Chapter 17: 2018, it's a beautiful year, let's play 163
The Dodgers do a little extra work to make it to the World Series again, but the ending is the same
Coming off a World Series loss, the Dodgers front office decided to clear up some payroll space and made a five payer trade with Atlanta sending Adrian Gonzalez, Scott Kazmir, Brandon McCarthy, and Charlie Culberson heading east in exchange for the once and future superstar Matt Kemp. The Braves got rid of all the acquisitions except Culberson. And the Dodgers were expected to get rid of Kemp. And then spring training started. And Matt Kemp was there. And he ended up making the All-Star Team for the Dodgers.
The Dodgers struggled in the opening months and were in fourth place, nine games out of first, in early June. But the team started to get its pitching straightened out as Clayton Kershaw missed significant time with back and shoulder injuries. Rookie Walker Buehler took up some of the slack and the Dodgers massaged their roster so that an almost constantly changing set of arms in the bullpen were around to fill in.
As would become the norm, the Dodgers front office looked for midseason help. Manny Machado came from Baltimore in July in exchange for minor leaguers. Machado took over at shortstop, allowing unexpected power hitting corner infielder Max Muncy, signed as a free agent in April, could move over to first base. This also moved Cody Bellinger to the outfield, where he turned into one of the team’s best fielders.
Corey Seager missed much of the year and all of the postseason with an elbow injury. Chris Taylor moved from the outfield to short to cover the position before Machado arrived and then spent the season, along with Enrique Hernandez, moving around the outfield and infield wherever needed.
As the Dodgers climbed back toward the top of the division, they found themselves in a race with the Rockies. The Rockies led by a game with two left. The Dodgers beat San Franciso 10-6 on the final Saturday of the season while the Rockies lost to Washington, 12-2. On the final day of the season, both teams won. blowouts. The Dodgers beat the Giants 15-0 and the Rockies beat the Nats 12-0. The teams were tied 91-71. Both would make the playoffs, but a playoff was needed to find out who would be the division champ and who would have to go to the wild card game.
Coincidentally, the NL Central finished the same way with Milwaukee and Chicago tying at 95-67. So October 1 would be the day for the last two tiebreaker playoff games in MLB.
The first game of the day was at Wrigley Field. The Brewers beat the Cubs 3-1 with two runs in the eighth against the dodgy Cubs bullpen.
The NL West tierbreaker took place at Dodger Stadium on a glorious Monday afternoon. With just one day notice, the Dodgers still managed to get 47,000 tickets sold for a game that would determine if the Dodgers would take a trip to Chicago or stay home to play East champion Atlanta.
Buehler started for the Dodgers and gave up just 1 hit in 6 2/3 innings of work. When he left, the Dodgers led 4-0 on a pair of two-run homers by Bellinger and Muncy. Kenley Jansen gave up two harmless solo homers in the ninth and the Dodgers had won their first tiebreaker playoff since they beat a different Milwaukee team (the Braves) in 1959.
The Dodgers shut out Atlanta 6-0 and 3-0 in the first two games in Los Angeles with Hyin-Jun Ryu and Kershaw leading the way. Atlanta took Game 3 6-5 as Buehler was hit hard early and gave up a grand slam to Ronald Acuna, Jr. The Dodgers wrapped up the series the next day. Two late additions to the team, reliever Ryan Madson and infielder David Freese both were instrumental in the Game 4 win.
The NLCS would be against Milwaukee and open at Miller Field. It would be a taut, seven-game affair with a lot of managerial machinations as both Dave Roberts and Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell tried to figure out how to best deploy their pitching assets.
The Brewers took Game 1 6-5. Kerhsaw gave up a homer to reliever Brandon Woodruff in the third and didn’t make it out of the fifth. The Dodgers got the tying run to third in the 9th, but Josh Hader struck out Justin Turner to end the game.
The next day, the Brewers led 3-0 in the 7th, but the bullpen gave up pairs of runs to the Dodgers in the 7th and 8th. Turner’s homer in the 8th was the difference.
Back in Los Angeles, Jhoulys Chacin and four relievers held the Dodgers to four hits and won easily 4-0 in Game 3.
Game 4 was a 13 inning affair that saw the Brewers use seven pitcher and the Dodgers use nine. And despite all that, the game finished 2-1 with Bellinger singling home Machado with game-winning run. The game took an arduous 5:15 to play.
