Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES — They possessed all the cash, all of the celebrities and all the excitement, however what these Dodgers wanted most, they found, was an edge.
They stumbled upon it in the course of the last stretch of their season, when accidents gathered and uncertainty sneaked in. It solidified round a concise, piercing message that inundated their group chat all through September and remodeled into their rallying shout after falling to the brink of elimination towards their fierce adversaries.
Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy was among the many many who expressed it Friday evening, after conquering the San Diego Padres in the National League Division Series: “F— them all.”
The Dodgers utilized 5 innings from an environment friendly Yoshinobu Yamamoto, residence runs from Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández, and one other strand of dominant aid work to defeat the Padres 2-0 at an vibrant Dodger Stadium in a decisive Game 5.
Their postseason rotation is diminished to three members, and their No. 3 batter, Freddie Freeman, continues to fret by a severely sprained proper ankle. Nevertheless, the Dodgers will proceed to confront the New York Mets in the NL Championship Series, with Game 1 set for Sunday.
Dave Roberts, concluding his ninth season as Dodgers supervisor, likened the feat to his Boston Red Sox surmounting a 3-0 sequence deficit towards the New York Yankees in 2004 and his Dodgers prevailing over a 3-1 deficit towards the Atlanta Braves in 2020. It's due to latest historical past, which has witnessed the Dodgers getting overwhelmed by division rivals in the NLDS every of the previous two years. And it is due to the opponent.
“I aspired to defeat those individuals,” Roberts remarked. “We all aspired to defeat those individuals truly badly.”
Roberts arose Friday morning to supervise his eighth winner-take-all match and skilled a sure tranquility about it. He did not know what to anticipate from Yamamoto and had no clue what different obstacles would emerge, however he took consolation in the id of a workforce he considered distinctively relentless and resilient.
Said Roberts: “I have faith in this team more than any team I've had.”
The Dodgers made a lavish funding of over $1 billion this offseason, buying Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, and Teoscar Hernández, amongst others. They outlasted the Padres and received 98 regular-season video games to seize their eleventh division title in 12 years. Yet, many considered them as underdogs in this NLDS. The Padres have been more healthy, extra full, with an offense that was flourishing, a rotation that had been dominant, and a bullpen that ranked among the many deepest in the game. The Dodgers rallied round that.
“What was it, 80 percent of the f—ing experts said we were going to lose?” Muncy acknowledged. (*5*)
When the Dodgers misplaced Game 4 to the Braves in the 2020 NLCS, necessitating three consecutive triumphs to attain the World Series, a players-only group chat commenced flooding with optimistic messages. It aided in elevating the workforce to a championship. Something related occurred just lately, after Game 3, with the Dodgers down 2-1 in the sequence and needing a bullpen sport to survive Game 4. Kiké Hernández, a long-time sparkplug in Los Angeles, was among the many most vocal.
One message in specific resonated with Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux.
“He stated, ‘F— everybody,'” Lux recollected. “‘Everyone that's not in this clubhouse.'”
When Kiké Hernández was slotted into the beginning lineup for Game 4 — a consequence of Freeman and shortstop Miguel Rojas being too injured to play — he knowledgeable Teoscar Hernández that two Hernándezes had by no means hit residence runs in the identical postseason sport. That Wednesday evening, Kiké Hernández knowledgeable him, they'd be the primary. When it did not materialize, he knowledgeable him they'd do it in Friday's Game 5. Then they did.
“I trust in him, he trust in me, I trust in myself, and we enjoyed today,” Teoscar Hernández remarked.
Seven years in the past, in 2017, Kiké Hernández adopted the follow of envisioning success going into postseason video games. Lying in mattress the evening earlier than, he would think about himself hitting a house run, rounding the bases, conducting postgame interviews. It aided in making him one of many sport's most efficient postseason contributors. He adopted the identical routine earlier than Game 5 then obtained a first-pitch fastball in the second inning and hammered it 428 ft to left-center discipline to present the Dodgers a 1-0 benefit. Five innings later, towards a persistently efficient Yu Darvish, the opposite Hernández obtained a 2-1 slider that leaked out over the plate and despatched it 420 ft to the identical space.
Teoscar Hernández has been a fixture in the center of the Dodgers' lineup all yr. Kiké Hernández was introduced again for his eighth yr with the Dodgers to function a flexible bench participant, but additionally to shine in October. His newest residence run was his 14th in 75 profession postseason video games.
“I kept telling myself, ‘They brought you here for a reason. They brought you here to play in October,'” Kiké Hernández remarked. “I wanted to return to make a run with this team, because I really want to have a parade. I knew that whether it was going to be on defense or at the plate, I was going to find a way to win this game for us.”
“I wanted to defeat those individuals. We all aspired to defeat those individuals truly badly.”
Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts
Yamamoto did one thing related, whereas working to synchronize his supply going into the largest begin of his main league profession. The Dodgers made Yamamoto the highest-paid pitcher in baseball historical past this offseason, signing him to a 12-year, $325 million contract. He struggled in his Dodgers debut towards the Padres in March and struggled in his postseason debut towards the Padres in Game 1.
But the Dodgers had additionally witnessed him excel below Major League Baseball's brightest lights, dominating at Yankee Stadium on June 7 and stifling the Chicago Cubs — in a matchup towards countrymen Shota Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki — when he returned from a three-month absence on Sept. 10. The Dodgers hoped that model would current itself when it mattered most — then they witnessed him commanding a fastball that sat constantly at 97 mph in the primary inning and knew it could.
“In conversing with him,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman stated, “you can get the sense that he desired the ball.”
The ball traversed from Yamamoto to Evan Phillips to Alex Vesia to Michael Kopech to, in the tip, Blake Treinen. Together, they contained the Padres to zero runs and three baserunners. They and lots of others mixed to suppress the Padres scoreless over the ultimate 24 innings of this NLDS, the third-longest streak to shut a sequence in postseason historical past. The Padres' offense wasn't supposed to be subdued like this. Their depth and their expertise have been supposed to overcome even the most effective relievers.
The Dodgers disregarded all of that, and Kiké Hernández summed up why:
“We have a lot of ‘F U' in us.”
