Chapter 16: 2017, Knock three times on the trash can
The Dodgers finally make it back to the World Series, but cannot overcome an old NL West rival
After coming up short in the NLCS in their last four trips to it, the Dodgers front office again tried retooling the team. But in the end, the best additions to the team were already on the roster.
The Dodgers lost first baseman Adrian Gonzalez early in the season with back problems. In to the void, stepped 21-year old first baseman Cody Bellinger, who would go on to win Rookie of the Year, blasting 39 homers in just 121 games.
Left field was another problem spot for the team and the surprising winner of the job was a lightly regarded utility infielder acquired the year before from Seattle named Chris Taylor. He hit 21 homers and took care of leadoff duties for most of the season.
The pitching staff had its usual stalwarts in Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen, along with reliables like Rich Hill and Alex Wood. Yu Darvish would be acquired late in the season to add some depth and ultimately a lot of melancholy.
Although the Dodgers won 104 games, they really didn’t hit their stride until June. Around that time, the Rockies realized that they really weren’t that good and fell out of contention, although they would end up as the second wild card behind the Dodgers closest pursuer, Arizona.
The Dodgers pulled away in July when they went 20-3, losing once at San Diego and twice at home to Atlanta.
On September 1, the Dodgers appeared to have an unassailable 16 game lead in the division. And then the team could not win a game for what seemed like an eternity. The Dodgers dropped 11 straight, getting swept at home by both the Diamondbacks and Rockies. Fortunately, neither pursuing team could completely capitalize on the Dodgers slump and the Dodgers lead never dropped below 8 1/2 games.
The late season slump did make the Dodgers Division Series opponent, Arizona, something of a chic underdog pick. In Game 1 against Arizona, the first two Dodgers reached base and Justin Turner homered and the Dodgers were on their way to an easy 9-5 win. Fans did worry that winning pitcher Kershaw gave up four solo homers to Arizona hitters.
The Dodgers had to scrap a bit more in Game 2, but still won the game by an 8-5 maring. They finished off the series in Phoenix with a more sedate 3-1 win thanks to solid pitching from Darvish and homers from Bellinger and Austin Barnes.
The NLCS was a rematch from 2016 against Chicago with the difference being that the Dodgers opened the series at home and also had a much more rested pitching staff.
Kershaw started Game 1 and only lasted five innings and left with the game tied 2-2. The Dodgers pulled away against the Cubs bullpen on homers by Taylor and Yasiel Puig.
Game 2 was a taut 1-1 game into the ninth. The Dodgers had two on with two out with Turner facing John Lackey. Turner did not wait long to find his pitch, hammering the second pitch he saw over the fence for a walkoff 4-1 win.
The series went back to Chicago. The Dodgers went up 3-0 after a 6- 1 win behind Darvish’s strong pitching and weird time at bat where he seemed to draw a bases loaded walk by just staring weirdly at Cubs reliever Carl Edwards Jr. The Cubs kept the series alive in Game 4 with a 3-2 win in which all the scoring was solo home runs.
The Cubs did not pull off a 2004 Red Sox style comeback. The Dodgers quickly got to starter Jose Quintana, knocking him out in the third. Enrique Hernandez delivered the death blow with a grand slam in that inning off Hector Rondon. For the first time since 1988, the Dodgers would be in the World Series. The opponent would be an old NL West foe that migrated to the AL, the Houston Astros.1 It would be a long and emotionally draining series that some people still have not gotten over. Some Dodgers fans still insist that the Dodgers be retroactively awarded the title because of the Astros well-documented perfidy. But, it was not. And it never will be.
But regardless of what did or did not happen with the Astros sign stealing scheme, the Dodgers had a great chance to take a 2-0 lead in the series and make all of the events in Houston moot.
The Dodgers had won Game 1 by a 3-1 margin with Kershaw prevailing over Dallas Keuchel. In Game 2, the Dodgers were nursing a 3-2 lead in the ninth when Jansen gave up a game-tying homer to Marwin Gonzalez. Two wild extra innings followed with the Astros coming out on top 7-6.
Back in Houston, the Astros had little trouble with Darvish and knocked him out in the second. After homering off Darvish, Astro Yuli Gurriel was caught making a derisive gesture about the shape of Darvish’s eyes, which riled up Dodgers fans.
The Dodgers won Game 4 by a 6-2 score after the Dodgers scored five times in the ninth to break open what had been a pitcher’s duel between Alex Wood and Charlie Morton.
Game 5 would be a night that would end up living in the Dodgers fans Closet of Horrors. The Dodgers led 4-0 in the 4th with Kershaw on the mound. But the Astros scored four times to tie it. The Dodgers scored three times in the 5th, but Kershaw couldn’t get out of the inning and Kenta Maeda gave up a game-tying 3-run homer to Jose Altuve.
The game kept going back and forth, but the Astros looked to have the game in hand with a 12-9 lead going to the ninth. But a 2-run homer by Puig and 2-out RBI single by Taylor tied the game.
But the 12th run was the last one by the Dodgers. In the bottom of the tenth, the Astros got a walk, hit batter, and then an RBI single from Alex Bregman to send the Astros back to L.A. with a 3-2 lead in the series.
Game 6 was going to be a challenge with Justin Verlander pitching for the Astros against Rich Hill. It ended up being just like Game 1, a 3-1 win for the Dodgers. The Dodgers bullpen pitched 4 1/3 innings and gave up just two hits and no runs.
The decisive game was played on November 1, 2017. And it was over almost at the beginning. Darvish started and gave up a leadoff double to George Springer. Bregman followed with a grounder to Bellinger at first, which was thrown away, allowing Springer to score. Bregman would later be cashed in on an Altuve groundout.
Lance McCullers Jr. started for Houston and was wild, giving up a double and hitting two batters, but the Dodgers could not score. The Astros scored three times in the second on a McCullers RBI groundout and Springer’s sixth homer of the series.
The Dodgers would get just one run in the game, when Andre Ethier came off the bench for an RBI single in his last big league at bat. The last three inings of the game just seemed likely a dreary march to the gallows for Dodgers fans. The Astros celebrated their first World Series title.
In 2020, people would learn that perhaps that not everything done by the Astros during the season was …. shall we say… ethical… legal…. moral? I’ve written too much and I don’t want to rehash it here. All I know is that the 2017 World Series ended with the Astros winning and I just have to live with it.2
The Astros are usually credited as the first team to win a pennant in two leagues. However, both the Dodgers and Cardinals have done so if you count their 19th Century American Association forebears as the same team as the current National League version. MLB does not do that and no current NL team traces its official founding date back to the American Association. That does not mean that is not what happens. That’s just what MLB says is the case. This used to be a pet peeve of mine, but now I’m debating to make it my life’s calling and maybe I will have to do something like Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and kneel outside MLB’s corporate headquarters until they make the change. Then once I have the change made, I will ultimately overthrow Rod Manfred and set up someone else as an anticomissioner who will do my bidding.
I am also chill with the ending of the 1972 Olympic basketball gold medal game. Dudes, you lost. It sucked. You probably should have won. But you didn’t. Life is not always fair. You need to deal with that for your own mental health. But Doug Collins isn’t going to listen to me.
Some people get over sporting injustices and others remember "Blood on the Stick."