You hear this phrase in government and elections sometimes, usually as a warning to scare voters: If you don't re-elect me, all the Great Things I've done can be un-done with "one stroke of a pen" by that other evil person.
You might have noticed that this year's postseason eventually looked a lot like last year's. (Aside from, ya know, neutral sites and the lack of fans.) Three of the final four combatants were the same, and the one spot that flipped-- from the Rays to the Red Sox-- happened because Boston beat Tampa Bay in the previous round. The NLCS was exactly the same matchup. Yet, like Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison trading the presidency in the 1890s, last year's losers end up being this year's winners.
Sale Items May Run Out Early
You've heard it applied to most team sports: "Offense wins games, defense wins championships." So how did the Astros end up winning this without much of either one? (Go ahead, yell that other answer, you know you want to.)
You may remember Framber Valdez's unconvincing 4-run start in Game 2 of the Division Series against Chicago. The good news is that in Game 1 against Boston, he didn't give up 4 runs. However, that's only because the defense turned double plays to get him out of jams in both the 1st and 2nd innings. He ends up getting pulled in the 3rd after three more hits including a homer from Enrique Hernandez, a walk, and a booted force attempt by Jose Altuve. Meanwhile, Chris Sale is, well, 50% off. He's given up 5 singles, a wild pitch, and hit a batter by the time he gets pulled in the 3rd inning as well. Remember, this isn't even a must-win game. It's Game 1. But now that we have 26-player rosters and 14 of them are pitchers, and plus we haven't played in a few days, who cares. It's the fourth Game 1 in postseason history where neither starter got through the 3rd; the previous was the famous suspended game in the 2011 ALDS. The others were in 1923 and 1966. (It also happened in the 2017 Wild Card game, but that's not really a "Game 1" because it's not a series.)
Maybe Cristian Javier and Adam Ottavino should have started instead. Because they kept everything quiet for the middle innings with the Sawx holding the 3-1 advantage. Until the 6th when Tanner Houck takes the mound and Altuve atones for his fielding gaffe. That would be a game-tying 2-run homer, getting Valdez off the hook. He's the second starter in Astros history to gave up 6 hits, 3 walks, not finish the 3rd, and not get a loss, and when Framber Valdez is managing the Astros in 2043, you heard it here first. The other pitcher to do that was Larry Dierker on July 13, 1975. (Dierker eventually became Astros manager in 1997, hence the 22-year gap.)
Altuve's homer was followed an inning later by Carlos Correa's go-ahead bomb. He also hit an 11th-inning walkoff in Game 2 of the 2019 ALCS against the Yankees, and is the first player to have multiple go-ahead postseason homers in the 7th or later at Minute Maid. And an insurance run never hurts, so Jose Altuve will tack on a sac fly in the 8th. He also had a homer and 3 RBI as the Astros leadoff batter in the final game of the Division Series, joining Davey Lopes (1978) and Lenny Dykstra (1993) as the only leadoff batters to do that twice in the same postseason.
And hey, insurance can come in handy when someone else hits you. Especially if "you" are Ryan Pressly and "someone else" is Enrique Hernandez's solo homer to lead off the 9th. In what will become a theme in this series, that gives him 4 hits including 2 homers (remember he hit the one off Valdez in the 3rd), the first leadoff batter in Red Sox history to do that in a loss (ever, including the regular season). Only four Sawx leadoff batters have ever had the 2 homers in a postseason game, win or lose; the others are Johnny Damon in 2004, Harry Hooper in 1915, and the king of all things first-ever-postseason, Patsy Dougherty from the first modern World Series in 1903. Dougherty and Hernandez share one other note, that of being the only Sawx leadoff batters with 11 total bases in a loss; Dougherty did it before that first World Series, in a regular-season game on July 29, 1903. The only other leadoff batter besides Hernandez to do it in a postseason loss was George Brett in the 1978 ALCS.
So after Game 1 "featured" sixteen pitchers, predictably the most ever in any postseason Game 1 (make it stop!), you would hope somebody would go more than 2 innings in Game 2. Certainly the managers were hoping that. At least this time one of them got their wish. And the other ended up winning the series. Because, you know, defense wins championships.
