Dodgers 4 Nationals 3: SURE

The Dodgers never make it easy, do they.

We just watched one of the most insane baseball games ever. I try not to use hyperbole, but I don’t know how I’m going to make it through this recap without cursing. I had 800 words written before the 8th inning. That all just got deleted.

Innings 1-6

Innings 1-6 were super uneventful. Rich Hill had an admirable outing on short rest, as he allowed one run. He only got eight outs, but six of those eight came via the strikeout.

He gave up a run in the second thanks to some bad throwing. He allowed a leadoff single to Daniel Murphy, who stole second. The pitch was in the dirt, and Yasmani Grandal‘s throw wasn’t great. After a walk, Danny Espinosa picked an annoying time to get his first hit of the series as he lined a single to right. Josh Reddick made an awful throw, allowing Murphy to score.

Meanwhile, the offense didn’t get their first hit until the fifth inning. Max Scherzer was dealing (and got some iffy calls), but the Dodgers didn’t really threaten to score until that inning. They loaded the bases, which obviously means they failed to score.

The Dodgers’ bullpen was solid. Joe Blanton got Hill out of a third inning jam and then tossed a clean fourth. Julio Urias allowed a baserunner in the fifth and sixth innings, but kept the deficit at 1-0.

Top of the Seventh Inning

Fast forward to the interesting stuff. To cheat a little bit, Justin Turner had a phenomenal plate appearance in the sixth. He saw 13 Max Scherzer pitches before drawing a walk. He was stranded at first, but that drove the pitch count up and seemed to shift the tides.

Joc Pederson did not drive Scherzer’s pitch count in the seventh. He hit Max’s first pitch into the left field bullpen to tie the game at one. That chased Scherzer, and the Nationals made five pitching changes in the seventh inning. Their relievers have annoying names and I’m too hyped right now, so I’ll just talk about the Dodgers’ perspective.

Yasmani Grandal drew a walk and Howie Kendrick followed that with a pinch hit single. Charlie Culberson pinch hit and failed to get a bunt down, but Carlos Ruiz knocked a go-ahead single to right. After a fly out, Turner came back up and tripled off the center field wall to make it a 4-1 game.

Bottom of the Seventh Inning

Grant Dayton came into the seventh with a 4-1 lead. He issued a leadoff walk, and then gave up a pinch-hit homer to old friend Chris Heisey. Clint Robinson followed that up with a single, and that forced Dayton out of the game.

Dave Roberts pushed all the right buttons and made all the right decisions. He brought closer Kenley Jansen into the game in the seventh inning. It wasn’t perfect, as he allowed a single to Bryce Harper. However, Jansen worked through the heart of the Nationals order to preserve a 4-3 lead.

Eighth Inning

The Dodgers threatened again in the eighth, but ended up leaving a pair of runners on.

Jansen remained in the game for the bottom of the eighth, and issued a leadoff walk. Danny Espinosa popped a bunt up, and Jansen got a fly out and a strikeout to end the eighth.

Ninth Inning

Clayton Kershaw, who threw 110 pitches on Tuesday, was absolutely not available for this game. Roberts himself said it. However, he ran out to the bullpen and got loose during the eighth/ninth innings.

The Dodgers didn’t do anything in the ninth on offense. That was super not the point though.

Jansen started the ninth and struck out Trea Turner, which was huge. Turner was the last person I wanted to see in on base, so that was a huge out. However, he walked Bryce Harper and Jayson Werth.

This brought Satan Murphy to the plate. Clayton Kershaw literally came in to this game. I was stunned, but he got Murphy to pop out. Both teams used too many double switches to keep up with, but Anthony Rendon was out of the game and the pitchers’ spot was behind Murphy. The Nats used their last position player, Wilmer Difo to pinch hit. Kershaw struck him out to end the game and my heart attack.

Dave F. Roberts

This game was perfectly managed. I was critical of Roberts on Tuesday, but he could not have managed the game any better. I was completely against using Kershaw on this short of rest. The Dodgers still had Josh Fields, Luis Avilan, Pedro Baez and Ross Stripling in the pen. I’d think any one of them would have been a better guy in that situation than Kershaw on no rest and no pre-game routine.

Using Blanton in the third was perfect. They needed out of the jam, and he’s the best non-Jansen option in the bullpen. Using Jansen in the seventh was perfect. Using Kershaw in the ninth scared the everloving crap out of me, but it worked. Good job, Dave.

Kenley F. Jansen

Jansen had an awful outing in game three. He is a free agent the second the Dodgers get eliminated (or win it all). He has a HUGE payday coming, but he threw 51 pitches in 2.1 innings today. He threw four fewer pitches than the Dodgers’ starter today.

Some players would probably be a bit more selfish in that situation and try to protect themselves. His right arm is worth a lot of money, and throwing more pitches than ever is risky. He clearly ran out of gas on the two ninth-inning walks, but that was such a gutsy performance.

Clayton F. Kershaw

I really thought the Dodgers would lock Kershaw in a box so he wouldn’t sneak his way into the game. I was so against using him. If you heard the things I said under my breath when he was warming up, you would wash my mouth out with soap.

These were possibly Kershaw’s seven most important pitches ever. One bad pitch, and not only are the Dodgers eliminated, but the narratives probably kill us all. He got Murphy, which is basically like Batman getting the Joker, Bane, Mr. Freeze and the Riddler to protect a lead. Then, he got Difo. There was something super odd and “Stranger Things”-esque to see Kershaw hugging the catcher at the end of this game, with the catcher being Carlos Ruiz.

Other Stuff

The Dodgers and Cubs open up a best-of-seven series on Saturday. Get your hearts checked, because this is going to be stressful.

“Crap” definitely doesn’t count as a cuss word, I did it.