Stop the presses! Stop everything! Run outside and shout it to the sky so the boys from Brooklyn up in Blue Heaven can hear you- “THE DODGERS ARE BACK IN THE WORLD SERIES!” Dust off that Fall Classic bunting and place it all around Chavez Ravine. Surround the TV with all of your lucky Dodgers memorabilia.
Starting next Tuesday, this – our – Dodgers team will step into the same World Series spotlights that once upon a time shone upon Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, Steve Garvey and Ron Cey, Pedro Guerrero and Tommy Lasorda. The Dodgers beat the Cubs in the NLCS four games to one, and tonight’s clincher was glorious to watch.
The man every Dodger and Dodgers fan looked to lead them to the promised land, Clayton Kershaw, took the ball to the Wrigley Field mound tonight, and he rose to the occasion, as all the great ones do. Kershaw wasn’t perfect. He was bitten by that pesky home run bug that has plagued him all season, but that was the only flaw in his outing – if you are so inclined to look for one. The Ace went six full innings, threw 89 pitches, and he only gave up three hits and one run.
The Dodgers’ offense gave Kershaw plenty of run support. Oh boy, did they give him runs. The Boys in the Big Blue Steamroller went to work right from the first inning, and they torched Chicago pitching long into the night. Chris Taylor was a master at lead off tonight. He started things off with a walk and came home to score the first of the Dodgers’ runs on Cody Bellinger‘s double.
In the second inning, Enrique Hernandez hit the first of his three – count ’em, three home runs – to make it 2-0.
The big inning came in the third. The Dodgers rallied and Justin Turner singled in Chris Taylor (who led off the inning with a double). The bases were loaded and up stepped Kike. He swung at the first pitch he saw, and out went the ball, and with it went the hopes for victory in every Cub fan sitting in Wrigley Field. The Dodgers were going bonkers, Dodger fans around the world were screaming for joy, and Cub fans started the sad exodus for the exit gates.
The Dodgers batted around in the inning with a double, four singles, and a grand slam. They scored five runs and went up 7-0. But they weren’t done. This team still had plenty of blue fire remaining, and they weren’t going to be satisfied with just entering the World Series through the front door. They had plans on blowing out the entire front wall.
Logan Forsythe doubled in the fourth, and that drove in Cody and Yasiel Puig. The score was 9-0 when Kershaw surrendered the Cubs lone run, and Dodgers pitching kept Chicago quiet for the rest of the night. Kershaw pitched another two scoreless innings and then Kenta Maeda and Brandon Morrow went to work. Maeda struck out two and Morrow struck out the side to combine for two more scoreless innings.
Then came the ninth. With Yasiel Puig standing on first, Kike stepped to he plate and he delivered more Dodger Blue fireworks. On a 2-0 count, Kike drove his third home run into the Chicago night and through the barely-beating hearts of the Cubs. Hernandez’s third homer put the Dodgers up 11-1, and wrote his name into the LCS record books as the first man to hit three home runs and record 7 RBIs in one game.
Every Dodger Blue heart expanded yet again, and as people realized this was really going to happen, some broke out the fireworks and others broke into tears. Kenley Jansen slammed the door on the Cubs – one, two, three, and then the 29-year drought was over.
The Dodgers poured on the field, Cubs fans poured out whiskey to drown their sorrows, and Dodger fans poured out their blue love as scenes of Tommy Lasorda saluting the players from behind home plate flashed on the screen. It was glorious, magnificent and fantastic all at once.
Stay tuned folks. The Big Blue Steamroller fires up the engines again on Tuesday. Bring on the Astros! Bring on the Yankees! Bring ’em all on! We’re ready for anything!
Oscar Martinez
I was born in the shadow of Dodger Stadium and immediately drenched in Dodger Blue. Chavez Ravine is my baseball cathedral, Vin Scully was the golden voice of summer all my life, and Tommy Lasorda remains the greatest Dodgers manager ever. My favorite things are coffee, beer, and the Dodgers beating the Giants. I also blog about my baseball card hobby at All Trade Bait, All the Time.
