wednesday flight to Washington D.C. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
By Jon Weisman
Though the Dodgers haven’t officially revealed their 25-man roster for the National League Division Series, Dave Roberts answered the remaining questions about the final spots today before the team’s final pre-NLDS workout in Los Angeles.
Here’s how it shakes out, pending any last-minute changes:
As Hurricane Matthew makes its way up the Atlantic this week, it’s unclear — to take an extremely narrow view of things — how it will impact the Dodgers’ first two games in the National League Division Series at Washington. But with a 40 percent chance of rain already forecast for Saturday, everyone might need to brace themselves for at least a delay.
It’s funny (now) — when I was living in Washington D.C. in 1992-93, I got tickets for a game in Baltimore at Camden Yards that turned out to be called because of a hurricane. Driving home, the storm was blinding, and in retrospect it was crazy for me to have even tried to go in the first place. And then I got a flat tire. That night nearly destroyed me.
Oh well — here’s hoping for the best.
— Jon Weisman
Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
Hi — welcome to our annual attempt to kill the myth that Clayton Kershaw always fails in the postseason.
Last year, Kershaw pitched 13 2/3 innings in the National League Division Series with a 2.63 ERA, losing a 3-1 decision in Game 1 before winning Game 4 by the same score on three days’ rest.
In eight playoff starts since 2013, Kershaw has six quality starts — including all three times he has pitched on three days’ rest — and allowed one earned run or less in four of the eight.
We covered this ground already this year, but this seems like the right time for a reminder. What follows is from our May 24 piece: Postseason Kershaw: Do you remember only the bad, or also the good?
Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
Game 1 of the National League Division Series between the Dodgers and Nationals will begin Friday in Washington at 2:38 p.m. Pacific Time, with Game 2 to follow Saturday at 1:08 p.m. PT.
The NLDS opener matches Clayton Kershaw against Max Scherzer, with Rich Hill opposing either Tanner Roark or Gio Gonzalez in Game 2.
Both games will air nationally on Fox Sports 1.
The other NLDS matchup, between the Cubs and either the Mets or Giants, will have the late games both nights, beginning at 6:15 p.m. PT Friday and 5:08 p.m. PT Saturday from Chicago.
By Jon Weisman
With their place in the 2016 postseason assured, the Dodgers now have the final six games of the regular season to measure out rest to certain players — and begin final evaluations of who will go on the postseason roster.
Somehow, the Dodgers have to trim their 40-man squad — with every single player on it active — down to 25 by Game 1 of the National League Division Series on October 7. It won’t be easy.
Matthew Mesa/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
He stood at the plate as Charlie Culberson. Twenty-four seconds later, his helmet flung in the air, his feet barely touching the ground, he returned … as Charlie Culberson.
Never before in Los Angeles Dodger history had a player stood in the batters’ box with no one on base, taken a swing — and won a division title. But that’s exactly what Culberson did today, sending the Dodgers to the playoffs with a 10th-inning, walkoff home run to beat Colorado.
The hero! @cculberson23 pic.twitter.com/ACYsTYL3Kf
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) September 26, 2016
“I’m floating right now,” Culberson said. “It’s awesome. I couldn’t have written it up any better.”
Culberson’s happy drive to left field was an intoxicating blend of Steve Finley, who delivered the 2004 National League West title with a grand slam, and Dick Nen.
Nen was the Dodger who, in his first Major League game on September 18, 1963, homered in the ninth inning to keep the Dodgers alive for a critical extra-inning victory in their World Series championship season.
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The 27-year-old Culberson is considerably more experienced — today’s was his 178th game in the big leagues — but still much closer on the fame-obscurity spectrum to Nen than Finley.
“It (speaks) to how he goes about what he does,” Andrew Friedman said. “Great role player. Knows his role, fits in really well with the clubhouse — how much he cares. There are so many different aspects that make him very fitting to be the one to hit the walkoff.”
This was hardly Culberson’s first big game for the Dodgers. It wasn’t even his first big 10th inning. On April 9, he saved Los Angeles in a game at San Francisco, making dazzling plays at both shortstop and left field, and going 2 for 5 with the game-winning double in a 3-2 victory.
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But it was the biggest, putting him in the ring of regular-season Dodger heroes that includes Nen, R.J. Reynolds, Finley and a select number of others.
“He was a non-roster invitee (to Spring Training), he was up and down all year long and he did whatever you asked,” Dave Roberts said. “I embraced him earlier, and he said outside of his baby, that’s the biggest moment of his life.”
Culberson finished the game 3 for 5, to raise his on-base percentage in 58 plate appearances with the Dodgers to .310 and his OPS to .696. For a defense-first player, that’ll do.
Still, he had gone 25 months since hitting a Major League home run. He had missed all but five games of the 2015 season recovering from a bulging disk and back surgery. He spent most of 2016 in Triple-A.
And now, he’s Charlie Culberson.
“The Dodgers gave me an opportunity to play,” he said. “Honestly, I’m just happy to be here and be part of this awesome team. … I’m just fortunate to put on a uniform and be able to play baseball.”
By Jon Weisman
One of these years, it wasn’t going to happen. One of these years, the National League West title would go to someone else.