But offense wins games, and this one will be remembered as simply grand. Luis Garcia, who also followed Framber Valdez in the Division Series, and also sputtered his way to 5 runs, did both of those things again. And this time it only took 3 outs. Kyle Schwarber led off the game with a double, joining Dustin Pedroia (2016) and Jacoby Ellsbury (twice) as the only Red Sox batters to do that in a postseason road contest. Garcia then walked two more batters to set up the second 1st-inning grand slam in Red Sox postseason history. And they've both been hit by "J.D."s; the other was by Mr. Drew in Game 6 of the 2007 ALCS against Cleveland. (Also fun fact: J.D. Drew is not actually J.D. Drew. He's D.J. Drew (David Jonathan) but went by John as a kid so it got reversed.)
Not getting reversed: The Red Sox lead in this one. Garcia issued a leadoff walk in the 2nd and then took himself out of the game citing a "knee strain". This, of course, led to one of the more humorous (or excruciating) moments of the postseason because Jake Odorizzi, normally a starter, apparently needed two days' notice to throw a pitch. He went through an elaborate long-toss routine, some wind sprints, all with 40,000 fans and both teams looking on, before even starting to throw any warmup pitches. Depending on when you start and stop counting, the whole escapade took nearly 18 minutes, during which at least one broadcast falsely declared that the umpires were powerless to stop it. And obviously that still wasn't long enough. Because Odorizzi gave up two more singles and then-- say it with us-- another grand slam. No team in postseason history had hit two slams in the same game, and the only other time the Red Sox ever hit them in both the 1st and 2nd innings was August 7, 1984, by Bill Buckner and Tony Armas. And since a slam, by its nature, means 4 RBI for the batter who hit it, Martinez and Devers become just the third teammates in Red Sox postseason history with 4 RBI in the same game. The other pairs there are Jose Offerman and John Valentin, in an epic 23-7 game in the 1999 ALDS which will come up again; and Mo Vaughn and Nomar Garciaparra who did it the year before.
The Astros did try to make things interesting in the 9th, but they're down 9-3 and solo shots by Yuli Gurriel and Jason Castro aren't going to matter much. It was the first time Houston hit multiple 9th-inning homers when trailing by at least 5 since (surprise!) Yuli Gurriel and Evan Gattis against the Cubs on September 11, 2016. Meanwhile, Castro, who subbed in as catcher in the 7th, became the second player in Astros postseason history with a walk and a homer in a game he didn't start. The other is, well, a little more famous.
So back to Boston we go, knowing that we will at least need all three games there. And after Framber Valdez and Luis Garcia both failed to finish the 3rd, certainly Jose Urquidy can-- um, yeah, no, he can't either. Defense wins championships, remember? Urquidy does get through the 1st inning without allowing a grand slam. But then a double and 2 walks in the 2nd set up Christian Vazquez for-- oh, wait, not him. He singles to give the Sawx the lead but we're playing station-to-station ball here. Still loaded for Christian Arroyo to hit the sl-- not him either? Nope, he grounds another potential double-play ball to Altuve, who once again boots it. Instead of being out of the inning with 1 run, the Astros are still facing a bases-loaded situation. Third time's a charm. Kyle Schwarber launches one into the October sky for a 6-0 Boston lead which will not be threatened. Since the Sawx had just become the first team to hit two grand slams in any single postseason game, mathematically you can know that they are also the first to hit three in two games. That was also a first in Red Sox team history, regular season or post-. This also has the effect of knocking Urquidy out of the game in the 2nd inning, just the second time in postseason history that a team's first three starters of a series have failed to finish the 3rd. And the other... was last year, when the Wild Card temporarily expanded to a 3-game set, and the Padres saw Chris Paddack, Zach Davies, and Craig Stammen all do it. The fun part? They won the series too. Defense wins championships. (Or not.)
Vazquez and Arroyo, who missed their chance at grand-slam glory in the 2nd, are going to pile on against Yimi Garcia in the 3rd and run this thing to 9-0. Arroyo ends up as just the second #9 batter in Sawx postseason history with 2 runs scored and 3 RBI in a game; the other was Trot Nixon in (we told you this would come up again) the 23-7 game in the 1999 ALDS. The 12-3 final score would be the largest home win in a postseason game for Boston since downing the Rays 12-2 in the opener of the 2013 Division Series. Because offense wins games.
