Once again, the Dodgers and Padres face off in an elimination game. First time in 2020, LA swept Padres. Last time, 2022, Padres won 3-1. It is only fitting that this series go the whole 5 games. Banged up Dodgers against a team that is becoming more despised than the Giants. The Dodgers used a bullpen game to get here. Make no mistake, with what is riding on this game, erasing the demons of the last three years, and beating a bitter rival, all hands will be on deck. Yamamoto will have a very short leash. LA cannot afford to fall behind by a bunch of runs.
Game time 5:08. 6:08 for me. LA lineup, Ohtani DH, Betts RF, Freeman 1B, Teo LF, Muncy 3B, Smith C, Lux 2B, Kike CF, Edman SS. Yamamoto Vs Darvish. This was a pitcher’s duel. But not in the normal sense. Darvish went 6.2 innings. He allowed only 3 hits. But this time 2 of those hits were homers. Kike took him deep in the second, and Teo hit his shot in the 7th. But the story was the excellent Dodger pitching.
Yamamoto went 5 scoreless innings. He gave up 2 hits and a walk and that was it. He struck out 2. The third inning was the only inning in which the Padres had more than 1 runner on base, and after the third, they had no runners at all. LA pitchers shut out the Padres for 24 consecutive innings. The one threat they had was ended when Yamamoto got Tatis Jr. to ground into an inning ending double play.
Phillips, Vesia, Kopech, and Treinen were awesome. Now lets beat the Mets.
Take that naysayers. Roberts pressed all the right buttons tonight.
That game was a gift to us fans. Thank you Dodgers! Yee-hah!
The first question I have is …do we even think of pitching Buehler v The Mets? We really need 3 starters….who else would be #3 if not Buehler? Knack and Wrob are just to raw. So who else? And what if Buehler only goes 1+ inning? Now we have to wear out the bullpen again. Is it really fine to ask the bullpen to pitch one inning every game? Some games are the next day. Can you ask a guy to pitch 15 pitches on Tuesday and then do the same on Wednesday? And then ask him to do it again on Friday. I don’t know…
Glad we won though and are moving on. Too bad we can’t get one of our injured guys back in the lineup.
The big decision was whether to take Yamamoto out after 5 with a very low pitch count. I am sure it was pre-decided before the game with input from all coaches, manager, and several from the front office. The face for all those strategists was Roberts and had it not worked out, fans would have pointed in his direction. He won’t get too many compliments for taking him out though.
Hey Bear, we’re Movin On.
https://youtu.be/6_cS5iZl_TI
Fuck SD
So all the Padre’s cockiness and strutting around were simply masks that hid their lack of cajones under pressure. Figures.
See, Yoshi’s success tonight was his first real step at getting his confidence back, and paving the way for him to become an effective SP for the rest of the playoffs. The repercussions from this is why starting him this game was the right thing to do.
The Teo off-season acquisition has turned into a genius move by AF.
Teoscar has more than earned his salary this year.
For the record, I’ve seen Doc go against splits in the past and it’s worked for him sometimes and other times not. That scares me to death in the playoffs. It’s not all on the players if they fail, because some players have obvious flaws and it’s up to the manager to put them in the best position to succeed. There’s seven very good relievers in the bullpen, something the Dodgers haven’t had in quite a while. Stay away from the other two relievers and go with the splits. If doc does that, good things will happen and so far it has.
Again, it’s not all on the players if they fail, some have obvious flaws. The manager is supposed to put those particular players in the best position to succeed.
Gotta love Kike.
Kiké Hernandez when asked what’s different about this Dodgers team:
“The fact that we don’t give a f*ck”
Dodgers shut out San Diego to win NLDS. It looked bleak after Game 3, but the Dodgers used a bullpen game, and a starter many on here did not want to see pitch in Game 5, and 4 relievers to pitch back to back shutouts. In fact, LAD pitching shutout the Padres the final 25 innings. The Dodgers and their make shift pitching beat the two SD aces to move on.
The Dodgers won Game 5 of the NLDS without anything from Shohei or Mookie. Kiké Hernández was the star in this one. 2nd inning HR and a couple of nice plays at 3B in the 9th, including 105.5 MPH ground ball off the bat of Fernando Tatis Jr. to end the game. How fitting was that. Not only does Tatis Jr. make the final out of the NLDS but he goes 0-4 with a K and a DP.
