In the second longest game in NL Championship history, the Dodgers won the war of attrition.
It took five hours and fifteen minutes, thirteen long and drawn out innings, but in the end, the Los Angeles Dodgers were the last team standing as they beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 2-1, in dramatic walk-off fashion to even the NLCS at two games apiece.
Cody Bellinger beat the shift with a game-winning RBI single to right field that scored Manny Machado from second base and the Dodgers ending the thriller in the Ravine after an ugly offensive game that featured a combined 42 strikeouts.
Both offenses went as cold as the winter sky after sunset, as the Dodgers have scored just two runs in 22 innings at home in the series.
"We've just got to hit better, plain and simple, hit better with runners in scoring position," said Machado of the offensive struggles. "We're leaving too many guys on base. There's one thing we've got to do better when we're in scoring position, a hundred percent."
Nonetheless, all it took was one swing to end the marathon match between the two best teams in the National League with a quick turnaround in Game 5 on Wednesday afternoon.
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Manny Machado started the dramatic series of events off with a one-out single in the bottom of the 13th inning. After an infield fly, Machado took second on a wild pitch by Brewers reliever Junior Guerra.
A few seconds later, Machado almost stifled the rally when he was nearly picked off at second base by Guerra, but ultimately Bellinger found a hole and Machado was able to slide under the tag at home plate to give the Dodgers the victory.
"Honestly, I was surprised that they were throwing me, I thought they would pitch around me," said Bellinger with first base open and a struggling Yasmani Grandal on-deck. "Once I saw they were attacking me, it was just kind of grind mode and do what you can to put the ball in play and try to end this game."
Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell added: "I thought it was worth the risk of trying to expand to Bellinger, and if the at-bat goes to Grandal, we walk Grandal."
In addition to winning the game with his bat, Bellinger might have also saved the game with his glove, as he flew threw the air like Superman to rob Lorenzo Cain of an extra-base hit in the 10th.
"I knew I had a shot at it," said Bellinger of the diving stop. "I played right field in the Minor Leagues a lot before I started playing centerfield. It's kind of like riding a bike. I saw it hanging up there, and ran as fast I could and dove for it."
It feels like the first mile of the Los Angeles marathon now, but the Dodgers struck first in the first inning on a two-out, RBI single by Brian Dozier.
Dozier was making a rare start at second base against a left-handed starter, and struck out looking with the bases loaded to end the game a night prior.
"He hasn't played a whole lot in the last few weeks but he's a pro and just really takes good at-bats," said Dodgers' manager Dave Roberts. "So for him to spark us and get a point on the board early, that was huge. And just the defense tonight and just the at-bat quality I thought was really good."
Milwaukee starter Gio Gonzalez did not last long in the game, but this time it was unrelated to his pitching performance.
Gonzalez rolled his ankle after a comebacker by Yasiel Puig bounced off his glove in the second inning, and after making one pitch, was unable to stay in the game.
Freddy Peralta replaced him and made his first appearance of the postseason on short notice. Despite the lack of time to warm up, Peralta pitched with prodigious precision, striking out six with three walks in three hitless innings.
Peralta became just the second pitcher in postseason history to come on in releif and throw at least three hitless innings with at least six strikeouts, since Pedro Martinez did it in Game 5 of the 1999 ALDS.
Domingo Santana tied the game with his second pinch-hit RBI of the series, when he crushed a curveball from Rich Hill into the right-center gap for an RBI double that scored Orlando Arcia from first.
Hill did not factor in the decision, allowing one run on three hits with four walks and six strikeouts in five strong innings.
Both teams emptied their bench, using all of their position players with the Dodgers gutting their entire bullpen.
Los Angeles was 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position, left eleven men on-base, and struck out a franchise postseason record seventeen times.
"Late in games like that, guys try to do a little bit too much and expand, and maybe swing at pitches they normally wouldn't swing at," said Turner of the reason behind all the strikeouts. "Everyone wants to get the big hit and be 'the guy.'"
The Brewers didn't fare much better, going 0-for-8 with RISP, stranding ten men on-base with fifteen strikeouts of their own.
In a best-of-seven series in the NLCS, the team with home-field advantage in the final three games has a losing record at 5-6.
Up Next:
Clayton Kershaw will start Game 5 on Wednesday in what could be his final appearance in a Dodger uniform. Wade Miley will start on three days rest for Milwaukee. First pitch is scheduled for 2:05PM PT.
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