Game 4-- or at least eight-ninths of it-- was not an offensive explosion. It's Zack Greinke, who's climbing the ladder with his 20th postseason start, against Nick Pivetta who threw those four outstanding innings to get the win in that 13-inning Division Series game with the Rays. The teams did trade home runs in the 1st inning, Alex Bregman off Pivetta and then Xander Bogaerts off Zack Greinke. (This inspired us to see if there had ever been a homer hit by an "X" off a "Z" before. And yes, but only one. Xavier Paul also took Greinke deep on July 25, 2013.)
Except we have multiple problems here. Greinke, who had battled several mild injuries late in the season, hadn't thrown more than 25 pitches in a month. Although Bregman's homer joined Carlos Correa (off Doug Fister) as the Astros' second 1st-inning dinger in a postseason game at Fenway, Xander's was a 2-run shot because Greinke had walked Rafael Devers. That made it the second lead-flipping homer in the 1st inning of a Sawx postseason game; the other (here it is again!) was John Valentin in that 23-7 game with Cleveland in 1999. It was also the fourth multi-run homer allowed by Greinke in the 1st inning this season, the most in his career. So could he have gone longer than 4 outs? Maybe. Did Dusty Baker want to take that chance and risk falling behind in the series 3-1? Nope. Greinke is done and the Astros are suddenly the third team in postseason history to have four starters in the same series who failed to finish the 3rd inning. The Brewers, who flirted with the "opener" idea, did it in their 2018 NLCS loss to the Dodgers, and the 1984 Padres did it in losing the World Series to Detroit.
Pivetta narrowly made it through 5 innings to qualify for a win (please rescind this rule!), but that wouldn't matter when Jose Altuve pummelled another home run off Garrett Whitlock in the 8th. That broke a tie with Derek Jeter and propelled Altuve into third place on the all-time postseason homer list, although there are of course more rounds and games now. Altuve has 21 and trails only Bernie Williams' 22 and Manny Ramirez's 29.
So we are 2-2 going to the 9th, and Alex Cora seems to realize that it would be Nate Eovaldi's "throw day" after Game 2, so why not let him "throw" in a real game? In the 9th. Of a tie game. Yyyyeah, let's see how that went. There are two strikeouts, but they're around a double and a walk. That sets up Jason Castro for a go-ahead single, joining Carlos Correa (2015) and Jake Marisnick (2014) as the only Astros to hit one of those in the 9th at Fenway. And then the wheels come off. Eovaldi walks Jose Altuve, which is sometimes not a bad idea, and his evening is over with. Alas, Martin Perez's evening is just beginning. 3-run double to Michael Brantley. Then three straight RBI singles to Yordan Alvarez, Carlos Correa, and Kyle Tucker, and this suddenly looks like a blowout at 9-2. Eovaldi got charged with 4 runs while getting 2 outs, joining Jose Santiago (1967 WS 4 at St Louis) as the only Sawx pitchers to do that and take a loss in a postseason game. And while Perez didn't technically get the loss, he didn't make things any better. He and Eovaldi are the first Boston teammates ever to give up 3+ runs while getting 2 outs in the same postseason game. And the Astros' 7-run 9th was only the fifth such inning in postseason history; the others were by the 1997 Marlins, 1990 Athletics, 1970 Orioles, and 1936 Yankees.
Launch Complete
On to Game 5, and can the Astros finally get a starting pitcher to reach the 4th inning? Well, yes they can, and in the most annoying of fashions, because Framber Valdez-- of the 3 early runs in Game 1-- retired the first 12 Red Sox batters in order and had a perfect game going into the 5th. He did not quite set off the alarms because Rafael Devers singled to start the 5th, but he also battled Chris Sale to a 1-0 score after Yordan Alvarez hit a solo homer to start the 2nd. Things stay quiet until the 6th when Alvarez hits a 2-run double to knock Sale out of the game. Ryan Brasier doesn't fare much better, giving up a double to Gurriel and a 2-run single to Jose Siri, and suddenly the Astros have erupted for 5 runs. After last night's 7-run 9th, it's the third time that Houston has hung a 5-spot in consecutive postseason games. It happened in their Division Series against Oakland last year and against Atlanta in 2004. Gurriel would go on to add two more runs with an 8th-inning single against our friend Martin Perez; he and Alvarez became the first Astros teammates ever to have 3 hits and 3 RBI in the same postseason game.