For all those who were disparaging Kiké during the season, October is why the Dodgers re-signed him. What he did March to AS break is meaningless now.
Manny Machado goes 0-3 with a big K. Yet another big disappointment for the malcontent.
Yu Darvish was brilliant for 7.0 IP AGAIN (okay 6.2), but this time Yoshi Yamamoto was better. I know Yoshi did not pitch 5.0 perfect innings, but I assume that Make Mine Blue will accept 5.0 shutout innings with only 2 hits and 1 walk.
It was great to shut the punk Profar up. Maybe the LF fans should do a little victory dance in front of Profar.
I do not know what Teo has to do to get that extension AFTER the season is over.
https://twitter.com/MikeDiGiovanna/status/1844945353042231502
Evan Phillips proved again just how valuable he is. Michael Kopech may be the best deadline trade made in MLB this year.
I was texting a friend whose favorite player is Blake Treinen. He was wearing his #49 jersey for the game. Doug had a feeling that Blake was going to do something special tonight.
I was texting another friend who was drafted by the Dodgers in the first round of the 1986 MLB January Draft-Regular Phase (20th overall). He was done after 1987 due to injuries.
I cannot think of a better managing job than what we witnessed from Dave Roberts in Games 4 and 5. He showed some of that 2020 by making decisions based on what he saw rather than letting the back office nerds dictate when to take out a pitcher. Just like he did with Julio Urías in 2020, he let Yamamoto go because of what he saw. He said as much after the game. He perfectly pivoted after the Alex Vesia apparent injury.
Maybe now we can move on from Doc’s job being on the line.
Brilliant win. Bring on the Mets. They will be tough. But so were the Padres.
What a couple of magnificent game plans were put together by Doc and the staff for games 4 and 5. But, game plans aren’t worth a spit if the players don’t execute and our execution was awesome. Obviously, the idea is to put your guys in a position to be successful. Doc did that and every single player responded. What a great team win.
*One of the lessons I’ll take away is the veteran mentality of composure. After game 3 with the altercations and the Padres effort to get under our skin, we didn’t take the bait as a team. Fans here wanted retaliation and revenge for their bush league antics, which is what they wanted. Like I said, it’s amazing how quiet they get when they are getting their asses handed to them. There will be other times for revenge if we ever want to bother. Seeing them not do shit for the last 20 innings is good enough for me.
I was one who had no trust in Yamamoto and was curious what route we would go with the starting pitching. If you start Yamamoto, have a hook ready. And I’m sure they did. But damned if he doesn’t look like the Ace we’d hoped for?
Then Doc has the stones to yank him at 5 innings and stick with the plan?
I could just hear about 75% of the fans who now loved the original game plan to start Yamamoto now saying WTF?
Again, if that doesn’t work, Doc again has pissed away another playoff game. Fire the bastard. The fans are like wolves at your door.
*This all brings to mind an old message that every manager needs to learn and remember; if you listen to all the Managers in the stands and try to please them, pretty soon you will be sitting with them.
Thoughts on the game:
*Doc was really feeling his oats when he had Will Smith steal 2nd. He really had a great game-manager game. All the way down to the defensive replacements late in the game with Kike at 3rd and Muncy at first. It did put Pages in center for the 9th, but it all worked.
*We all know a quarter slide, a dime slide….Yamamoto has a “pin-head” slider. Never seen a tighter rotation.
*Is Kike, Mr. October? He just has a flare for the big stage. It’s a rare talent but he just believes in himself in those moments. I was a little disappointed, however, in his postgame interview. Kinda low class and a weird comment, under the circumstances.
*Well Teo has made himself a lot of money today. It will go a long way in determining his destination for next year. I hope it’s with us. We love him and he loves us. Pay the man.
*I have no idea where we go from here pitching wise? But we are here and the Padres aren’t and now we have a 7 games series to figure it out. Maybe some pitcher comes out of nowhere and makes an impact. Maybe Casparious?
