[ad_1]
The Los Angeles Dodgers got a home run from Chris Taylor with two strikeouts late in the ninth inning and beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 Wednesday night in the National League Wild Card game ( Goal box).
The Dodgers will now qualify to face the San Francisco Giants in the best of five National League division series, while the Cardinals see their 2021 season come to an end. The NLDS Dodgers-Giants will mark the first time the two big rivals meet in the playoffs.
Dodgers starter Max Scherzer, lacking his usual command, fell 1-0 early. In the fourth, however, Justin Turner hit a solo homerun on Adam Wainwright’s curveball to tie the score at 1-1. The score held – despite a lot of traffic at the bases in St. Louis throughout the night – until Taylor’s clutch blew Alex Reyes in the ninth. The Dodger bullpen played a key supporting role in the victory. Five LA relievers – Joe Kelly, Brusdar Graterol, Blake Treinen, Corey Knebel and Kenley Jansen – held the Cardinals scoreless for 4 2/3 innings.
Outfielder Cody Bellinger, who had a hit, two walks and two steals to Cardinals wide receiver Yadier Molina, had a little taste of redemption after a deeply disappointing regular season. Bellinger’s second walks took Taylor home with two strikeouts in the ninth. As for Turner, he now has 13 home runs in the playoffs, which is a Dodgers record and a third baseman record. He entered Wednesday with a career slash line of .295 / .392 / .507 in 72 playoff games, all with the Dodgers.
On the St. Louis side, Wainwright allowed just one run in 5-1 / 3 innings of work, striking out five and hitting two. Tommy Edman became the first player in MLB history to have three or more hits and two or more steals in an elimination game, and he also made glittering plays at second base.
Now for three take out of it.
1. Taylor’s homer, an instant classic
With this end of the ninth inning game, Taylor became the first player to hit a home run in an elimination game since the Blue Jays’ Edwin Encarnacion in the 2016 AL Wild Card Game. He became the first player in the game. National League to hit a scoreless homerun in a winner’s playoff since the Pirates’ Bill Mazeroski in the 1960 World Series.
Need more? OK. Taylor, who entered the game after the sixth inning as part of a double change, joins Aaron Boone of the 2003 Yankees as the only players to hit a home run in a winner’s playoff after failing to started the game. Overall, Taylor’s was only the fifth scoreless homer in a winner’s playoff game in MLB history. Most appropriate, he is the first Dodger to do so.
Considering all of this, Taylor’s clutch explosion deserves a second look from a second angle:
2. The Cardinals had chances
While Reyes will be the center of attention to allow Taylor’s home run on a slider that has taken up too much room, St. Louis had plenty of opportunities to tip the game in his favor before he did. reaches this point. In total, the Cardinals left 24 runners on base and went 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position. The Cardinals’ No.3 and No.4 hitters – Tyler O’Neill and Nolan Arenado – represented 11 of those 24 runners. St. Louis has been given the green light on base in each of the last five innings and on offense has had no three-up-three-down innings all night. That is, more than even the Reyes Cursor, what cost the Cardinals the game.
A glance at the Win Expectations Chart, which tracks each team’s odds of winning the game throughout the game, shows you that the Cardinals had things in their favor at a number of points:
However, the opportune blow escaped the Cardinals until he does not have escape Taylor and the Dodgers.
3. Repeat the auction alive
The Dodgers won the World Series in the abridged 2020 season, and their victory in the dangerous knockout game Wednesday night means their attempt to repeat themselves as champions is still alive and well. No team has repeated its World Series title since the Yankees won it all in 1999 and 2000. No National League squad has repeated since the Reds in 1975 and 1976. The Dodgers have won seven Series world, but none of them in consecutive years.
It bears repeating that it is the Rival Blood Giants who stand in their way next. Their 213 combined wins in the regular season are a record for two playoff opponents. It is also the first time that two teams having won 105 games or more have met in the playoffs. .
[ad_2]
Source link