Before Game 5 of the National League Division Series between the Dodgers and the Giants, Vin Scully declared on Twitter it was the biggest, most important game in the history of the rivalry.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants have played a long list of important games. The Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants have a history too.
The Dodgers and Giants tied for the lead in the National League in 1951, when the two teams were still in New York. It produced one of the biggest home runs in baseball history, Bobby Thompson’s Shot Heard Round the World. It was possibly the first walk-off home run in baseball history. It was definitely the first one that was recorded on film.
The Dodgers and Giants tied again for the National League lead at the end of the 1962 season. The Giants won the playoff series that year to advance to the World Series. And the 1962 Los Angeles Dodgers, with Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, became the best Dodgers team to never win a World Series.
It’s probably been 60 years since the Dodgers and Giants played a series as important and meaningful as the 2021 National League Division Series. The Giants have usually prevailed in these matchups, 1951 and 1962 being the two times it resulted in a trip to the World Series.
It was no surprise when the 2021 National League Division Series was headed to a fifth and deciding game. The Dodgers and Giants have been evenly matched all season.
Game 5 did not disappoint in highlighting how evenly matched the Dodgers and Giants were.
They played the first five innings of the game to a scoreless tie. They both scored a run in the sixth inning to tie the score, 1-1.
The Dodgers finally broke the tie in the ninth inning, taking a slim one-run lead.
Then, the Dodgers brought in their difference maker, Max Scherzer, acquired at the trade deadline to plug the holes left in an injured starting pitching rotation. Scherzer recorded the final three outs and the Dodgers eliminated the Giants from the playoffs.
The final out was a check swing strikeout that Giants fans won’t soon forget. The Dodgers have the Shot Heard Round the World. The Giants have the Check Mate Swing from Wilmer Flores to end the NLDS.
Credit Dodgers manager Dave Roberts for this win.
Roberts started playing baseball chess with the Giants manager Gabe Kapler and the front office hours before the first pitch was made in Game 5.
Roberts started by announcing Julio Urias, the Dodgers 20-game winner and Cy Young Award favorite, was coming out of the bullpen for Game 5. Corey Knebel started and Roberts called his shot.
The Dodgers false nine strategy worked. The Giants didn’t score off Knebel or Brusdar Graterol, who pitched the second inning, before Urias started the third inning and pitched four innings.
The Giants took the conventional road, starting Logan Webb, who nearly shut out the Dodgers in Game 1 of the series. Webb matched the Dodgers trio of pitchers with five shutout innings.
Neither team won that move.
But Roberts made two moves that put the Dodgers over the top. His first was playing Cody Bellinger, who struggled the entire season at the plate. Despite the year-long slump, Roberts played Bellinger in every game in the NLDS. The move paid off in the ninth inning of the biggest game of the year for the Dodgers.
Bellinger drove in the go-ahead run in the ninth inning. He came through with the clutchest hit of the season and gave the Dodgers a slim edge when the team needed it the most.
The second move Roberts made was giving the ball to Kenley Jansen to pitch the eighth inning. Jansen went through his own struggles this year. But instead of giving up on Jansen, Roberts stuck with him through the rough patches. He had confidence in Jansen during the regular season, when he blew two saves against the Giants in July. He had confidence in Jansen in a tie game in the deciding game of the playoffs, one that determined if the Dodgers would continue in the playoffs.
Roberts deserves all the credit for keeping the Dodgers alive in the playoffs with his moves in Game 5.
The Dodgers face the Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series starting on Saturday. It is a rematch of the NLCS from last year. The Braves were up 3-1 in the series last year before the Dodgers rattled off three wins in a row to win the series and advance to the World Series.
The Braves might want a little revenge. The Dodgers might have used all their baseball magic in the NLDS. Perhaps Roberts has some magic left in the clubhouse. The Dodgers are going to need all of it against the Braves.
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