All of this is so ideal when you consider that the last time Kershaw recorded a save, JANSEN WAS HIS CATCHER. Scherzer made it through that inning with a no-hitter intact, but the likely NL Cy Young Award victor had thrown his final low-stress pitch of the ninth.
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After outlasting the Washington Nationals in a down-to-the-wire, five game National League Division Series (NLDS), the Los Angeles Dodgers will have a quick turnaround, taking on the Chicago Cubs in Game 1 of the Championship Series (NLCS) on Saturday, October 15th. LA moves on to meet the Chicago Cubs in the National League Championship Series, with the victor advancing to the World Series.
Kershaw told reporters he was exhausted, mentally and physically, after Game 4.
It is probably a little too soon for their players and fans, but I’m going to say it anyway: the Washington Nationals had a good year in 2016.
But the Dodgers won all three of his series appearances and when he relieved closer Kenley Jensen in the Game Five finale, he put his ultimate stamp on the divisional round. But then, after everything that had happened between the two teams across four hours, Kershaw was warming up in the bullpen and then he was in the game to face Murphy. He personifies who the Cubs are: young, athletic and versatile; plug him in at any position in any situation, he can beat you in so many ways. Chicago Cubs’ Jon Lester works out during practice before baseball’s National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Friday, Oct. 14, 2016, in Chicago. One pitch before Nationals starter Scherzer served up a game-tying homer to Dodgers slugger Pederson, Nationals third base coach Bob Henley and Jayson Werth made a bad decision to try to score from first base on a double to left with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning and Washington leading 1-0.
Then, in a moment straight out of a Hollywood classic, Clayton Kershaw came out of the bullpen to take the mound less than two days after he threw 112 pitches in Game 4.
“I didn’t know if I was going back out for the ninth”, Jansen said.
But the game turned on left fielder Andrew Toles getting the ball to Seager, and the rookie making the throw home to catcher Yasmani Grandal. You have to believe it’s their year when the Cubs are the big beneficiaries of an ex-Cub factor. Strasburg could have been the difference in this series, but we’ll never really know.
Kershaw came on after Kenley Jansen entered the game with no outs in the seventh after Washington’s Chris Heisey hit a two-run pinch-hit home run off Grant Dayton. No one would have said a word because his manager, Dave Roberts, had said these before Game 5: “Absolutely not”. It was painful, and memorable, and I’m so glad I got to see it and I never want to see anything like that ever again. The Dodgers won a sudden-death game for the first time since the 1988 NLCS.
Ready or not, the offseason is here for the NL East champion Nationals. “That team in Chicago; I hear they’re pretty good”. “Let’s see where it takes us”.
Two innings later it was the Dodgers celebrating with Kershaw pitching in all three Dodgers wins in the series.
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It’s hard to remember now, but Rich Hill started the game on three days rest and did a sufficient job before leaving in the third inning. “You have to obviously play well, get some lucky breaks and have a few things go your way”, said first baseman Ryan Zimmerman, the Nationals’ very first amateur draft pick more than a decade ago.
