Rookie delight on a crazy night of baseball as the Dodgers plummet through the trapdoor
Los Angeles Dodgers 3 San Diego Padres 5, 15th October 2022.
Los Angeles Dodgers 3 San Diego Padres 5, 15th October 2022.
It was just past 8pm on a somewhat cold and misty evening as I drove my beautiful son home after a quiet day of tomfoolery when I announced my intentions for this past Saturday evening. I planned to cook a homemade curry before settling into four games of “America’s Pastime” and naturally my son sighed, looked towards the heavens and said very little in response. He clearly thinks I’m a madman and who am I argue to with him? So it was that after devouring an Indian culinary dish that has transmogrified and been bastardised into a now quintessentially English customary meal that I watched 4 astonishing games of baseball and who could predict that fully 11 hours later I’d be penning these words without a dash of sleep and through the disbelieving eyes of sporting defeat? Who too could predict a rain delay, 2 rookies writing their respective names into baseball folklore forever more, the plucky Philadelphia Phillies (6th seed and rank outsiders) defeating the highly favoured and 2nd seeded Atlanta Braves and dumping them out of the play offs? Or the “Evil Empire” of New York, Aaron Judge and all, being spectacularly “walked off” in the 9th Inning and defeated by a Cleveland Guardians now just a win away from dumping them into the same losing bin as the Atlanta Braves?
Perhaps the easiest outcome to predict from an evening and ever lengthening UK morning of sporting madness, was the victory for the Houston Astros over the incredibly unlucky Seattle Mariners that gave the Astros their 6th consecutive American League Division Series title. Walk offs or final inning defeats are tough to take and in Game 1 the Mariners were set for a crucial victory before the booming introduction of Yordan Alvarez broke their hearts and here this evening, rookie shortstop Jeremy Pena did the very same. That it took 18 innings (18! Twice the length of a standard game of baseball!) will no doubt throw ample salt onto an already gaping wound but that’s the Astros for you. Take it from me, they have a history of inflicting such heartbreak.
Talking of which, and following on from the records tumbling all around us of which I have copious notes amid the scribbled written ramblings of a madman, who would have predicted all those long hours ago that finally, finally, a team in the Dodgers/Padres series would secure a lead bigger than a slender 2 run advantage, who would be breezing along with a 3–0 lead heading into the 7th inning of a game they were comfortably dominating and on the back of the vaunted “best record in baseball” tag applied to virtually every department of their team, only to fall spectacularly flat on their face and collapse to defeat in just one inning? The rainstorm that followed and accompanied their demise in this series and early exit from the play offs was perhaps rather apt and a foretelling of the stormy times that lay ahead for my Los Angeles Dodgers and a mirror image to the story unfolding at my other sporting love, Liverpool Football Club. The ramblings of a madman perhaps, but both teams were seemingly building for years to the crescendo of their respective triumphs in that very ill year of 2020 and these ex World Champions have dominated since whilst also flattering to deceive and, as with the Dodgers here, failing again to win their sports biggest prize of all. I see echoes and parallels between the two teams but I haven’t slept in hours, the morning sunshine is breaking through the sparse clouds outside, and is all this just the mumblings of a madman or the worst of all possible dreams?
I have notes. Oh you better believe I have notes! I could easily walk you through when, at 3.13am (UK standard time), rookie shortstop Jeremy Pena slapped the Seattle Mariners pitcher Penn Murfee over the centre field fence for an 18th inning home run and first run of an incredible game or just minutes later at 3.32am when Luis Garcia and his strangely enticing baby rocking pitching motion would signify a 64th and last pitch in relief, and the saving of a game that went unfeasibly long into the night as well as ending the Mariners participation in this year’s October baseball festival and the progress, yet again, of the Houston Astros. Or minutes later still when, with a 5–3 lead going into the 9th inning, the New York Yankees introduced Clarke Schmidt to close the deal on a win and a 2–1 advantage in their best of 5 series with the Cleveland Guardians, only to see a “flare” from Myles Straw land safely, Straw reach 2nd base, be pushed to 3rd on a single from Steven Kwan and “batted in” by the single from Amed Rosario and suddenly the Yankees lead of 2 runs had been halved. Next batter, and huge local favourite, Jose Ramirez, fights off a tough pitch that lands safely infield to load the bases for rookie right fielder Oscar Gonzalez to smash a single up the middle that scores Steven Kwan and Amed Rosario and from the depths of defeat, the rookie secures his place in the record books as well as in the hearts of Cleveland Guardians fans forever more.
Here’s how the TBS Commentator memorialised the moment:
“Hit up the middle, a base hit! The tying run has scored. Here comes Rosario with the winning run.
And it’s pandemonium!”