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Thumbs up!
We did it!
We are in the WS. Wow!
Yeah! Bring them both on! Good job!!
Granderson is a great guy no doubt, true professional, love to go to the trenches with the guy, and everything else.
But if Seager is activated, we must go with the Son of Culber instead of the son of grander in the WS. Culberson’s red hot with his bat and glove!
Son of Culber wins my vote!
Congrats to the boys in blue. They really came through with flying colors. Kike’s night will never be forgotten, especially by him.
My main question is how did the Cubs ever beat Washington? They can’t hit, field, or protect their starters with the bullpen.
Dodgers/Yankees!!!
Actually Washington beat themselves. Arrieta shut down this offense. Imagine if we had to face Scherzer and Strasbourg multiple times. Oh well. Don’t have to worry about that anymore.
Bring on them (fill in the blank).
YF
That is the first thing I thought of too!
We may have swept the second best team in the playoffs in the NLDS round.
Also, just want to give kudos to the FAZ. Yes, me giving them props.
I’m not going to go with the script of attributing genius to the a few of the hundreds of moves they made. That was easy. And if you make a hundred moves with the resources they have, some of them will pan out.
I want to give them credit for doing it the old school way this year. Recognizing and signing your own free agents – they shelled out a lot of money for Turner and Jansen – at a time when nearly every Dodgers blog (except this one) was already making excuses in advance for not signing those players. I also want to laud the FAZ for making the impact trade at the trade deadline. Hill was not it last year no matter how anyone wants to rewrite history. An impact trade is Darvish – one that gets the other teams bloggers to pull out their hairs. (We still could have gotten Verlander … but maybe it all works out as the Astros and Yankees beat the hell out of each other ….)
Those moves have panned out, and maybe in the future these contracts don’t pan out and Calhoun turns in some batting titles, but you have to do things the right way and, this year, the FAZ did just that and I heartily applaud them for it. Bravo!
(And here’s something for the Giants fans … Urias and Buehler lie in wait hungry for their own October ….)
And we all know why we are back to the steamrolling! Mr. Mo loves Ed Dinger!!! Nobody change a thing for the WS!!
And one more thought before I sign off. I think what’s great is that the legacies of the Colleti regime wasn’t dismantled and we are seeing the combined results of the two regimes. I’m sure someone will give Colletti/White some credit at some point. Peace and out.
Sorry I lied. Just read another blog and sure enough the Bellinger Family is charmed:
“And for a guy who played in just 183 games over four seasons in the majors, Clay Bellinger earned three World Series rings and one American League Championship ring.)”
We should sign Cory to a 20 year contract NOW!
uh, his name is Cody…Corey is Seager…..I know, you got excited.
Some other things FAZ did. They brought in Watson and Cingrani at the trade deadline. Morrow, Taylor, and Bellinger started in the minors. We could of traded Puig but did not. Barnes has worked his way into a starting position. Maeda doing a great job in the pen. This year has been the perfect storm so far. Everyone just doing their job. Every night a different player being a hero. Great time to be a Dodger fan.
Truly awesome in so many ways.
Kershaw pretty much outstanding (getting him out after 6 seems to be the postseason ticket)
Kike outstanding and definitely not Reddickson (cut Reddickson loose this morning please so Roberts isn’t tempted to be stupid again)
Ed Dinger most excellent (Dodgers karma ran over Ron Darling’s dogma)
Taylor and Barnes what a pair of ballers (now can we have Barnes in every game of the WS please, what more do you need to see Roberts?)
Turner just nails again (totally appropriate for Co-MVPs this series)
Bucky Culberson what a friggin defender and he did excellent at the plate, love that kid (if Seager isn’t 110 percent you have to stay with this guy
bullpen was over the top great
Wild Horse went wild thru out (finally left the boy in to play every game, let the Wild Horse lose, no more platoon bullshit, Yay!)
Damn even Forshyte was a quality performer, I think the platoon has to end, Utley is lost and we all know it (however does Roberts know it?)
