MILWAUKEE – The Los Angeles Dodgers became aware much earlier this season – probably after losing 26 of their first 42 games, perhaps also because they compromised their chances of participating in the playoffs with a bad pass from 4-9 in August – that defend their crown come easily.

So this match 7 NL Series Championship on Saturday night what should be a frantic Miller Park?

It will not be a shock that they are there. That does not mean that they want some of it.

Yet, having made their first shot to defend their crown by canceling a 7-2 decision against the Milwaukee Brewers in Match 6 on Friday night, here they are.

"Since August, we are playing for our life," said Kenley Jansen, of the relief team, who will either spend Saturday night at the center of a celebratory scrum, or storing his gear discreetly for the occasion. 39; winter. "Here we are again another shot.

"Listen man, we know we're good too."

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Six-time division champions, defending NL champions and facing a playoff game for the third time in a row.

The results are mixed: a conquest of the fifth game against the Washington Nationals in the NL Division's 2016 series and, of course, the defenseless defeat of the seventh game against the Houston Astros at the World Series in the US. last year.

Saturday night brings another mixed bag.

They start a rookie, yes, but he's probably their best pitcher, though 21-year-old Walker Buehler has no talent for the Hall of Fame, like longtime ace Clayton Kershaw.

He has more barrages – 151 – than scored innings – 137 1/3 – and mixes his dominance with a casual attitude. It's a good mix for a seventh game, although the Dodgers have lost both starts in the Buehler playoffs so far.

Their endorsements went somewhere between dynamism and measure, Friday night giving way to Saturday morning.

"I love his mentality on the mound," said fighter Chris Taylor. "He wants to be out, he'll be ready tomorrow and I'm expecting him to play a good game for us."

"As for his heartbeat, his weapons, all that, we are really in shape with him," insists manager Dave Roberts. "He understands the magnitude of this moment, of this game, and he is a good person for us to play baseball."

Buehler said the last playoff game he faced was the third game of the College World Series, when Virginia overtook him, along with the Vanderbilt Commodores, to win the national title.

"I mean, the seventh game to participate in a world series, I do not know if there are more big stakes," he said after the sixth game. in words what could happen and what we hope to happen. "

Buehler also started – and won – the 163 game of the season, leaving the Colorado Rockies seventh to win the NL West title on Oct. 1.

It's another game that the Dodgers did not want. Prohibited favorites to win a new title in the West, their false starts, their injuries and their sometimes uninteresting game forced them to work in OT to defend this crown.

And here they are again.

The Dodgers may regret not instigating the Brewers to pitch super-leaver Josh Hader in Game 6; He had three days off and is charged for several innings, or even three, in the seventh match.

But Buehler will not be alone either.

The Dodgers will support him with a pen that has been a revelation of this series, with Jansen, Pedro Baez, Caleb Ferguson and Dylan Floro unchanged in a total of 16 appearances. It's a winner or come home, so everyone from Kershaw will have its proverbial peaks in the paddock.

"I love my chances if I have one tomorrow," says Jansen. "You can not worry about failure, you have to go out and have fun.

"It's a good time to be on the field, we are playing for a championship."

As expected.