Real pandemonium was still well over two hours away at Petco Park in San Diego amid the incessant din of their largest ever crowd and a crowd intent on repeating a simple if deafening mantra: “BEAT LA”. Before they did indeed beat my beloved LA Dodgers and “that dragon up the freeway” according, infamously, to their Chairman Peter Seidler, my notes suggest Padres starting pitcher had one hell of a game. Locally born and lifelong fan of the Padres, Joe Musgrove threw 101 pitches in his incredibly strong 6 inning outing and although responsible for 2 of the 3 Dodger runs to score, he also bamboozled his way to 8 strike outs with his devious curveball that irritated me let alone his Dodger strike out victims! Musgrove left the game with his team losing 2–0 after an equally strong outing from his pitching counterpart Tyler Anderson who was fantastic yet again on the mound for the Dodgers. 6 strike outs, 2 walks and a 0 ERA (Runs) marked against him, Anderson was in line for the win and a win given the comfort of an extra run at the top of the 7th inning before the wheels fell of the Dodgers train.
Padres relief pitcher Steven Wilson walked Mookie Betts before Trea Turner brilliantly bunted his way to 1st base and the dangerous Freddie Freeman (3 for 4, 2 RBI’s and a brilliant performance undeserving of being on the losing side) was hit by a pitch from Wilson to load the bases. Will Smith sacrificed a long fly out to score Betts and increase the Dodgers lead to 3–0 and with both Turner and Freeman in scoring position to tack on extra runs, Padres relief pitcher Tim Hill struck out Max Muncy and forced a simple ground out from Justin Turner and although it was a missed opportunity to seal a Dodgers win, they had increased their lead and needed just 9 outs to square the series for a one-off, winner takes all game back down that infamous freeway in Los Angeles.
That’s when the wheels fell off and the Dodgers record breaking season counted for nothing.
Both teams bullpen’s have been exemplary this season and particularly so in this series alone but whereas Hill, Robert Suarez and closer Josh Hader would combine for 5 total strike outs over 3 final innings pitched and not concede a run for the home team Padres, the Dodgers bullpen would combine to give up 5 hits and 5 runs in a single inning, the infamous 7th inning, and an inning that ended their record breaking season so dramatically. Tommy Kahnle walked Jurickson Profar before giving up big hits to Trent Grisham and Austin Nola, the last of which scored Profar to reduce the Dodgers lead to 3–1 but with 2 players still on base and no outs in the inning. Yency Almonte replaced Kahnle but was immediately smashed down the left field foul line for a double by Ha-Seong Kim that scored Trent Grisham (3–2) and soon after Juan Soto clubbed a huge and heavy single to right field that scored Austin Nola and suddenly, and with still no outs in the inning, the Padres were level at 3–3. Almonte struck out ex Dodger and pantomime villain Manny Machado before forcing a lame pop up out from Brandon Drury before, rather bizarrely, being replaced by Alex Vesia. In a twist of sporting fate with the game tied at 3–3, Vesia had Jake Cronenworth on a brilliant strike out pitch that wasn’t called by the umpire and the very next pitch, Cronenworth duly crushed a huge double that scored both Ha-Seong Kim and Juan Soto and from 3–0 down the Padres were now 5–3 in front and beating LA, much to the amusement of their raucous crowd.
Hard throwing leftie Josh Hader struck out Mookie Betts, Trea Turner and Freddie Freeman in order, all of which was rather apt and the perfectly imperfect seal with which to finalise the demise of the Dodgers season. Betts, Turner and Freeman are the heart of the Dodgers batting order but they were sat down, in order, and it was apposite that it was Freddie Freeman who was the last man to go, and his strike out signalling the beating of the Dodger “dragon” and the eruption of joy in the San Diego crowd. Freeman was fantastic last night, a favourite player of mine (now he wears a Dodgers uniform, obviously!) but his big money signing sums up the big money spent on this team that has resulted in the biggest of wins in recent years as well as the biggest of defeats in the most important of games since their World Series triumph of 2 years ago.
There will be no such triumph either this season despite the Dodgers 111 wins out of 162 games and a seasonal record that will be tough to beat and yet which stood for nothing coming into these play-offs. The heavy favourite Dodgers are gone, as are the equally favoured Atlanta Braves and the New York Yankees face an elimination game with Cleveland tonight. In their stead are the outsiders from Philadelphia and San Diego who will now face off for the National League Championship and the Houston Astros await the winner from New York/Cleveland in the American League Championship. My money is begrudgingly on the Astros whilst my heart will reside for the remainder of the season with the Phillies of Philadelphia.
So it wasn’t a dream after all. There was a rain delay and a biblical rainstorm, two rookies wrote their names into baseball folklore in amongst an 18 inning scoreless game for the ages before an inning for the ages ended a season for the ages for a team that has flattered to deceive for two years and which, in all likelihood, is going to look a whole lot different come Spring training next season.
It was a hell of a sporting night.
Damn.
Thanks for reading. My four most recently published articles are linked below and which hopefully provide a representation of what can be found within my general archives:
“Cherry” (2021)
A love story that is brilliantly crafted and beautifully grimmedium.com
Padres one game away as the Dodgers “best record in baseball” looks in tatters
Los Angeles Dodgers 1 San Diego Padres 2, 14th October 2022.medium.com
“Halloween Ends” (2022)
The psycho and the freak show and the end of Michael Myers?medium.com
Salah’s six minute hat-trick steals Firmino’s thunder as the Reds rout the Blues
Rangers 1 Liverpool 7, UEFA Champions League, 12th October 2022.medium.com