Valdez would last all the way to the 8th inning and give up only 1 run. Only two other Houston hurlers have done that in the postseason, and they were in back-to-back games. Mike Scott and Nolan Ryan did it at Shea Stadium in the 1986 NLCS.
So after dominating wins of 9-2 and 9-1, the Astros get to take this thing home and shut it down. Luis Garcia's "knee strain" (and/or, ego bruise) has magically healed in the last few days and so Dusty Baker gives him the ball in Game 6 with a game in hand. Happily we'd already done the research on Astros postseason no-hitters, because Garcia saw fit to extend Valdez's performance from Game 5. He did lose the perfect game on the very first batter when Kyle Schwarber struck out but then reached first on a wild pitch. Only one other leadoff batter in postseason history had pulled that off, Derek Jeter in 2011 ALDS 1, once again that famous suspended game between Justin Verlander and CC Sabathia. Yordan Alvarez lifted an RBI double to center later in the 1st such that the Astros were hanging on a 1-0 lead for much of the game. In a scene very different from his early departure in Game 2, Garcia would take that no-hitter into the 6th before Enrique Hernandez poked a triple into Fenway's famous "triangle". It was the second-deepest no-hitter in Astros postseason history, behind Brandon Backe's 5⅔-inning effort in Game 5 of the 2004 NLCS.
So finally defense wins championships. Eovaldi and Houck have decent games for Boston, and the Sawx still have a chance down 2-0 in the 8th, but Yordan Alvarez chases Houck with his fourth hit of the game. He was involved in both the Astros' previous runs, doubling home Alex Bregman in the 1st and then scoring after a leadoff triple in the 6th. Eovaldi stranded him after another double in the 4th. So he's already joined a short list of postseason batters with a triple and 2 doubles; it includes Carl Crawford (2008 Rays), Billy Hatcher (1990 Reds), Dane Iorg (1982 Cardinals), and Pete Rose (1976 Reds). Only one other cleanup batter in Astros history has hit a triple and 2 doubles in a game, Jeff Bagwell at Philadelphia on August 22, 1992. And when Kyle Tucker slammed a 3-run homer in the 8th to secure the pennant, it would be just the second time in ALCS history that a team advanced to the World Series via a shutout of 5-0 or more. The 1979 Orioles blanked the Angels by an 8-0 count. In the pre-LCS days, the only AL teams to clinch their pennant with a 5-0 shutout were the Tigers of 1908 (their third straight) and the Athletics in both 1914 and 1929. You may remember Tucker also hitting a 3-run dinger in Game 3 of the same series; he joins Ken Caminiti (1999 NLDS vs Braves) as the only batters in Houston postseason history with two in a series.
And granted, the two were not in the same league until 2013, but if the Red Sox had to pick a time to be shut out on 3 or fewer hits by the Astros, you can bet they wouldn't have picked an elimination game in the postseason. Because Friday's 5-0 win was the first such game in the series history between the two teams.
National Velvet
Over in the National League, well, stop us if you've seen this one before. No, wait, don't stop us, because you have seen this before and we still want you to keep reading. Because part of the beauty of baseball is that you can see the same thing mulitple times and have it not end the same way.
Last year's National League Championship Series came down to a 7-game battle between the Braves and the Dodgers. The whole mess was played at a neutral site in Arlington, and despite getting slammed 15-3 in Game 3, the Braves still took three of the first four and the Dodgers had to rally from that 3-1 deficit to advance. Sound a little familiar?
2021's championship series was allowed to be played in Atlanta finally, and amazingly the Dodgers approached this as a "bullpen" game. After grinding out a 5-game Division Series with the Giants, they sent Corey Knebel to the mound to start Game 1 against the Braves-- after Knebel had also started Game 5 against the Giants. He joined Clayton Kershaw in 2017 as the only pitchers in Dodgers history to "start" consecutive postseason games, and Kershaw's were on normal rest because they won the NLCS in 5. Knebel would go only 1 inning, because 2021, and thus also join Carl Erskine in the 1953 World Series against the Yankees as the only Dodgers "starters" to last 1 inning in a postseason game.