Three months ago, 2016 looked dangerously like it would be that year. The Dodgers began the season in pursuit of their fourth straight division championship, but on June 26, eight games down in the division, one ace down on the disabled list — it was a feeding frenzy for those looking to bury Los Angeles.
Exactly three months later, on September 26, the Dodgers will wake up not eight games down in the NL West, but eight games up — and playoff bound.
Instead of surrendering with Clayton Kershaw out, the Dodgers found a deep resolve. Not coincidentally, it came from a deep roster.
“We talked a lot at Spring Training about depth in the organization,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said, in the bombastic clubhouse after today’s clinching victory over Colorado. “It wasn’t something that we were necessarily eager to showcase, as early as we did and as often as we did. But it’s an incredible organization. The number of fingerprints on this division title spans so many different players and so many different departments in our organization. So many people can be proud of it.
By Jon Weisman
Fourmidable!
And for Vin Scully, unbelievable.
At Vin’s final day broadcasting at Dodger Stadium, as the shadows crept across the infield, Charlie Culberson homered — his first of the season — to give the Dodgers a 4-3 walkoff, 10-inning victory over the Colorado Rockies — and their fourth consecutive National League West title.
After going the life of the franchise without making the playoffs in three straight years until 2015, the Dodgers have extended their streak by one. Dave Roberts joined Tommy Lasorda as the only rookie managers ever to lead the Dodgers to a division title.
The victory sets up a National League Division Series matchup with the Washington Nationals, who clinched the NL East on Saturday. Game 1 of the NLDS will be October 7, with the Dodgers narrowly behind the Nationals in determining home-field advantage. The Dodgers own the tiebreaker if the teams finish with identical records.
In a season replete with resolve, the Dodgers rallied from two deficits — and won without leading until after the final pitch was thrown.
In his first MLB start since August 13, Brandon McCarthy made his longest appearance since July 22. Retiring the first six batters he faced on 25 pitches with four strikeouts, McCarthy then allowed two runs in the third inning, but recovered to face the minimum in the fourth and fifth innings.
For the day, McCarthy threw 79 pitches in 5 1/3 innings with six strikeouts, and notably walked only one. It was his three consecutive starts walking a career-high five in early August that signaled his need to return to the disabled list.
Following a Howie Kendrick single and Justin Turner double to begin the third, the Dodgers cut the Rockies’ lead in half on Yasiel Puig’s sacrifice fly, but couldn’t convert any of their other eight baserunners in the first six innings into runs.
After Turner singled in the seventh, however, Corey Seager ripped a shot down the right-field line — his team-leading fifth triple — and suddenly the Dodgers were tied, at home, with a direct look at the promised land. Then came the final at-bat …
David Dahl’s ninth-inning home run off Kenley Jansen looked to deny the Dodgers their opportunity to win their way into the NL West title. The immediate consolation, as Dahl’s drive sailed over the fence in right-center, was that San Diego took a 4-3 lead over San Francisco in the bottom of the seventh, extending the possibility of a home clinch.
But with two out in the bottom of the ninth, Seager drilled a 112 mph shot off Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino (aiming to rebound from his five-run, ninth-inning meltdown August 31 against the Dodgers) to tie the game again.
Joc Pederson, batting for Yasiel Puig, walked against Boone Logan. Gonzalez came to the plate and hit a solid opposite-field drive but a can of corn nonetheless, and we would play on.
Extra Vinnings :)
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) September 25, 2016
With two out in the bottom of the 10th, Culberson, who spent much of the season in the minors, no-doubted an 0-1 pitch over the fence in left, and the celebration began for the Dodgers — bot thanks to the Giants, but thanks to themselves.
Juan Ocampo/Dodgers
Now through 11:59 p.m. September 11, you can register for a chance to purchase tickets for potential 2016 playoff games at Dodger Stadium, before they go on sale to the general public.
Registration ends for possible Wild Card, National League Division Series and National League Championship Series tickets at 11:59 p.m. September 11. (Registration will remain open after that date for World Series ticket opportunities.)
Winners of the random drawing for the opportunity to buy tickets for the non-World Series games should expect notification by September 13.
For more information, click here.
— Jon Weisman
By Jon Weisman
No matter what crazy, crazy heights Clayton Kershaw achieves in the regular season, for some, it will always be about what he hasn’t done in the playoffs.
Even after he’s done well in the playoffs.
No, Kershaw hasn’t won a World Series yet, and no one (least of all him) questions whether that’s the ultimate prize. But anyone paying attention should notice that the narrative of Kershaw as a postseason failure doesn’t hold up.
His 3-1 victory on three days’ rest in New York last October in Game 4 of the National League Division Series confirmed — not for the first time — Kershaw’s ability to deliver in the fall, but there are still those who don’t even acknowledge it.
So here I am, back again. I’ve done this before, but let’s recap, from good to bad.
Happy for a fan base that has waited longer than ours.
— Jon Weisman (@jonweisman) November 2, 2015
Congrats to Kansas City. With apologies for creating a false dichotomy, whose past 27 seasons (1989-2015) would you rather have, those of the Royals or those of the Dodgers?
— Jon Weisman