**where’s Dennis Gilbert? I don’t get LA News so wouldn’t know if he was in the news. I haven’t seen him at all ay Dodger games, which is unusual
*Damn, I’m glad we’re moving on.
I love that Bullpen!! Yamamoto got us started. Good on him, but the BP controlled the outcome once again.
I’m not going to complain about the lack of hitting from some of our stalwarts. This win is too sweet not to savour fully.
This was an absolute master class of managing from Dave Roberts. Anyone who doubts him should take note. This was as surgical as an operation.
I’m beginning to come around on Friedman now. I can see how smart the front office is.
Most importantly, I am a moron. Yup that’s right, I’m a huge maroon. I’m so happy right now, and excited and haven’t been This excited in a long time. Please pile it on me guys. Call me an idiot. I deserve it and will wear it proudly.
I’m a big massive moron and I love it.
Now let’s bring home that world series trophy where it rightly belongs. In Dodger Stadium.
I was texting people before game 4 telling them that the Dodgers needed to get kike in the lineup. That man is as clutch as it gets. If you were to look up clutch in the dictionary it would show a picture of Kike Hernandez and he would be dancing.
Wahooooooo!!!!! YEAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
PS, Bluto was kind of right. Partially. (Don’t get a big head or anything Bluto)
Oh and one more thing…….
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!@!@@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Only lefties besides Vesia and Banda on the roster are Zach Logue, and Wrobleski. If Vesia cannot go, I think they use Wrobleski.
Man, oh man. What a win. Stressful but joyful .
Yoshi was fantastic today. Rewarded Doc and the Dodgers for their confidence in him and he responded in a huge way. IMHO this guy will pitch a lot more huge games in the future for our men in blue. You saw what awesome stuff he has when he is right.
Bullpen one more time was nails and the offense did just enough to make it stand up. Kike is just born for those kind of games.
Hopefully Vesia is not hurt too bad. Fingers crossed.
Now bring on the Mets!
Personal note: Just when the game was about to start internet broke down in our house . Went to sleep without glancing at the scoreboard. Watched the game on MLB archive and just finished watching this thriller.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great win and great to knock off the cocky Padres, especially the cocky, bat-ear wearing Machado. Amazing work by our pen (by the way, I saw a shirtless Banda in the post game celebration and he looks like he not only comes out of our pen but comes straight out of the State Pen. He should be allowed to pitch without a shirt, he’d scare the hell out of the batters).
24 innings without scoring a run, and not just earned runs but earned and unearned, now that is an achievement.
I’m not concerned about Buehler, he actually pitched pretty well but got zero help from the umpires, his defense or his offense. He should be fine and adequate for the next series. What I am concerned about is Vesia, he is a pretty important piece of our bullpen.
Taking a quick look ahead to the NLCS it appears Yoshi will only be able to get one game, Game 4 next Thursday , if he remains on his 5 day rest.
Not going to be easy vs the Mets who have been on a roll.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please stop with the “I told you so” quips. The Dodgers advanced. Roberts has made many good and many BAD decisions over the years. And I think half of them came from AF. But the last two games, he got it done. If not out managed The Padres. Good for him.
Karma. Hey Tatis, how you feeling man? IMO it is you, YOU that screwed your team. The baseball Gods were watching. You acted a fool and here we are. And I have ZERO sympathy for you. You’re a punk. Have fun watching from the seats.
Dodger relievers. You won the series. I’m not sure the game has ever seen a dominating performance like that over a 3 game span. All of you deserve credit for carrying the team.
I owe our Dodgers an apology. I thought it was over. Kike said it best at the end of the game. This team seems different. I won’t doubt you again. You are better than the Mets. Go Dodgers!
Putting the punks; Machado, Profar, and Tatis in their places, PRICELESS!!
Looking over the Box Score from last night, this was just an amazingly clean baseball game. Certainly enjoyable if you like pitching duels.
2 runs on 6 hits, no errors with 7 LOB. 2:26 minutes.
Would like to remind everyone the Padres sold the farm to get Tanner Scott for two months. He’s gone. UFA. Bye bye!
Adams will be around for a few years. But he is not Scott. And he didn’t come cheap either.
The deadline trades hampered the Padres future. 100%
From here on out, let’s show some true respect: I will only refer to Kike as Mr. October.