If you would prefer the close, "nail-biter" games as opposed to the offense/defense battle, well, this NLCS is right up your alley. After Eddie Rosario scored on a wild pitch by Knebel in the 1st, Chris Taylor tied things up with an RBI single against Braves starter Max Fried. There was then the ceremonial trading of solo homers between Will Smith and Austin Riley in the 4th. So here we are tied 2-2 in the late innings, with starting pitchers long forgotten, and Austin Riley at the plate. Blake Treinen has allowed a 1-out single to Ozzie Albies, who then stole second, and all Riley has to do is-- oh yeah, hit a walkoff. The Braves' last walkoff anything against the Dodgers was on August 17, 2012, when Juan Francisco singled off Jamey Wright. The only other Braves batter to have a game-tying hit (see: the homer) and a separate walkoff hit against the Dodgers was Jeff Blauser on July 21, 1997. Along the way Tony Gonsolin managed to be the first Dodgers relief pitcher to collect a base hit in a postseason game since Brian Holton in the 1988 NLCS against the Mets.
The Dodgers decided they would make Game 2 a little more interesting early on. Mookie Betts blooped a single into shallow left, and then Corey Seager went yard for a 2-run homer. Only two other Dodgers have hit a 2-run homer as the team's second batter of a game: Max Muncy in 2019 NLDS 5 against the Nationals, and Matt Kemp in 2009 NLDS 1 against the Cardinals. The Dodgers hadn't hit such a homer against the Braves since Franklin Stubbs took Craig McMurtry deep on June 24, 1984.
But in the 4th it's back to Joc Pederson. Against Max Scherzer. You still tend to think of Joc as a Dodger, and you're not quite used to thinking of Max as a Dodger yet. So when one homers off the other, well, it's a little weird. Turns out six other players have hit a postseason homer for the Dodgers and also against the Dodgers; they are Mookie Betts, Howie Kendrick, Manny Machado, Carlos Ruiz, Bill Skowron, and Jayson Werth.
That just means we're back to 2-2 before Chris Taylor doubles again in the 7th. The Braves fight back with Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley dropping back-to-back RBI hits in the bottom of the 8th, and combined with his walkoff in Game 1, that makes Riley the first player in Braves history with a tying or go-ahead hit in the 8th or later of consecutive postseason games.
If you're already inclined to name this The Eddie Rosario Series, you're good. It's 4-4 in the 9th when Rosario gets to face Kenley Jansen with 2 outs and Dansby Swanson at third. And on the first pitch Rosario does this. That's a second consecutive walkoff to start a postseason series; the Braves join the 1997 Marlins, 1981 Astros, and 1969 Orioles as the only teams in postseason history to do that. The Braves, for their part, had only one other postseason series with multiple walkoff wins; that was the 1991 World Series which ultimately ended with Jack Morris's 1-0, 10-inning win in Game 7. The Braves hadn't walked off the Dodgers in consecutive games in any situation since Chipper Jones and Fred McGriff did it on July 5-6, 1995.
So our series shifts back to Dodger Stadium, which generally means the Braves aren't going to able to walk off. No worries, we can (almost) have the Dodgers do that too. Game 3 featured the well-rested Walker Buehler and Charlie Morton, neither of whom had pitched in a week, and both of whom ended up showing their share of rust. Let's check out Morton's 1st inning: Walk, 2-run homer by Corey Seager. Okay, pause. Remember Seager also hit a 2-run homer as the Dodgers' second batter in Game 2? It turns out only two other players in postseason history have done that, and neither of them was even in the same series. John Valentin of the Red Sox did it in 1999, and Aaron Judge has hit two of them, but not in the same season. And then if we resume Morton's inning, with 2 outs, we find three straight walks and a wild pitch. This is a pitcher who issued 4 walks in a game only twice all year. Not only is he the first Braves pitcher to walk four in the 1st inning of a postseason game, he's the first to do so in any game since Mike Foltynewicz against the Cardinals on September 17, 2018.
Buehler, meanwhile, gets two double plays to escape any damage until the 4th. That's when Gavin Lux-- forced into outfield duty by the loss of Max Muncy in the regular-season finale-- has a ball clang off his glove on the warning track. There is a disputed non-strike call to Joc Pederson who ends up singling in a run. A rattled Buehler then gives up two more singles and two more walks to suddenly make it 4-2 Atlanta and chase Buehler out of the game. The last time a postseason starter for the Dodgers allowed 10 baserunners and didn't get out of the 4th was the 2009 Division Series opener against St Louis when Randy Wolf did it.
