Alexander: Dodgers handled adversity all season, but the real challenge has arrived

LOS ANGELES — Maybe it was fitting, in a grisly sort of way. All season the Dodgers have shrugged off injuries – including seven projected starting pitchers to the injured list – and they’ve faced a strong September challenge for only the third time in the 12 straight seasons they’ve reached the playoffs.

And wouldn’t you know it? The night they beat the San Diego Padres to clinch the National League West, another key player goes down. When Freddie Freeman severely rolled his ankle trying to evade a tag at first base in the seventh inning on Thursday night, after the Dodgers had wiped out a 2-0 deficit with a five-run rally en route to a 7-2 victory, it brought back the grisly memories of Max Muncy hurting his arm in a collision at first on the final day of the 2021 season, rendering him unavailable for the playoffs.

But it could have been much worse. X-rays taken Thursday night were negative. Freeman, who was on crutches and wearing a walking boot during the Dodgers’ locker room celebration, figures to sit out the final regular-season series in Colorado this weekend, and the division championship and first-round bye give him eight days to heal before the Division Series begins here next Saturday.

The injury list has been so crowded this season it might as well have a turnstile, so what else is new? Relievers Brusdar Graterol (shoulder inflammation) and Brent Honeywell (cracked fingernail) went on the injured list before Thursday night’s game, though the latter might have been a procedural move to get Anthony Banda back on the active roster.

But consider that said injured list also includes Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Gavin Stone, Dustin May, River Ryan, Emmet Sheehan and Tony Gonsolin. Of those, Gonsolin – a year removed from Tommy John surgery – might be the most likely to actually see the mound in the postseason.

So when the Dodgers, with their massive payroll commitments and with a major league-best 95 victories going into the final weekend, fall on the old adversity card … well, it’s not totally bogus, even if few on the outside buy it.

“What an accomplishment,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Thursday night, off to the side of the champagne-soaked clubhouse celebration, his face dusted with baby powder after Kiké Hernandez ambushed him.

“The fight from this group, just the adversity that we faced throughout the year, (and) to take two of three (from the Padres) the hard way, losing the first game and watching Walker (Buehler) tonight, reminiscent of a lot of big games we’ve seen him pitch in this stadium. Our bullpen was phenomenal. I can’t say enough about this group one through 26.”

Buehler was the ace-in-waiting the last time the Dodgers clinched a division title at home, when he strode to the mound for Game 163 against Colorado in 2018 and acted like he owned it. A second Tommy John surgery set him back, and he started this season late and went on the IL again in June with hip inflammation. Even after returning in August, he was inconsistent enough to cast doubt on his ability to contribute in the postseason.

Thursday night’s clincher might have restored some of others’ confidence in him: Five innings, five hits, one run and that old “I run this” attitude.

“I mean, with Walker the arrow has been pointing up all year,” Friedman said. “It was a little rocky there in the beginning, but the stuff was there. It was about the execution. What we knew all along was that … he doesn’t shy away from the moment. He’s not scared of anything and he’s going to go out and compete.”

Buehler’s confidence in big moments has been evident all along. So has that of Shohei Ohtani, but only in small doses in the World Baseball Classic. Now he will get the October spotlight, and if the Dodgers are to make this a deep run and a potentially memorable postseason, it will be up to a guy who will be getting his first taste of October baseball.

He might be made for it. When he came up in the seventh Thursday night with one out and the go-ahead run on second, didn’t you just have a feeling that he was going to get that run in?

Dave Roberts did.

“No doubt in my mind,” the manager said. “I just think he’s determined. He’s going to will himself to help us win baseball games.”

He did, of course, rolling a ground ball through the right side for a single, moving up on Fernando Tatis Jr.’s throwing error in an attempt to get lead runner Andy Pages at third, and scoring on Mookie Betts’ two-run single to make it 5-2.

This is something we’ve learned since Shohei joined the Dodgers, where the big games and big moments are far more plentiful than they were in Anaheim: He maintains an even greater focus in those moments when the place is going crazy.

“I felt like the environment really elevated my performance, and it allowed me to be focused through my whole at-bat,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I felt like I was really so focused that I didn’t have the opportunity to feel nervous.”

Do you get the impression, then, that not only is Ohtani perfect for the big stage, but that those six seasons with the Angels were in some ways a waste of his talents?

Or that, in his first playoffs in the big leagues, he’ll carry this club with him as necessary?

“I think that there are some people that when the moment gets big, they run from it,” Roberts said. “Other guys embrace it. And Shohei has embraced these moments better than any player I’ve ever been around.”

He might need some work at this champagne celebration frenzy, but that would be considered a first-world problem.

Otherwise, there will be a lot to embrace going forward. Going into the final weekend in Colorado the Dodgers are a game ahead of Philadelphia and two ahead of the AL East champion New York Yankees in the race for the game’s best record, even with an ever-shifting starting rotation that has placed more of a burden on their bullpen than any other team in the game. The bye during the wild-card round, which seemed to be an impediment the last two seasons, will at least give them a chance to figure out what their playoff rotation might look like.

“We like high expectations,” Friedman said. “We relish ’em. It beats the (expletive) out of the alternative, and people just not caring. So people care. They’re passionate about the Dodgers. They have high expectations. So do we. We think that’s a great thing. And for us, this is step one.”

And there will be only one satisfactory outcome, and no excuses. Everyone in the Dodger organization understands that.

jalexander@scng.com

"We like high expectations. We relish them. It beats the alternative."

Andrew Friedman spoke postgame about the team's fight throughout the season, Walker Buehler's outing, and Freddie Freeman's injury. pic.twitter.com/1ayTVb7TuQ

— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) September 27, 2024