Mr. October not only crushes it in October, he inspires his teammates with that spirit. Mr. October told Teo before Game 4 that two Hernandez had ever hit an HR in a playoff game. After not doing so in Game 4, Mr. October quickly told Teo that it would happen in Game 5, and so it did.
The Brass has to bring back both Mr. October and Teo for next season.
I hope Mookie gets back into the batting cage for 4 hours today.
The Dodgers won and that’s optimal, but i dont get the digs at the Padres.
They are a really good team, super fun to watch and with a GM who (while not as good as the Dodgers front office) is both aggressive and has a keen eye for talent.
Beating a really good team is good and should be enough. No need to disparage.
Roberts was flawless managing the pitching staff the last 24 shutout innings. I also agree with the decision to take Yoshi out after 5. It was a low pitch count but if u r going to move forward to the next series u r careful with Yoshi. I really think the players confidence in their role was crucial. They had a plan n stuck to it. It was tremendous execution so it was fun to watch it unfold. Moreover, Roberts and the team seemed very confident and determined to complete the plan. When Roberts went to the mound for change it was very clear it was a plan. The other team sees that the Dodgers have their mojo and they just couldn’t find an answer.
kikes game was great!! His interview was embarrassing. He sounded like profar, machado, tatis who spew out low class quotes. At the end of the game I was a little nervous with just a 2-0 lead he put Taylor and pages in. Pages because of less than stellar defense. Taylor, because if the pads had tied the game the 4 spot was close and could have been critical. Taylor would have probably homered lol. Nothing can take away the excitement for the Dodgers advancing. I also think it relieves a little pressure. The most pressure in sports tend to be the opening series with regional rivalries. Nothing comes easy but with the determination of this team I like their chances.
Dodgers celebrate in the clubhouse !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ0Qq4s_Uh4
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good morning to all those who were so worried about those sons of bitches all season!
I’ve been saying for years that those little whores aren’t a problem, and I mean years, not just the most recent ones.
Mets? The only thing that “might” worry me a little is that they are on a good winning streak, since really their batting, beyond Lindor and Alonso, is not really a big concern.
Can you imagine a world series between LA and DET?
The Dodgers put a lot of resources into analytics and I think that might have played a big role in the pitching plan they developed for the Padres series. It paid benefits particularly after game 2.
The Padres‘ hitters are pretty disciplined about the strike zone (for the most part), except maybe Arraez, who is an exception anyway because of his particular skill set. But when pressed, they can fall in love with the long ball and can become prone to chase, especially breaking balls that peel off down and away. Machado does this a lot. I can’t be sure, but I only recall Yamamoto throwing one center cut fastball last night. Tatis just missed slightly and took Mookie to the wall. But it seemed the Dodger’s plan was to stay away from the Padres’ power and tap into their aggressive impatience. They were going to wait for the Padres to make them put balls into the zone more…and the Padres never made them do that.
The bullpen game was brilliant for this – with a different look every inning. But the Dodgers relievers implemented it, give them credit, no mistakes over the plate. By game 5, the Padre hitters were pressing, and Yoshi pulled the same plan off that the RPs did in game 4. Credit to him. By the time the bullpen got back in game 5, it was over, everyone could see it…and the Padre hitters were so far out of sync and out of patience by then it was child’s play.
My take here was that they saw that there was a tendency for the Padres to become over-aggressive, especially when pressed. I credited their analytics but it could have easily been just very effective scouting. Nevertheless, they dug out the tendency from the noise and crafted an effective pitching plan for a team that traded away the one guy that would have exposed it – Soto.
I’ve always had 2 hated teams, the traditionaly hated teams for a Dodger fan, the Yankees and Giants. But the Padres just irritate the hell out of me and because of that, I’ve added them as my 3rd hated team.
Speaking of the Yankees, although they are one of my hated teams, I’d like to see a Dodgers/Yankees World Series. I have fond memories of the 1981 World Series, it was my 3rd full season following the Dodgers when I was a kid. I watched the 1978 World Series with my grandpa who was a big Dodgers fan, and that was the exact moment I started following the Dodgers.
