Dodgers win NLDS 2024

LOS ANGELES — Because the Dodgers confronted elimination in Recreation 4 of the Nationwide League Division Collection, Kiké Hernández felt he wanted to share a message. Hernández, who has by no means been shy of talking up throughout hitters’ conferences, needed to maintain this one quick and easy.

“You need me to maintain it quick?” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy requested with a smile, when requested to recount Hernández’s speech. “‘[Forget] all of them.’ I hope that works for you.”

It undoubtedly labored for the Dodgers, who have been sick of listening to it. For the reason that begin of Spring Coaching, they’ve been answering questions on postseason failures of the previous, which have included early exits the final two Octobers.

Altering the narrative is what drove the Dodgers during the last six months. They got here into Friday’s recreation with an opportunity to do exactly that. They weren’t going to let this chance go to waste. This time, it was completely different.

With a 2-0 win over the Padres in Recreation 5 of the NLDS at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers superior to the NL Championship Collection for the primary time since 2021 and moved to eight wins away from their final objective.

They subsequent face the Mets, with NLCS Recreation 1 scheduled for Sunday at Dodger Stadium.

“We talked about this collection. It was going to check us, and we fought,” mentioned Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts. “We didn’t relent, not one time, and I simply could not be extra excited for this ballclub.”

The collection between the 2 division rivals lived as much as the hype. It was a five-game thriller between two of the very best groups within the sport, who don’t notably like one another. Each groups repeatedly mentioned they needed to throw the toughest punch. It was the Dodgers that delivered the knockout on Friday.

Two days after that pre-Recreation 4 speech, it was Hernández once more who jump-started the Dodgers, this time together with his bat, as his two-out blast within the second inning off right-hander Yu Darvish opened up the scoring. For Hernández, it was the 14th postseason homer of his profession. Within the seventh, Teoscar Hernández added a solo homer of his personal off Darvish.

“Inside these doorways, inside these partitions, we don’t actually care,” Kiké mentioned. “And that’s the place, like, not giving a rattling comes into play of, ‘I don’t care what anyone says, I don’t care what it appears to be like like, we’re all on this collectively.’ We imagine in one another and we’re going to do no matter it takes to win a ballgame.”

These two homers have been sufficient for the Dodgers to win a ballgame, largely due to one other dominant pitching efficiency. Making the largest begin of his life, Yoshinobu Yamamoto responded, tossing 5 scoreless innings and never working into a lot hassle. The lone time the Padres acquired something going in opposition to Yamamoto, the Japanese right-hander defused it by inducing an inning-ending double play in opposition to Fernando Tatis Jr.

As soon as Yamamoto set the tone, the Dodgers’ bullpen shut issues down, with Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia, Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen combining to shut out the win. With Friday’s shutout, the Dodgers completed off the NLDS by tossing 24 consecutive scoreless innings in opposition to top-of-the-line offenses in baseball.

“I can’t say sufficient about this staff,” mentioned Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. “Twenty-four consecutive scoreless innings. … Our ’pen, they have been all unimaginable. We knew that was a energy of ours coming into the collection, however to look at it shine the way in which it did speaks to not solely how proficient they’re, however what a terrific tradition and surroundings [bullpen coach] Josh Bard and people guys have created down there. Unimaginable staff effort.”

Workforce efforts are what the Dodgers’ season has been all about. Certain, having superstars like Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman undoubtedly helps. However because the Dodgers navigated by a flurry of accidents this season, they persistently required others to step up as effectively.

Tyler Glasnow, Gavin Stone, Clayton Kershaw and Yamamoto — 4 key items of the rotation — every missed important time with accidents, with three of them not with the ability to make it again for the rest of the season. Walker Buehler was additionally pressured to overlook time twice this season.

On the offensive aspect, Freeman missed two weeks late within the season as he attended to the well being of his son. Betts and Muncy additionally missed months with accidents. Because the blows piled up all through the season, it might have been simple for the Dodgers to imagine this wasn’t going to be their yr. However by all of it, L.A. caught by it and completed with the very best file within the Majors.

“I haven’t been part of as a lot adversity as this ballclub has had,” Roberts mentioned. “And never one time have we made an excuse or given ourselves an out to not win 11 video games in October. And that’s a credit score to the character of the fellows, the coaches, the entrance workplace, getting loads of depth that we’ve needed to faucet into. I’ve by no means believed in a gaggle of men greater than this group. I actually haven’t.”

Although the Dodgers celebrated onerous on Friday, they know this isn’t the tip of the highway. Earlier than Recreation 5, the message on the video board contained in the clubhouse was a quote from Lakers legend Kobe Bryant that has resonated with this metropolis for years.

“Job’s not completed,” the board learn.

However within the collection that the whole baseball world needed to see, it was the Dodgers who got here out on prime.

“I believe we’re all sick of it. We need to change the narrative,” mentioned Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux. “This group is a staff that has loads of grit, competitiveness and we need to win. We handled loads of adversity by accidents, and guys needed to step up all season. I believe in the end, that made us a greater staff.”