The next day, Kershaw started for the Dodgers and Wade Miley was the first pitcher for the Brewers. Miley faced just one batter, Bellinger, walked him, and then was pulled in favor of Woodruff. Counsell was hoping to get the Dodgers to flip their platoon lineup. It didn’t matter as Kershaw was dealing, holding the Brewers to just 3 hits in 7 innings. The Dodgers won 5-2.
Trying to wrap up the series in six games, the Dodgers were thwarted when the Brewers quickly reversed a Dodgers lead from a Freese home run and battered Ryu in the bottom of the first for three runs. The Brewers forced a game 7 by a 7-2 score.
Buehler and Chacin faced off in Game 7. The Dodgers hoped to get a lead early and then use a collection of relievers to finish the game off. The Brewers were trying to find the optimal time to use their best reliever, Josh Hader, who could pitch multiple innings at any time during the game.1
Christian Yelich homered in the first for the Brewers, but in the second, Machado dropped down a bunt single and Bellinger followed with a homer to put the Dodgers up, 2-1.
The score was still 2-1 with two out in the fifth when Buehler gave up a two-out double to Lorenzo Cain. Julio Urias came in to relieve against Yelich. Yelich belted a 2-1 pitch up the alley in left-center that Taylor made a spectacular running catch of end the inning.
Puig added a 3-run homer in the 6th and the Dodgers went on to win with Kershaw coming in to get the last three outs.
The Boston Red Sox faced the Dodgers in the World Series for the first time in 102 years. The first time looked like this. You can read about it here.
The Red Sox had won 108 games in the regular season and were favored to win the World Series. The Red Sox held on to home field with 8-4 and 4-2 wins to start the series.
Back in L.A., the Dodgers faced a near must win Game 3 with Buehler facing off against Rick Porcello. The Dodgers nursed a 1-0 lead into the eighth when Kenley Jansen gave up a homer to Jackie Bradley, Jr. to tie the game.
And the game went on. And on. Each team used nine pitchers2 with Boston’s Nathan Eovaldi forced into pitching six innings in relief. The game had 34 total strikeouts.
The Red Sox broke the deadlock when Dodger reliever Scott Alexander misplayed a short grounder from Eduardo Nunez into a hit and a throwing error to score Brock Holt from second.
In the bottom of the 13th, Muncy led off with a walk and alertly moved into scoring position when Nunez fell into the dugout catching a foul popup. Puig hit a bouncer to second that Ian Kinsler fielded, but couldn’t get Puig at first and threw the ball away and Muncy scored the tying run.
The game dragged on. For a World Series record 7 hours and 20 minutes into the bottom of the 18th when Muncy finally ended the game with a home run off Eovaldi.
The Dodgers tried to build on the momentum of the big Game 3 win and led 4-0 after six thanks to a 3-run homer from Puig.
But the series turned permanently in Boston’s favor in the seventh. Rich Hill had not surrendered a run, but walked leadoff man Xander Bogaerts. Nunez struck out. But Dave Roberts thought that Hill, who tended to lose his stuff quickly, needed to be taken out. Lefty Scott Alexander came into face Brock Holt and walked him. That brought in Madson.
Madson got Bradley to pop out for the second out, but then surrendered a homer to Mitch Moreland to cut the Dodgers lead to 4-3. Jansen pitched the eighth and gave up a tying homer to Steve Pearce. In the ninth, three Dodgers relievers gave up five runs, Boston ultimately won 9-6.
There would be no comeback in Game Five. Kershaw started and gave up a 2-run homer to Pearce3 in the first. Freese homered in the bottom of the first, but that would be the Dodgers only run. Kershaw gave up two more homers and the Red Sox won 5-1 to win the series.
And so the Narrative grew. More chapters were added to the book of Clayton Kershaw’s inability to win in the postseason and there was now a second storyline about Dave Roberts and his inability to use his bullpen correctly.
2019 would see the Narrative reach its zenith.
Hader doesn’t do that anymore.
Of Boston’s nine pitchers, six either would play for the Dodgers or already had played for the Dodgers. And Eduardo Rodriguez vetoed a trade to the Dodgers in 2023.
Pearce would be named MVP of the series.