Dodgers down Nationals in wild series finale

On Thursday night at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., Clayton Kershaw earned his first Major League save in the Dodgers’ gusty 4-3 win over the Nats, punching L.A.’s ticket to the National League Championship Series, where the Cubs await. That’s an official game time of 4:32, the longest nine-inning playoff game ever. I thought we played a great five games.

And so of course he was. Such an attempt would be folly. Jansen threw a career-high 51 pitches in the final three innings to help the Dodgers advance to the NLCS.

But those two outs – considering his workload and the backdrop and the significance – well, it is amusing how the narrative flips at this time of year, how perceptions change, how quickly you can become a guy who rises in October. It was a heartbreaking way for Kershaw to see his playoff ridicule continue. Baker said he was concerned about Kelly’s long-term health because of his history of Tommy John Surgeries.

“I came to [Roberts], you know, once Kenley went out there in the seventh”, said Kershaw. But here was Kershaw, coming out of the bullpen with the tying run on second and the winning run on first, to face Daniel Murphy, 7 for 15 in the series after having homered twice off Kershaw in last year’s division series. He could have stayed out of harm’s way by never volunteering for the relief role Thursday. They weren’t that foolish. To say we learned that fact only in this series would be the understatement of the season.

The bottom of the seventh, which started with Washington down 4-1, was just as surreal, if not more so than the top.

The blast chased Scherzer from the game and a few batters later Carlos Ruiz came through in the clutch again with a pinch-hit go-ahead RBI. Relievers came and relievers went. The only man with a save for the Dodgers this regular season was the man catching Clayton Kershaw’s only other save in his professional career.

“That’s the plan”, Honeycutt said.

“It was a little bit of an adrenaline rush”, Kershaw said. He was even the one who approached manager Dave Roberts to enter the seventh inning. He left the dugout, went to the clubhouse, changed into spikes, stretched and came back to the bench. Next year’s core looks almost identical to this year, and a roster cemented by Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, and Max Scherzer should make Washington a force next season.

Seriously? People will forget about one of the game’s best pitchers challenging an opponent while putting his legacy on the line with another October trial? What could he say?

Kershaw probably won’t be able to start until the third game and Jansen will require a rest too. He ran out of gas in the seventh inning, and L.A.’s bullpen allowed all three of the runners that he left on base to score. He was fading. He walked through the dugout and into the tunnel toward the clubhouse where Grandal had been sitting for more than an hour, after leaving the game, afraid that doing so would jinx the team.

No, it was real. But taking out the likely Cy Young Award victor in the seventh inning of an elimination game tied at 1 seems like Baker out-Bakering himself. “I know they are going to be ready”.

“Incredible”, Washington starting pitcher Max Scherzer said of the effort by Kershaw.

Jansen retired the side in the eighth but issued consecutive one-out walks to Harper and Werth in the ninth as Kershaw warmed up.

But when Roberts went to reliever Grant Dayton in the seventh, the Nationals answered.

Kenta Maeda will get the Game 1 start for the Dodgers on Saturday at Wrigley Field.

I’m not even sure where to begin.

The final two outs for Kershaw resulted in his second professional save. “He’s had some games that he’s thrown that were unbelievable where he’s ended up with nothing”.

As the Dodgers move on, they’ll hope that their strengths will cause some concerns on the part of the Cubs. Kershaw’s postseason struggles are well-known, though also overblown. The Cubs took three of four games from the Dodgers at the end of May/beginning of June. Three of the seven games were decided by just one run, including two Dodgers’ victories during the August series. “That’s just baseball being played at its highest”. Those last trains rolled with pretty much nobody on them as the seventh inning rolled on to 11:42. Not the way Jansen was going. But you know, that wasn’t what lost the game, really. He pitched for the third time in seven days. They brought in the guy that’s got them through a lot of seasons. He pitched when he shouldn’t have, risking everything and then he won. “Great pitching, great hitting, defense, everything”.