So we simmer along at 5-2 for a few innings, and these Dodgers of the last few years tend not to simmer very well. Eventually they're going to start spattering all over the stovetop. Enter Cody Bellinger. And after Will Smith and A.J. Pollock both collect singles, Bellinger spatters a Luke Jackson fastball 399 feet into the bleachers in right-center. It was just the second tying or go-ahead, 3- or 4-run homer in the 8th or later in Dodgers postseason history, after Justin Turner's walkoff in the 2017 NLCS. Two batters and one pitching change later, it was Mookie Betts whose double completely boiled things over and turned this into a 6-5 Dodgers win. Over the course of Game 3, Mookie collected two hits, two walks, and a stolen base, which no leadoff hitter had done in a postseason game since Chuck Knoblauch in the 1998 World Series. And the only other go-ahead double by the Dodgers in the 8th or later of a postseason home game is one you might have heard about. It's "only" Cookie Lavagetto's pinch-hit walkoff against the Yankees in 1947 which also denied Bill Bevens the first-ever postseason no-hitter.
Luke Jackson made some dubious postseason history as well. By giving up those 4 runs and getting only 1 out, he's the first pitcher ever to do that and get both a blown save and a loss (including retroactive saves before 1969).
Everything's Coming Up Rosarios
So we have now guaranteed ourselves a Game 5 in this series, but before that must natually come Game 4. The one that will be forever known as The Eddie Rosario Game. Even surpassing the walkoff in Game 2, which was made possible by Julio Urias blowing the save in the previous inning. Oh look who's now starting Game 4. Now, we've previously established that Rosario can't hit a walkoff at Dodger Stadium, and he certainly can't do so in the 2nd inning. But he can shorten Urias's day with a go-ahead home run, only to have Adam Duvall go back-to-back with him. It was the first time the Braves had ever hit B2B homers against the Dodgers in a postseason matchup, but the second time they did it at Chavez Ravine this year. Jorge Soler and Freddie Freeman hit them on August 30... off Julio Urias.
Speaking of Freeman, he then homers to start the 3rd, which will make Urias the second pitcher in Dodgers postseason history to give up 8 hits and 3 homers in a game. Don Newcombe did it in the opener of the 1955 World Series, although that one turned out okay for Brooklyn. With 2 outs, Rosario sends another ball down the right-field line which clangs off the bullpen door, then off Mookie Betts's foot, all the while allowing Rosario to scamper to third with a triple. So he's got "the hardest two" out of the way. In the 5th Rosario will get the easiest one, and also effectively knock Urias out of the game. He dumps a single into right, sending Ozzie Albies to third, who eventually scores on a sac fly and Urias gets taken out. Already Rosario has joined Fred McGriff as the only Braves to homer, triple, and single in a postseason game; Crime Dog did it in the Game 7 blowout of the Cardinals in 1996-- and required three different pitchers to serve them up.
Pitcher Justin Bruihl gets to face one batter in the 7th. He has one job. Don't give up a double to Eddie Rosario. Usually here we would say, guess what he does. And no, he struck Rosario out. So we get a little while longer to search old notebooks and contact lists to see if anyone still has Brock Holt's number. You may remember Holt as being the only player ever to hit for the cycle in a postseason game when he did it in the Division Series against the Yankees three years ago. By the time Rosario faces Tony Gonsolin in the 9th, the score is already 6-2 and the last bit of suspense is "will he or won't he".
No, he won't. He does take Gonsolin to right field with a ball that looks promising at first. If only he had lowered that famous "launch angle" by a point or two. At 23° it does not clang off the bullpen door this time, it clears it by about three feet. Now, we can think of a couple ways to still make this a double. Rosario could have just stopped at second and wandered off the field. (Think Robin Ventura "grand-slam single".) He could have intentionally missed third base as well and asked the Dodgers to appeal for him. Ozzie Albies, who's ahead of him, could have also stopped between second and third and let Rosario be called out for passing him. (Albies would still be allowed to score since there's only one out.)
Alas, none of these things happened. What did happen is that Rosario joined Steve Garvey (1978 NLCS) as the only players in postseason history with 2 homers and a triple in the same game. Garvey did not do that at Dodger Stadium, however, he did it in Philadelphia. The only other player to do it at Chavez Ravine-- regular season included-- is Marlon Anderson against the Padres on September 18, 2006. Only one other postseason batter had collected 12 total bases in a game without them coming from 3 homers: Hideki Matsui in the 19-8 game in the 2004 ALCS.
