Make California Post a Preferred Source ATLANTA –– Edwin Díaz fired a fastball. Austin Riley lifted it harmlessly to right. And exactly one week into October, the Dodgers completed their first step toward a third-straight World Series championship.
With a 4-1 win over the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday, the Dodgers won their National League Division Series three games to one.
They celebrated their progression to the NL Championship Series with a simple procession near the mound.
They didn’t dogpile on each other. They didn’t come sprinting out of the dugout as Truist Park fell silent around them.
After all, this was not the end goal for the two-time defending champions, who are trying to become the first team in NL history, and third franchise in MLB history, to complete a World Series three-peat triumph.
But still, it was an important test, one that –– a brief scare after Sunday’s Game 2 loss, aside –– they found a way to grind through successfully.
This time, Andy Pages played the hero, breaking a 1-1 tie in the seventh inning with a go-ahead two-run single.
From there, the Dodgers bullpen took care of the rest, following up a 4 ⅔-inning start from Tyler Glasnow with 5 ⅓ spotless frames to close out the series.
Now, the Dodgers will await either the Milwaukee Brewers or San Diego Padres in the NLCS. Game 1 will be on Sunday either in Milwaukee (if the Brewers advance) or Dodger Stadium (if the Padres can rally).
Either way, they will be favored to win the pennant.
In case the baseball world needed another reminder, they have found a formula for consistent, relentless, inevitable postseason success.
The Braves struck first Wednesday. Michael Harris II, who was moved into the leadoff spot to jump-start Atlanta’s slumping lineup, ambushed a first-pitch fastball from Glasnow for a single, stole second and advanced to third on grounder, then scored after making an excellent (and aggressive) read on a two-out, two-strike curveball that Glasnow bounced into the dirt and off Will Smith’s chest protector.
The Dodgers, however, would be gifted the run right back in the second. Shohei Ohtani, who was moved to the cleanup spot in the Dodgers’ latest attempt to get his bat going, showed the kind of plate discipline the team had been looking for by drawing a leadoff walk. He then stole second, took third on an errant throw into the outfield, and scored on a dropped ball from Braves shortstop Mauricio Dubón, who clanked a Max Muncy pop-up in shallow left field.
It was the Dodgers’ first time this series scoring on something other than a home run.
Glasnow worked around walks in the second, third and fourth innings.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, struggled to even get anyone on base against Braves starter Tyler Mahle, who peppered them with fastballs off the outer edge of the plate and splitters that darted below the zone.
Mahle would outlast Glasnow, who was finally pulled after walking two more batters in the fifth –– giving way to Alex Vesia to escape the two-on, two-out jam on a scorching 108 mph ground ball Matt Olson hit straight to Kiké Hernández at second base.
More trouble would arise in the sixth, after a leadoff double from Ozzie Albies. But the Dodgers wiggled out of it again, with Edgardo Henriquez coming in and recording the final two outs on 100+ mph fastballs.
That bought the Dodgers’ offense just enough time.
In the top of the seventh, they finally chased Mahle from the game after a one-out single from Teoscar Herández. Then, following two walks from Didier Fuentes that loaded the bases, the once-slumping, but recently resurgent, Pages delivered.
Last October, Pages couldn’t buy a hit during an historic postseason slump.
This week, he went 0-for-7 in the first two games of the NLDS, leading to speculation he might get benched the way he did in last year’s World Series.
Manager Dave Roberts, however, re-affirmed his faith in the 25-year-old All-Star center fielder before Game 3, declaring: “For us to win the World Series this year, we’re gonna need him to be an active part of our team.”
Even before he came to the plate in the seventh, he had recorded three singles over his previous five at-bats.
Then, after working a full count against Robert Suarez, he produced his biggest swing yet, lining his two-run single back up the middle that put the Dodgers in front for good –– and gave them their first hit with a runner in scoring position of the series, snapping their previous 0-for-14 drought.
From there, the bullpen just kept rolling. Henriquez returned for a second inning of work in the bottom of the seventh. Tanner Scott retired the side in order in the eighth. Then, after Muncy added a solo insurance blast in the top of the ninth (his third home run of the series), Díaz entered for his latest moment of late-season redemption, closing it out just as the Dodgers imagined when they signed him to a $69 million contract this offseason.
That ended the series. It continued the defending champs’ march through October.
More test still lie ahead. But a World Series three-peat is coming into sight.
