But I don't know if that's ever going to happen and that's not what this post is about. My favorite student is a San Francisco Giants fan. She has to be pretty awesome if she's my favorite despite that obvious character flaw. I've had her for four straight years, I'm her Mr. Feeny. We give each other a hard time about baseball. I tell her that when I retire, we're going to write the book about the greatest day in the history of sports. That day, of course, was October 15, 1988. In the afternoon, good prevailed over evil in the Catholics vs. Convicts game and Notre Dame was on its way to a National Championship. At night, Kirk Gibson hit the game winning home run off of Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of the World Series and the Dodgers were on their way to being World Series Champions. I have no memory of college football in the 1980s, but the Dodgers winning the World Series is the first sporting event that I remember being aware of. I probably didn't watch the games, but I knew they won the World Series. If I remembered that day, it would definitely be the greatest day of my life. I recently bought Game 1 of the 1988 World Series on iTunes (apparently the whole game is also available for free on Youtube, but I had gift cards, so whatever). With Vin Scully retired, I have to have some of his classic games available to me. So I have that, Game 7 of the 1965 World Series (51 years ago today), no-hitters by Hideo Nomo and Clayton Kershaw, and a few others so far. Major League Baseball has classic games going back decades and Games of the Year going back to 2013 available on iTunes. For some unknown reason, Clayton Kershaw's Opening Day shutout/home run in 2013 is not included for that year. I was at the game, which was awesome, but I'd love to rewatch the whole thing and listen to Vin Scully's call. If anybody knows of a way to do it, please let me know.
And after last night, I might have found my second book, Game 5 of the Dodgers-Nationals Series. That was an absolutely classic game. I was hoping for a little more out of Rich Hill. I knew he wasn't going deep into the game, but I was hoping for more than two and two-thirds. Still, he kept the Dodgers in the game. Dave Roberts made a good move and got four big outs from Joe Blanton. He brought his eighth inning guy into the game in the third inning. And it was the right move. The Dodgers were down 1-0 and you had to keep it as close as possible. As expected, Julio Urias came in to start a fresh inning and got the Dodgers through six (with some help from the Nationals' third base coach).
I was unusually calm even though the Dodgers were trailing. And then the seventh inning happened. I told my favorite student that Joc Pederson was going to hit a home run and he did to tie the game at 1 (I also told her Adrian Gonzalez would hit a home run in Game 4, so let's keep this going, I'll say Justin Turner hits a home run in Game 1 against the Cubs). Yasmani Grandal walked and Howie Kendrick singled. Urias was due up. Roberts put in Charlie Culberson to bunt. He didn't get the job done. I was critical of Roberts for that move. Before the game, he said Kershaw was absolutely not available to pitch. I assumed that he was telling the truth (and maybe he did mean it) so I said he should have used Kershaw there (the lesson, as always: I'm an idiot). Kershaw is the active leader in sacrifice bunts (Baseball Reference has him second to Elvis Andrus, but I'm pretty sure they're counting sacrifice flies too). I also didn't know Roberts's plan for the bullpen. Anyway, the Dodgers took the lead on a pinch hit single by Carlos Ruiz and then tacked on two on a triple by Justin Turner (Ruiz came up big in this series, but I still miss A.J. Ellis).
After the Nationals used six pitchers in the top of the seventh, the Dodgers had a three-run lead and nine outs to get. I assumed Pedro Baez or Josh Fields was coming in because I figured Roberts would save Grant Dayton for Bryce Harper and Daniel Murphy. Instead, he wanted Dayton to turn around Danny Espinosa and face Clint Robinson. That didn't work. He walked Espinosa, gave up a home run to Chris Heisey, and gave up a single to Clint Robinson. Dayton has been good this year, but he was the only relief pitcher who didn't get the job done for the Dodgers last night.
After Dayton gave back the insurance runs and left the tying run on base, I was as nervous as I've been watching a baseball game for the rest of the game. With the top of the order coming up and the tying run on base, Roberts went to Kenley Jansen in the seventh inning. At that point, I realized it was a real possibility that Kershaw would pitch. But Jansen had to get as many outs as he could. He got Trea Turner to fly out, but then Bryce Harper singled. With runners on the corners, Harper stole second on strike three to Jayson Werth. That opened up first base to walk Daniel Murphy intentionally. Jansen struck out Anthony Rendon with the bases loaded to end the inning. Jansen walked Stephen Drew to start the eighth. He got Danny Espinosa to pop up a bunt, and then a fly ball to center and a strikeout to get out of the eight without much difficulty.
Clayton Kershaw went out to the bullpen to get ready for the ninth. Bryce Harper was due up second so I thought Kershaw was getting ready to face him. Harper has decent numbers against Jansen and bad numbers against Kershaw. But Jayson Werth was after Harper and he has good numbers against Kershaw. Jansen struck out Trea Turner to start the inning. Then he stayed in to face Harper and Werth. He walked both of them. Then Dave Roberts went to Kershaw to face Murphy. There was a chance Kenley Jansen would get the loss. If that happened, I couldn't be mad at Jansen. He threw more pitches than he ever had in the Majors and he got seven outs. He gave it everything he had. I definitely thought about how Kershaw had been left in too long in playoff games by Don Mattingly and maybe even by Roberts in Game 4. Now I worried that Roberts waited too long to go to Kershaw. And Dodger nemesis Daniel Murphy was coming up. Kershaw got Murphy to hit a pop up on the infield. The Nationals had to go to their last pinch hitter, Wilmer Difo, to hit for the pitcher. Kershaw struck him out on a beautiful curve ball. It was in the dirt so Carlos Ruiz had to throw to first to end the game. It was a good feeling. It was Kershaw's first save in the Majors. He had one save in the minors and his catcher for that save was Kenley Jansen. Pretty amazing. This will be the fourth trip to the NLCS for the Dodgers since the 1988 World Series. In their last three trips, they won a total of four games. And they never took five games to win the Division Series before. So last night was probably the most exciting Dodger win since the 1988 World Series.
I don't think they give out a series MVP until the NLCS, but I was thinking about who would get it for this series. When the Dodgers took the 2-1 lead, the first name I thought of was Joe Blanton. Yep, Joe Blanton. He pitched five innings and allowed one hit, one walk, and no runs. But with the way the game ended, I think you'd have to split it between Justin Turner and Clayton Kershaw. Kenley Jansen gets an honorable mention.
I certainly hope the Dodgers aren't done. The Cubs should be favored. They have home field and they have their rotation set up the way they want it. I'm assuming Kershaw will pitch Game 2 and Rich Hill will pitch Game 3. But the Cubs don't have Matt Carpenter or Daniel Murphy. If you offered me a split in the first four games and then it's a three game series with the last two in Chicago, I'd take my chances with that. And I hope the Indians beat the Blue Jays for three reasons. First, the Blue Jays play in Canada. Canada can have hockey, this is baseball. Second, they don't play on grass. Putting the dirt around the whole infield definitely makes their stadium look better, but still, baseball should be played on grass. And finally, the Indians will provide a better contrast in uniforms with either NL team than the Blue Jays would.
Let's go Dodgers!
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