And remember those 4 hits Rosario had in Game 2? The only other player with multiple 4-hit games in the same postseason series is Robin Yount in the 1982 World Series. And only one other Braves batter had ever had a 4-hit, 4-RBI game at Dodger Stadium-- backup catcher Biff Pocoroba on June 9, 1982.
So in Game 4 Eddie Rosario did that. We have no idea whether he had a friendly chat with Chris Taylor overnight, or whether Taylor stole Rosario's bat or water bottle or something, but in Game 5 it was Taylor who said, hold my beer.
Before we get to that, however, we must muddle through more Dodgers pitching woes. Joe Kelly, of 48 appearances but only 44 innings in the regular season, gets tabbed to start another "bullpen game" despite the fact that Los Angeles is down 3 games to 1. Chances are he wasn't going to face more than five or six batters anyway. The unexpected part is getting hurt and coming out of the game after giving up a 2-run homer to Freddie Freeman. The Braves' last multi-run homer in the 1st inning of a postseason game came off the bat of Ryan Klesko in the 1997 NLCS against Florida. And Kelly became the first Dodgers starter not to finish the 1st inning of a playoff game since Bob Welch in the 1981 World Series (Welch faced four batters and all of them reached).
We already know the Braves will return to Atlanta after this game. The Dodgers' prospects for going with them are diminishing. They're down 2-0 and facing the usually-dependable Max Fried. Who, um, gives up two homers in the 2nd. The latter, to Taylor, is a 2-run lead-flipping shot that also scores Albert Pujols, given a chance to start in what could be his final major-league game. Taylor adds another RBI in the 3rd, and by the 5th, Fried is, well, pretty fried. His 90th pitch serves to walk Pujols and get to that precipice known as "the third time through the order". So off he goes in favor of Chris Martin. Who begins by facing Chris Taylor and not having a friend. (In case you missed the James Taylor reference in the header.) Taylor lofts his second homer of the day to make it 6-2. He's already the first batter in Dodgers postseason history to have 5 RBI in a game where they faced elimination. And as you might know, he's not done.
Dylan Lee is on the mound for the 7th when Taylor does it again. This creates a fun list of all the players to hit 3 homers and have 6 RBI in a postseason game. Because you've heard about the other two just in this post. Enrique Hernandez, who will also not be playing in the World Series this year, did it for the Dodgers in 2017 NLCS 5. And the first guy to do it... hit right in front of Taylor. It's current Dodger Albert Pujols, then a Cardinal, in 2011 WS 3. The addition of the single gave Taylor 13 total bases, topping Hernandez's Dodgers record for that. And speaking of Pujols, by getting on ahead of Taylor, he became the third-oldest player to have multiple hits and multiple runs scored in a postseason game, after the ageless Julio Franco (45 in 2003) and a 42-year-old Pete Rose in the 1983 NLCS.
The Dodgers are now up 7-2, doesn't appear we'll have to play the bottom of the 9th, we can start doing all our notes on Taylor because there's no way he bats again. That would require the Dodgers sending seven batters to the plate and scoring even more runs and of course they did. Jacob Webb starts the inning by giving up three straight singles. And before you can say Albert Pujols, it is A.J. Pollock's turn to steal the limelight. Because he hits a 3-run bomb to make it 11-2 and guarantee that Taylor bats again. Recall that Pollock drove in the Dodgers' first run back in the 2nd. So he has also hit multiple homers, something only two other sets of teammates have done in the postseason. Fernando Tatis Jr and Wil Myers did it in last year's Wild Card series for the Padres, and you've probably heard of the first pair who ever did it. Naturally it's Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig against the Cubs in the 1932 World Series. Only two Dodgers pairs have ever had 3 hits, 3 runs, and 4 RBI in the same game: Cody Bellinger and Yasiel Puig on September 15, 2018; and Gil Hodges and Billy Cox on June 12, 1949.
Taylor, as the last Dodgers batter of the evening, is going to strike out to keep at least one postseason record intact for another day. (There's never been a 4-homer game in the playoffs, if you were wondering.) Well, two more days. Because the Dodgers will indeed be following the Braves back to the ATL.