Really great post season so far but we are not done yet, and with that in mind, you know it’s coming and rightly so, wait for it
wait for it,
wait for it…
EdDingerEDdingeredDingerEDDINGEReDdingereDDINGEREDDinger
The karma is strong with this one (spoken in Yoda voice)
“Strong with the karma this one is.” 🙂
(Funny how just now I hung my son’s Dodger/Jedi Knight shirt outside to dry along with the bevy of the Doyer shirts we wore this week).
Still processing all this National League Pennant thing. What a great run–now waiting for the Yankstros or Askees, whoever. Hang on!
I woke up to the news that the Dodgers are in the World Series. I guess it wasn’t a dream after all!
It is true Artieboy!
I think a lot of people are responsible for our team getting this far.
And I have to give Roberts and his coaches, a lot of credit too, after all, they have the most time with all of these players, throughout the season!
I think the front office has made some excellent moves, and there is still a touch of Colletti on this team too!
I am more into the players, and the team, but I have no problem giving anyone credit, when credit is due.
And I don’t care if Colletti or the front office brought a certain player to the team, that doesn’t make me not like or like a player!
And I don’t think Kike’s grand slam was luck, because he purposely hit the ball, to the opposite field, to hit it out.
He mostly pulls his HRs.
And he is a good hitter, against lefties, and he does have good power numbers, against lefties!
I don’t think he should face to many righties, but he is good against lefties!
I give credit when credit is due!
When the report came out that Corey Seager was out of the NLDS for the Dodgers, I read some reports that said the Dodgers would miss him a lot and that the series would go 7. Thanks to a journeyman player and some nifty lineup shifting by Dave Roberts, they did not miss him. Oh yes, they could have used his big bat, but Charlie Culberson, who by the way hit the HR last year that clinched the division, played outstanding baseball when ever he was on the field. He was the man on the spot, and probably under some real pressure, but was it not fitting that the last out of the NLCS was lined right into CC’s glove. Great team win. Great for the fans who have waited longer than at any other time since the team moved to LA for another trip to the big dance. Not lost on me either was the great game played by Kike. He had a career game. He stepped up when most needed, and I as a fan totally appreciate his contribution to the win.
I would have to think that next season, Culberson would have to be used at least as a utility man. Stepping up as he has done, he deserves to be playing on the team in some capacity. Because Seager is the incumbent SS and not likely to change positions(too bad, his SS skills are not up to Culberson’s), can Culberson be converted into the outfield or a platoon 2B with Forsythe?
Kike, with those 3 HR’s has earned his future spot on the roster. He’s serviceable as a utility player and against lefties, but as a starter, he has not proved himself all around. Forsythe, otoh, has proved himself and should still retain the 2B position.
Next season, I doubt they return Utley. His post season performance is really lacking. This goes for Grandal and Pederson, too. These 2 players should return us at least 1 rotation player. I think Barnes has definitely put Grandal on the expendable list. Joc was already on it so I am hoping they can parlay them into a good trade. Hopefully, Toles will return to LF, and Ethier will either retire or ask for a trade. We will need a good CF. Puig is a lock at RF. Granderson should not be re-signed.
This leaves Yu. I doubt anyone would say to let him go at this point. Yu is rounding out our SP rotation in a wonderful fashion considering we have put together the best bullpen in baseball.
Any thoughts?
Jeff–I’d rather not get far into who to discard next year when we still need to win four more this year, and any one of those guys is capable of coming through–not that I disagree much with your picks, but it’s just a little early. I’d rather celebrate the great season we’re ALL having, even FAZ who I was down on, but now I see the power of their obsession with depth…and their skill with picking up everybody else’s castoffs. Does anyone have knowledge of which way the wind was blowing on Kike’s dingers? All three combined got over by about 10 feet total. That’s either bad luck or good luck depending on the wind. Who gives a flying fluck though–enough nit-picking–we are almost World Series champs after so many years of going home crushed and empty. Just happy we’re all still here to enjoy it–even Tommy. Hope we play the Yankees (for an old time series like we had when I was a kid).
Cheers Emerson! Nice Jersey!