Alexander: Dodgers have Mets on the ropes in NLCS
NEW YORK — No, it’s not a lock yet.
Remember, one of the most astounding comebacks in baseball history began 20 years ago Thursday, though the guy who stole the base to start the process that ended an 86-year-old curse didn’t remember until somebody pointed it out.
“I didn’t realize it,” Dave Roberts said early Thursday evening. “I found out later. Time flies, as they say.”
Roberts stole that base and scored the tying run to keep hope alive for the Boston Red Sox after they had fallen behind 3-0 in an American League Championship Series to the Yankees. The Red Sox went from there to the franchise’s first World Series title since 1918. And maybe that’s a lesson for the team Roberts currently manages: Take absolutely nothing for granted.
Truth be told, though, it is looking awfully good for the Dodgers, who now have a 3-1 lead in the National League Championship Series after bludgeoning the New York Mets, 10-2, on Thursday night at Citi Field. The team that wasn’t supposed to have enough starting pitching to survive the postseason crucible has scored 40 runs in six games since being on the verge of elimination on Oct. 9 in San Diego, including nine, eight and 10 in their three victories over New York.
But the Mets didn’t get to this point without plenty of fight. They were 61-36 from June 12 on, rallied in the ninth inning to punch their ticket in the first game of the makeup doubleheader in Atlanta on the final day, scored four runs in the ninth of Game 3 of the Wild Card Series to stun Milwaukee, and scored six runs in the last two innings of Game 1 of the Division Series against Philadelphia.
In other words, they’re scary in their resilience.
All of that said, Dodger fan, your optimism is not unwarranted. Jack Flaherty, who delivered an ace-like performance (two hits over seven innings with six strikeouts) in the series opener against the Mets, will take the mound Friday on regular rest. And while Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes didn’t anticipate at the trading deadline that Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw wouldn’t be available for the postseason, Flaherty was the big catch at the deadline. How big, we might be about to find out.
Roberts said before Thursday’s game he was leaning toward Flaherty but left some wiggle room. “We were still kind of deliberating” afterward, he said. “But after tonight, just talking to the pitching guys, the front office and Jack, most importantly, we just felt that tomorrow’s the day. So he’s lined up.”
Now the hometown guy from Harvard-Westlake has a chance to pitch the Dodgers back into the World Series when he starts Game 5, and how great a story would that be?
Oh, and if Roberts wants to remind his guys of the ability to wipe out a 3-1 deficit, there’s this: It’s been done 14 times in the LCS or World Series, out of 195 best-of-seven series – yes, counting the 2004 Red Sox. The last team to do so? The 2020 Dodgers, who were down 3-1 to Atlanta in the COVID-necessitated neutral site NLCS in Arlington, Texas, won the final three from the Braves and won the World Series in six against Tampa Bay.
That comeback isn’t the only reason to bring that up as motivational fodder. Utility man Kiké Hernández noted in a postgame TV interview after Wednesday night’s Game 3 win that those champs never got to enjoy the appropriate celebration through the streets of L.A.
“I won a World Series and I didn’t have a parade. A parade is all I want,” he said. And if T-shirts aren’t already being sold with those words, someone’s not doing their job.
The formula has worked so far, dating to what was a bullpen game out of desperation in San Diego that turned into an 8-0 victory that not only kept the Dodgers alive but might have kick-started their offense. An era in which relief pitching has become the dominant factor in the postseason seems ideal for a team that leans heavily on its bullpen anyway, and those relievers still seem to have something in the tank.
This might be new, foreign territory for Dodger fans who have become accustomed to weird and unhappy events in October. Here’s some advice: Enjoy it. Savor it. These Dodgers have the best player in baseball, and Shohei Ohtani started the party in Game 4 with a 422-foot drive into the stands in right center on the second pitch of the game. (In other words, with nobody on base.) He went on to walk three times and scored each time.
“I just know there was a stretch there for, like, two or three at-bats (that) I don’t think he even saw a pitch remotely close, which I understand,” outfielder Mookie Betts said. “But it’s going to be tough to just walk him all the time.”
No kidding, especially on a night when Betts has four hits, including a homer and a double, with four RBIs and three runs scored. These Dodgers had 12 hits without Freddie Freeman, given the day off – not kicking and screaming, as Roberts described it, but probably grudgingly – to rest his sore ankle.
He’ll almost certainly be in the lineup for Game 5. And again, it’s not a sure thing. But the champagne will be chilled, and there’s a good chance it will be spilled.
Hmmm, maybe that should go on a T-shirt, too.
jalexander@scng.com