By Yours Truly
http://throneberryfields.com/2016/10/14/the-dodgers-outlast-the-nats-in-the-kitchen-sink-game/It took only one excellent pitch met by one excellent hitter to send Nationals manager Dusty Baker to the panic button Thursday
night. And it cost him a trip to the National League Championship Series to face a team he once got to within five outs of a
World Series.
When he pushed it, it turned into a seventh inning about which they're liable to write entire books, a ninth inning after which
every Dodger bullpen bull and every Dodger fan owed Clayton Kershaw a massive apology, and a 4-3 National League division
series Game Five loss after which first-year Dodger manager Dave Roberts looked like Casey Stengel.
It was Kershaw--he who was "absolutely unavailable" for Game Five, in Roberts's pre-game words--to whom Roberts turned
when his closer Kenley Jansen, asked for a nine-out save, had only enough fuel for seven outs. It was Kershaw who got the
Nats' hottest bat, Daniel Murphy, to pop out to the edge of the right field grass before striking out pinch-hitter Wilmer Difo
on a criminal of a curve ball to finish the Nats off.
But it would be Baker facing the second guessers because of what happened to open a seventh inning about which someone's
liable to write an entire book.
Nats ace righthander Max Scherzer did nothing wrong to open the seventh but throw lefthanded Dodger center fielder Joc
Pederson a nice, nasty fastball to the outer edge of the plate. He was probably as astonished as everyone else in Nationals
Park when Pederson--who'd reached such a region only once all year long--sent it over the left center field fence.
It was Scherzer's 99th pitch of the night, never mind that Justin Turner wringing out a thirteen-pitch walk in the fourth ran
the pitch count up. He didn't exactly look like he was running on empty. "We were hoping to get another inning out of him,"
Baker said after the game, explaining why he let Scherzer open the frame. "How do you take out your -- a guy in a 1-0
game? And Max is capable of going 100-some-odd pitches."
Then, inexplicably, Baker lifted Scherzer once Pederson completed his circuit. And from that moment, in that inning, it
became two managers throwing everything including the kitchen sink at each other Friday night, the sharp freshman and
the elder pilot. To the point where you expected one or another pitcher to throw a kitchen sink up to the plate.
And you wondered. Knowing the Dodgers still have their weaknesses against lefthanded pitching, and with Pederson due to
lead off, why didn't Baker measure his starter's tank, thank him for a job well done, and bring in lefthander Mark Rzcepczynski
to open? But Baker brought Rzcepcynski in to face switch-hitting Yasmani Grandal, and Rzcepczynski walked Grandal on
four pitches. Unintentionally.
The National's death march began.
Baker lifted Rzepczynski for righthander Blake Treinen to face righthanded pinch-hitters Howie Kendrick (for Andrew Toles)
and Charlie Culberson--but Kendrick singled to left while Culberson struck out on a foul bunt. Baker lifted Treinen for lefty
Sammy Solis to face, suddenly, righthanded hitting Carlos Ruiz pinch hitting for the latter's erstwhile Phillies teammate Chase
Utley--and Ruiz singled home pinch runner Austin Barnes.
Solis yielded after Corey Seager flied out to center and Baker brought in righthander Shawn Kelley to face righthanded-hitting
Justin Turner. But Turner slashed a two-run triple to the rear of the yard. Then, Baker brought in Oliver Perez, who got rid of
Adrian Gonzalez before the Dodgers could make more than mere four-run mischief.
You could actually sense a lot of people in the ballpark and watching or listening at home sorry the half inning ended. Chess
matches like that don't happen every season. Even though Roberts had hinted at one when he sent his setup man Joe Blanton
to relieve mostly effective starter Rich Hill with two out in the third, because the manager feared Hill's rising pitch count against
Scherzer's likely continued stinginess.
After Blanton and Julio Urias picked up with three solid relief innings, inspired because Roberts couldn't determine whether Hill's
pitch count (55) versus Scherzer's stinginess equaled early enough trouble, Grant Dayton opened the bottom of the seventh
by walking Nats shortstop Danny Espinosa before Chris Heisey, pinch-hitting for catcher Jose Lobaton, hit an 0-2 service over
the left field fence.
Clint Robinson--inserted at first base in a double switch for the Nats--then singled to right. And Roberts brought in Jansen. You
thought Terry Francona with the Indians had the stones to send Andrew Miller out in the fifth inning?
Jansen squirmed out of further trouble, including a single by Bryce Harper, by striking out Jayson Werth nastily, shaking off Harper
stealing second to put Daniel Murphy, the Nats' hottest hitter, aboard on the house, and strike out Anthony Rendon swinging. He
shook off a leadoff walk to late game insertion Stephen Drew with a pair of air outs--including Espinosa crazily bunting and
popping out--and a pounding strikeout of another late-game insertion, Michael Taylor.
Kershaw had gone to the bullpen somewhere in the eighth inning to get ready. "Clayton came to me in the seventh," Roberts
said after the game, "and said that he had an inning if I needed it." A lot of Dodgers, never mind the Nats and their fans,
assumed Kershaw was a decoy.
Even Jansen--who struck out Trea Turner but walked Harper and Werth to open the ninth, and who'd thrown more pitches
Thursday night than in any outing all year--was deked. "I'm like, 'Wait a minute. Am I dreaming right now?'" Jansen would
say in the middle of the Dodger celebration. "I couldn't believe it. I'm like, 'Is Kersh warming up? Is he really out there?'"
You could say Kershaw's save was extremely generous considering what his bullpen did to him in Game Four. Maybe he left
with the bases loaded in the top of the seventh there, but nobody told the Dodgers' pen men to bring torches instead of
arms.
You could also say there was a little cosmic play at play. Kershaw hadn't saved a game officially since his early days in the
Gulf Coast League. When his catcher was Jansen, and his manager was Bob Henley--now the Nats third base coach, who
inexplicably sent Werth home on Ryan Zimmerman's sixth-inning double, only to see Werth get bagged by about 35 feet.
That wasn't half as dubious a move as Baker's game changer. But for a team who's been to the postseason three out of the
past five years and lost the division series all three times, it was dubious enough.
And a manager who's now lost nine consecutive postseason series clinchers replied to questions about Roberts's moves with,
"I'd be interested to see--they won the war--but the effects of Jansen and Kershaw when they get to Chicago."
But that's the key, and the problem for Baker. Jansen, Kershaw (the likely Game Three NLCS starter in Los Angeles), and the
Dodgers are going to Chicago. Baker, who had his bags packed for Chicago before Thursday night, isn't.
