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LOS ANGELES – A rallying cry continued to rise with verve and conviction in the Dodgers canoe midway through the fifth game of the National League series at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday. "Single to death! Single to death! "
The Dodgers? The team that led the league in the homers? The team that hit more circuits than any other team in the history of the franchise? The team that won 16 games all year round without a circuit? The team that left a condominium building on the basis of the fourth game swaying to the barriers? These Dodgers?
It sounded heretic, as if Dustin Johnson was pulling an iron on an accessible par-five, or Lebron on a breakaway by choosing a discreet poser on the glass.
But yes, these Dodgers have revised their benchmarks, recalibrated their throws and recreated the Whitey Herzog Cardinals of 1982, who hit 67 homers all season, to frustrate and beat the Brewers. They did something that they had done only once a year and never in the history of their playoff franchise: they won consecutive games without hitting the ball in the playoffs. ball.
It was a job in the interior. In less than 24 hours, the Dodgers went from series two after the series to a victory to a victory over a second consecutive pennant. And although the fact that Los Angeles, with a batting average of 200 at the scoring, suddenly had the religion to play a small ball, the fact that Los Angeles was right to play ball, became a reality, but the fact is that they came to this deduction out of despair.
"You always have to watch what this game gives you, and every game is different in its own way," said Dodgers second baseman Brian Dozier. "This game did not leave us any other choice than to shorten the [Brewers pitcher Brandon] Woodruff threw his turntables and especially light and shadows. That's why we went there, single, to death. It was brutal there.
Max Muncy, a small ball practitioner, said, "You knew this game would not be unanimous, not after coming back for a match one day after a five-hour game, nor in these conditions, nor in the shadows, not with Woodruff throwing this serious fuzz up there. If you went there trying to get started, you had no chance. Not happening today. "
The game was played under a bright and unbroken band of pure blue sky that seemed like a layer of giant paint covered by the best Hollywood scenographer. Not a cloud dared to interfere with the kind of Southern California day that inspired Walter O'Malley to choose seat colors in all four levels of the Dodger Stadium: sun (yellow), sand (orange) , sea (green) and sky (blue).
Such a cerulean sky for 14h to start, however, is a nightmare for a hitter. In the fifth inning, the stadium's massive shadow crept up like Vincent Price's villain, swallowing the hopes of the batters in the growing darkness. Cue the pipe organ.
"You hear people say," Oh, when the pitcher gets up from the sun and the ball goes into the shadows, that's what's so difficult, "said Dozier. This is not it. The hardest part is when the striking bottom is in the sun and the mound and the plate are in the shade. It's the contrast. You can not pick up the ball. That's what we had today.
Cody Bellinger, a member of the Los Angeles team, said, "Oh, it was difficult. People have no idea. And the way Woodruff threw was really hard. Once upon a time I was back in [the clubhouse] and saw a pitch on TV that he threw at Manny [Machado] for a double game. It was 95 [mph] and had about a foot of cup on it. I took a look at this and I went there: It's almost inapplicable. "
These were the conditions when the Dodgers started the fifth leg 1-0 against Milwaukee. That's when all the Whitey's Redbirds were part of the Brew Crew. Chris Taylor stood out and went on to rank second on a wild shot by a short Orlando Arcia stop. Taylor hit third on the next pitch and scored on a single Austin Barnes.
They took the lead for the next round on two points of another wave of cuts on the paper: simple (from Justin Turner), touched by height (Manny Machado), simple (Muncy), single (Yasiel Puig ).
The next round brought more of the same thing: walk (Clayton Kershaw), double (Cody Bellinger), single (Turner), groundout (Dozier). Each stroke or game marking a point has been touched either in the center or in the opposite field. Nothing was touched in the draw.
Muncy, for example, shortened his shot to push a ball to leftfield. How was it rare? The 35 home shooter has had only three single ground balls in the other direction all year round.
"I'm just reacting to the field," said Muncy. "I saw the ball off and I just reacted with a short shot."
Bellinger, like Muncy, sees constant changes conspiring to take away his power of attraction. He too went in the other direction with a doubled left field left on another abbreviated move.
"Yeah, that one felt good," Bellinger said. "I just tried to stay short until the ball."
No steak and potatoes on the menu today for muscular Dodgers. They ended up with a party starter to learn how to stack bases: seven singles, four walks, three stolen bases and two hitters. We must go back to 2009 to find a homerless match that the Dodgers won with this big ball.
In the meantime, these shadows have helped make Kershaw untraceable. Beginning with the last of the third inning, the Brewers played against him at 0-13. They could not make the same adjustment as the Dodgers, mainly because Kershaw mixed his notes so well in a diabolical light.
We talked a lot about Kershaw's speed drop on his fastball. But what we do not talk about, as Ryan Braun of the Brewers pointed out, is that his slider has gained momentum. It has gone from 86 to 89 miles at the time of the last five years.
The decline of the fastball and the upward slider, however, created a new problem for Kershaw: the narrowing of the speed gap between his two main pitches. In the first game of the NLCS series – the three-sleeve cameo was the shortest start to his playoff career – Kershaw threw 64 of his 74 shots into a narrow pocket of five miles at the hour (between 87 and 92 mph).
The key for Kershaw is throwing his ball well enough often enough and often enough for the batter to make his way to the car. He did not do that in the first game. He dominated in the fifth game because he rediscovered "Public Enemy No. 1", nickname of his great player that the great Vin Scully gave him as soon as he saw a crazy-headed Kershaw breaking up. his contract. Vero Beach, Florida, Kershaw threw 21 theater balls in the fifth game, the same number of throws since May.
"When he gets his curve," Dozier said, "he'll beat you, I've been so impressed by him, the first thing I learned was not to talk to him about the days he throws Do not talk to him or say, "Happy Kershaw Day." He is as focused as anyone in my life.
"The other thing is the preparation. I like to think that we, all professionals, are preparing. But he takes it to another level. There is not a situation to which he has not been prepared. "
The fifth game was the 227th game in Dodgers' playoff history. They had never won consecutive games without a 24-hour tour: the 13-round swing-and-a-thon was the 2-1 win in Game 4, followed by the 5-2 game of cuckoo that was the game 5.
It is a series rich in events. Match 1 ended with the tie in the third match, match 2 ended with the tie in the second round, match 3 was over. finished with the basics charged and the tie-breaking race, the match 4 is over on a single-grounded, and match 5 featured the Milwaukee manager, Craig Counsell cleverly playing the gambit " opens "- he shot Wade Miley after a batter to save him for Game 6 (Miley and Gio Gonzalez will have started four of the six games, who had this game in the office pool?) – Kershaw diving into the wine cellar of his repertoire to bring back his vintage curve ball, and the Dodgers making a second small consecutive ball gain for the first time in their post-historical history. That makes you want the sixth game on Friday in Milwaukee. Prepare to be surprised again.
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