So if defense (pitching) wins championships, does the lack of it lose them? Eventually the Dodgers' woes were just too much, between trying to piece together multiple bullpen games and suffering some early injuries. Their best chance to stay in the series and force a Game 7 was to send Walker Buehler back out on short rest. You know, the Buehler who gave up 4 runs and didn't get out of the 4th back in Game 3. For Game 6 he... um... at least did finish the 4th? He didn't come out for the 5th. And oh yeah, he gave up 4 runs again.
At first it looked like Eddie Rosario might steal this one too, with his third leadoff hit of the series. That joins Gerald Williams (1999), Marquis Grissom (twice), Otis Nixon (1992), and Lonnie Smith (1991) in Braves lore. But he's erased on a double play, which means that back-to-back doubles from Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley only end up scoring 1 run. It was the first time the Braves hit multiple doubles in the 1st inning of a playoff game since 1996 when Mark Lemke and Chipper Jones connected off the Cardinals' Todd Stottlemyre. Buehler gives up more hits in the 2nd and 3rd but strands everybody. Meanwhile, Ian Anderson is keeping the Dodgers in check until they manufacture a run in the 4th. So it's 1-1 and we asked if you liked nail-biters. It's not quite a Game 7, but this is starting to feel like it's going to turn on one big play late.
Except Eddie Rosario's still here. That one big play is the one that does in both Buehler and the Dodgers' season, and it's in the 4th. After a 2-out walk and a pinch-hit double by Ehire Adrianza, Rosario smacks a 3-run homer for a 4-1 lead, his 14th hit of the series (breaking Javy Lopez's team record from the 1996 NLCS), and the first go-ahead 3- or 4-run dinger in Braves history in a potential series-winner. Buehler gets that last out of the 4th, but now the Dodgers have to come back against a fairly-rested Braves bullpen after Max Fried went 5 innings and then there was an off-day. A.J. Minter, six up six down. Meanwhile, it could have gotten worse in the 6th when Alex Vesia takes over for that famous "third time through the order" and proceeds to walk the bases loaded. He's the first Dodgers pitcher to face 3+ batters and walk all of them since Jim Gott did it in Houston on May 21, 1991. But Blake Treinen gets out of that jam and now it is Luke Jackson's turn to pitch for Atlanta.
You remember Luke Jackson. He also pitched in Game 3 behind Buehler. He's the one who gave up 4 runs and got the loss, which is one (of many) reason this series is still going on. Let's see how he's going to fare this time. Double by Chris Taylor (it's not a homer, so progress?). Walks Cody Bellinger, his nemesis from Game 3. RBI double to A.J. Pollock. Welp, suddenly it's 4-2, Jackson has gotten nobody out, and the Dodgers have the tying runs on second and third. For Tyler Matzek this can either go very well or very badly. If badly, the Braves still live to play a Game 7. Or,...
If this was Eddie Rosario's series, it was Tyler Matzek's One Shining Moment. Albert Pujols, 4-pitch strikeout. Pinch hitter Steven Souza, called out on 4 pitches. Mookie Betts, called-called-swing. Matzek just entered the game with second and third and nobody out and struck out three straight without allowing a run. A handful of other pitchers in postseason history have done that. Partial credit to John Rocker for having three such strikeouts in Game 1 of the 1999 World Series, but he allowed a hit in the middle that scored the first run and simply reloaded the bases. But nobody's ever had an inning like Matzek's in the 7th or later. And certainly not one that essentially sealed a series win.
Matzek returned for the 8th and blew through the bottom of the Dodgers order. He thus became the first pitcher in Braves postseason history to throw 2+ perfect innings and get a win in a clincher. Then Will Smith threw a perfect 9th for the save. Remember how last season's NLCS ended? (It's okay if you don't.) With a Dodgers pitcher retiring 9 straight Braves to close out a 4-3 win in Game 7. That guy... was Julio Urias. Just another way we've flipped the script.
And by the way, since the LCS round was added in 1969, there have been 15 previous LCS losers who went on to win it (and advance to the World Series) the following year. But before the Braves and Astros of 2020-21, it had never been done by BOTH leagues in the same season.
Does that mean we see Dodgers-Red Sox in the World Series in 2022? (Or, because we already saw that in 2018, does this indicate we've reached the back end of a double-flip?) You, and 28 other teams, will just have to wait for '22 to unfold. For now, though, the Braves and Astros have (we hope) seven more games to play. On to the final round!
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