I’ve been a big advocate of building a dominant bullpen because once you turn over the game to a dominate bullpen with a lead you normally win those games 99% of the time if you truly have a dominate bullpen.
https://www.truebluela.com/2024/10/12/24268375/freddie-freeman-dodgers-mound-visit-evan-phillips-max-muncy
Was looking at matchups for the series. Dodgers are supposedly better in left, right, catcher, DH, bullpen, and second base. They picked Alonso over Freeman. Freeman is a career .300 hitter against the Mets. His OPS against them is .887. He also has 39 homers, the most he has against any team and 129 RBIs against the Mets. Alonso is a .238 hitter against LA with an OPS below .800. He has 7 career homers against LA and 18 driven in. I think LA has the advantage there too. Freeman drove in more runs by one than Alonso hitting 10 less homers. Alonso also strikes out a lot more than Freddie does.
When will rosters be announced ?
Will be interesting to see what the Dodgers do with Rojas. Mets have a lot of lHP so it would be an advantage if he is good to go. If not will it be KK to replace him ?
On the pitching side: If Vesia can not go IMHO it will be Wrobleski to replace him.
Another candidate to be left off could be Henriquez. Love his stuff but he might be too inexperienced for LCS. His one appearance vs the Padres was not good.
Could the Dodgers have one up their sleeves and call on Bobby Miller ? He had an very good last start at OKC couple weeks ago an I am sure the Dodgers have kept him throwing since. He has the same good stuff as Henriquez, more experience and if he is good could give some length if needed.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dodgers need four starters for seven game series so it’s Yamamoto Flarethy Buehler and who it Kershaw really that hurt with a big toe since July it hasn’t gotten better when Freeman rolls an ankle and is back in lineup in a week. If they could just get three innings out of Kershaw Id be happy with that rather then Stone Knack or Casperius or do the just make Brasier the fourth guy as a starter and go three innings. It’s a seven game series now you need four starters and my guess Flarethy starts game 1.
Can you imagine a healthy Glasnow and Graterol on this team? That would push the 2 weak spots in the bullpen off the team. Also, imagine a healthy Gonsolin and Stone as backups in case of injuries. AF gets a lot of flack and I don’t know why, 12 straight playoff appearances and some in a crapshoot playoff format and the best Dodgers team this year that I’ve seen in quite awhile. In my opinion better than the 2020 team that won it all. I said before the season started, this team has the foundation/structure to win it all. Sure the bench is pretty weak and the 2 spots in the bullpen are weak because of injuries and the starting pitching took a blow because of Glasnow and to a lesser extent Stone. But I’m telling you, sooner or later Yamamoto is going to become the ACE of the starting pitching and Buehler is a gamer, he has something that some other guys don’t, Buehler reminds me of Hershiser.
CLE just hung a 5 spot on Skubal and the Tigers.
5-1 now in the 5th.
bye,bye Hinch. Hopefully.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!
So many fun posts to read today, and none of the are the ridiculous “blow the entire franchise up” type.
Love the comments!
74.4% of The Atletic staff pick the Dodgers, for whatever that’s worth. Money likes the Dodgers. No surprise there.
Wow, I just checked how many comments are on Mark’s blog, it’s 41 right now after the Dodgers advanced, 41. There’s 162 here right now, although I added about 8 thumbs up to posts I really like. That’s what happens with a personality like his and today he did his normal thing, he talked sh!t about some people that don’t post anymore on his blog, the day after the Dodgers advance. Wow, let it go today, the Dodgers advanced. Sorry guys for bringing this up but you know.
TheAthletic article on Senga’s arsenal and velo in his last start ($$$$)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5826237/2024/10/09/kodai-senga-stuff-mets-phillies-nlds/?source=user_shared_article
On the fastball, the velocity wasn’t good, but the movement was fine.
….
The sweeper swept, the slider dropped, and it was in the range of his demonstrated movements so far for the Mets. The one bit of worry might come from the fact that his slider averaged 83.5 mph, while it’s been 84.6 mph for his career, and 85 mph is currently accepted as a bit of a “magic number” for slider velocity.
…
The best news is that the vaunted Ghost Fork was no different from usual.
Gavin Stone had shoulder surgery on October 9 performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache. He will miss all of 2025.