NLCS MVP Eddie Rosario, Atlanta Braves outplay Dodgers on way to World Series

By Pedro Moura
FOX Sports MLB Writer 

ATLANTA — Braves third-base coach Ron Washington was about to wave the go-ahead run around third base Saturday night at Truist Park when he noticed how cleanly Mookie Betts had fielded a double to the right-field wall. Betts had shaved a second off the typical fielding time by gloving it and spinning to position himself to throw.

"Thank God he did," Washington said. 

He offered his praises because the next Braves batter was the hottest hitter on Earth: Eddie Rosario. And for once, Betts’ skills hurt the Dodgers, because Rosario golfed a two-strike cutter from Walker Buehler into the right-field seats. Buehler laid his hands on his knees and watched the baseball land. The Braves owned a 4-1 lead in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series, and, soon, a 2021 pennant. They held onto the finale by a 4-2 score. 

Buehler was pitching Saturday because Max Scherzer could not. The Dodgers’ decision to use Scherzer to finish Game 5 of the NLDS hurt them in this round, when he twice could not start as planned and the rest of the rotation went into further flux as a result. The Dodgers did not receive a single effective start from a starting pitcher in this series. And where in years past Clayton Kershaw bore the brunt of the Dodgers’ postseason pitching problems, Buehler now shoulders that load.

The Braves, it must be said, also outplayed the Dodgers in this series. They, too, were missing key players because of injury and administrative leave. Both their midseason acquisitions and franchise cornerstones played better than their Dodgers counterparts.

Rosario hit his first homer as a Brave last month — against the Dodgers. It was his fourth day playing for the team. Acquired in an unheralded trade at the deadline, he spent his first month with the organization rehabilitating an oblique injury.

When he finally arrived, it turned out the outfield he had been slotted to help had filled in just fine without him. He was a part-time player at first. Two weeks later, he became an everyday player. He hasn’t stopped hitting since, to the marvel of everyone around. No one has seen someone stay so hot for so long. Rosario has a hit in every postseason game. He hit .560 in the NLCS.

"Rosario put this team on his back," Washington said.

It was so clear Rosario would be MVP that Braves fans chanted his name before the honor was officially announced on the field after midnight. He said the chants he has heard here give him an advantage against the opposition. 

"I feel like the pitcher hears a little bit," he said, "and it almost forces him to throw the pitch you want to see."

That explanation makes as much sense as any other why Rosario was so superior to the entire Dodgers’ offense. Saturday was the sixth time in 12 postseason games they managed to score no more than two runs.

In what will likely prove to be his last game as a Dodger, Corey Seager began by grounding out on a 3-0 pitch, helping gift Ian Anderson a breezy first inning. After another 3-0 count an inning later, Cody Bellinger lined out to second. Leading off the third inning, AJ Pollock waited out a 2-0 count and eventually received a changeup high in the zone. He whacked it for a double. The Dodgers kept chasing Anderson’s offerings. That strategy did work for Bellinger in the fourth because he, smartly, aimed only to poke the ball past the shift-created hole at shortstop. He reached for an Anderson changeup and calmly hit it there, driving in Trea Turner, who had walked.

That was about it for the offense. Otherwise, they were either too aggressive or not aggressive enough. Even Betts, so good at staying within himself, tried to club a high fastball 450 feet and missed it. Seager put into play 3-0 and 2-0 pitches but didn’t swing when A.J. Minter fired a fastball down the middle to begin their sixth-inning encounter.

There was one respite: the top of the seventh inning. Facing Luke Jackson, the same reliever the Dodgers rallied against in Game 3, Chris Taylor doubled, Bellinger walked, and Pollock hammered another double. Atlanta manager Brian Snitker immediately pivoted and summoned Tyler Matzek, the left-handed stopper. In a remarkable show of force against a cadre of well-compensated, well-regarded players, he struck out all three Dodgers he faced in that inning. He quickly retired three more in the next.

The first two Dodgers to bat in the ninth struck out against Braves closer Will Smith. The third, Pollock, slashed a hard grounder toward left. Shortstop Dansby Swanson fielded it and fired to Freddie Freeman at first. Freeman, the face of the franchise, caught it and raised his arms at once. After a terrible start to their season, after losing their top performer for the year, the Braves were headed to their first World Series in 22 years. It was still sinking in for them as they sprayed Champagne. 

"We have had like 40-foot potholes that we've hit — like humongous speed bumps, everything you could possibly see in a road, we hit it," Freeman said. "And we still somehow overcame all that."

The Dodgers could not. As Freeman celebrated with his teammates, his Dodger counterpart, first baseman Max Muncy, watched them in silence from the visiting dugout. All the other Dodgers had departed for their clubhouse, soon to fly home for winter. Muncy dislocated his elbow on the last day of the season and missed the entire postseason. He watched for a while from the dugout steps before retreating. 

Freeman considered the obstacles his team had surmounted, the 97-loss seasons in the not-so-distant past, and the feeling he is used to this time of year: begrudgingly aiming his sights on the following spring. He realized he did not have to think about next year just yet. He realized he was heading to the World Series. 

"I think," Freeman said, "this might be the definition of pure joy."

Pedro Moura is the national baseball writer for FOX Sports. He most recently covered the Dodgers for three seasons for The Athletic. Previously, he spent five years covering the Angels and Dodgers for the Orange County Register and L.A. Times. More previously, he covered his alma mater, USC, for ESPNLosAngeles.com. The son of Brazilian immigrants, he grew up in the Southern California suburbs. Follow him on Twitter @pedromoura.