Dodgers complete NLCS comeback, will face Rays in World Series at Globe Life Field
A beautiful night at first pitch Sunday started to turn chilly and windy at Globe Life Field around the fifth inning.
It was the off-season blowing in to collect the loser of Game 7 of the National League Championship Series, shooing them away from the World Series and carrying them into a long winter of wondering where they went wrong.
The answer for the Atlanta Braves is fairly simple. Up three games to one and holding leads twice Sunday night, they made too many mistakes to put away the team that was the best in baseball during the regular season.
The Los Angeles Dodgers completed their comeback from a deep hole in the best-of-seven series and advanced to the World Series on the strength of terrific relief pitching, another Mookie Betts highlight catch and two crushing home runs in the sixth and seventh innings.
They clinched the series with a 4-3 victory and advanced to face the Tampa Bay Rays, the best team this season in the American League, in the 116th Fall Classic that will begin here Tuesday night.
Kiké Hernandez started the sixth inning with a pinch-hit home run to tie the game, and Cody Bellinger broke a 3-3 game with a two-out no-doubt shot in the seventh. The Dodgers bullpen didn’t allow a hit after the fourth inning.
“Everybody was expecting us to get to the World Series,” Hernandez said. “We were expecting to go to the World Series. Up until we went down 3-1 in this series, we really hadn’t gone through any adversity. We were able to pull it off.”
The Dodgers erased Game 7 deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 to reach the World Series for the third time in the past four seasons. They became the 14th team in MLB history to rally from a 3-1 deficit in a best-of-seven series.
Shortstop Corey Seager was selected as the series MVP after hitting five home runs and driving in 11 runs to become the first NL player to ever reach those numbers in a championship series.
It was a triumph of talent and experience and payroll for the Dodgers, as well as a few right moves from the bench and the front office. The Braves, meanwhile, were done in by a fourth-inning lapse on the bases and by manager Brian Snitker’s decision to not go to left-hander Will Smith to face Bellinger.
Instead, Arlington native and former Texas Rangers reliever Chris Martin, a right-hander, faced the reigning NL MVP. Bellinger crushed a 2-2 cut fastball, the eighth pitch of the at-bat, into the right-field seats.
The Braves went meekly in the eighth against lefty Julio Urias, who was the choice over closer Kenley Jansen in the ninth. That move, like the decision to hit Hernandez for Joc Pederson in the sixth, worked out for manager Dave Roberts, too.
“Kenley’s been great. He’s been absolutely great,” Roberts said. ”I just think in that moment, Julio with the day’s rest, how he was throwing the baseball, and usage-wise the way we’ve been using Kenley.”
The Braves scored one run in the first and second innings for a 2-0 lead, and the Dodgers countered with a two-out rally in the third to tie the game.
Atlanta countered with a quick run in the fourth and had runners at second and third with no outs against reliever Blake Treinen. Nick Markakis slapped a grounder to third, and Dansby Swanson broke for home.
He was caught in a run down and eventually tagged out, but Austin Riley behind him failed to make it to third. He was tagged out for an unusual double play that snuffed out the Braves’ threat.
“That was huge,” Betts said. “That was huge. That’s a big momentum shift, for sure.”
The Braves thought they had a go-ahead homer in the fifth, when Freddie Freeman hit a towering flyball to deep right field. Betts, who made game-altering catches in Games 5 and 6, went back to the wall and timed his jump perfectly to rob Freeman.
“Today is probably my favorite since it was actually a home run,” Betts said.
The game was still tied with two outs in the seventh after Martin, who recorded the final out of the sixth, had struck out Max Muncy and Will Smith. Bellinger was next, and Snitker stuck with Martin even though left-hander Will Smith was ready in the bullpen.
Bellinger won.
Afterward, Snitker said he’s not the dwelling type.
“That doesn’t do you any good because you can’t change it. I don’t do that,” he said. “This hurts, but I’m proud of what these guys accomplished.
“We made some mistakes. We shot ourselves in the foot a couple times that really hurt. In games like these, the runs are so hard to come by you pretty much have to play flawless baseball.”
The Dodgers and Rays are as opposite as franchises can get in terms of finances and tradition.
The Dodgers have won 21 NL pennants, second in baseball only to the New York Yankees. The Rays have one, in 2008.
Los Angeles’ payroll before COVID-19 delayed the season was $185.7 million. Tampa Bay came in at $69.6 million.
But the two teams have produced many homegrown players to put around star players and made some under-the-radar trades that have had big impacts on their seasons.
They also rely heavily on analytics and make numerous changes and substitutions during games in an attempt to find the best matchup for each leverage situation.
Game 1 of the first neutral-site World Series is at 7:08 p.m. Tuesday.
“We’re going to be tough to beat,” Betts said.
