LOS ANGELES — Dave Roberts walked into the postgame press convention Friday evening with a cigar clutched between his fingers, his voice hoarse from the revelry. As a participant in 2004, his series-flipping steal helped the Pink Sox overcome a 3-0 deficit within the American League Championship Sequence en path to successful a World Sequence. As a supervisor within the 2020 pandemic-shortened season, his Dodgers overcame a 3-1 deficit within the Nationwide League Championship Sequence in opposition to the Braves en path to snapping the franchise’s 32-year title drought.
And but he put this Nationwide League Division Sequence comeback in opposition to the Padres, which included consecutive shutout wins in elimination video games and 24 consecutive scoreless innings from the Dodgers’ embattled pitching workers, in the identical dialog as these successes. After shedding to a lower-seeded division rival within the first around the earlier two seasons, it could not occur a 3rd time as Los Angeles knocked out San Diego 2-0 on Friday to advance to the NLCS versus the New York Mets.
“That is proper there with it,” Roberts stated. “To type of win this sequence how we did, to type of fall behind — and people guys coming into the postseason had quite a lot of momentum — speaks to the character of our guys. That is proper up there.”
Earlier than Sport 5, Roberts advised his gamers that he believed on this crew greater than any crew he’d ever coached.
“I simply assume that there is a relentlessness, a refusal to lose,” Roberts stated.
Their first baseman, Freddie Freeman, was enjoying on one leg. Their shortstop, Miguel Rojas, left Sport 3 early and by no means returned to the sequence, hindered by the torn adductor he had tried to play by way of. Accidents had ravaged their beginning pitching, sufficient that they solely had one member of their Opening Day rotation nonetheless accessible in October.
For a lot of of these causes, the Padres, who had misplaced the division however completed with the very best second-half report in baseball, have been seen by many as the higher membership. Inside the Dodgers’ clubhouse, a mantra started to type, stemming from a message Kiké Hernández delivered when the crew was down 2-1. It continued to be unfold all through the clubhouse as Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” blasted by way of the audio system Friday evening.
“F— ’em all,” Max Muncy stated.
The one starter nonetheless standing, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, missed practically three months with a rotator cuff pressure and had thrown 5 innings only one time in his 4 regular-season begins again from harm. He obtained walloped by the Padres in his major-league debut in March after which once more this previous Saturday in Sport 1 of the NLDS, sufficient that the Dodgers thought he might need been tipping his pitches. They tried to wash up the problems earlier than Sport 5, once they determined to go together with Yamamoto once more.
“In speaking to him, you may get the sense that he wished the ball,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman stated.
However the alternative was not a given and was not introduced till 9:31 p.m. PT the evening earlier than Sport 5. They might have tabbed Jack Flaherty, their prized deadline acquisition. Or they may have used one other bullpen sport after it labored masterfully in opposition to the Padres two nights prior. All of their relievers have been accessible once more in one other elimination sport.
However not giving Yamamoto the ball with the season on the road would have despatched a foul message to the participant that they had simply made the highest-paid pitcher within the sport.
“On the finish of the day,” Roberts stated, “we’re having a bet on a man to pitch the sport of his life tonight.”
Yamamoto had big-game expertise up to now, each from earlier this yr and his profession internationally. His finest outing as a major-leaguer got here within the Bronx, when he held the Yankees scoreless by way of seven innings on June 7. The 26-year-old additionally pitched within the World Baseball Traditional. Roberts thought-about pitching for Japan, and a participant’s nation, “the very best stakes that you may have.”
Along with successful the Nippon Pacific League MVP and triple crown three straight years, Yamamoto additionally led the Orix Buffaloes to the Japan Sequence three straight seasons. Final yr, he faltered in a Sport 1 loss wherein he surrendered seven runs. He obtained the ball once more in Sport 6, with the Buffaloes down 3-2 within the sequence, and struck out 14 batters in a 138-pitch full sport.
He wouldn’t must throw practically that many pitches to provide the Dodgers precisely what they wanted.
“Yoshinobu is right here to be a top-end starter,” Robertse stated, “and that is his time.”
Earlier than Yamamoto reached the highest step on his remaining stroll off the mound Friday, Roberts slapped his hand and gave him a hug. A parade of high-fives awaited within the dugout. Shohei Ohtani rubbed Yamamoto’s head and laughed. The Dodgers had made it up to now while not having a starter to step up, however in some unspecified time in the future that needed to change. They gave Yamamoto 12 years and $325 million to ship in these conditions. With the relievers behind him, they didn’t want eight scoreless. If he may give them even three stable innings, the Dodgers figured they may cowl a minimum of six with their bullpen.
As a substitute, he offered 5 spotless innings of labor.
“He has somewhat Walker Buehler in him,” Gavin Lux stated. “The larger the sport, the larger the second, he will give it his finest stuff.”
Two years in the past, the Dodgers by no means obtained this opportunity.
In 2022, the Padres took care of Sport 4 earlier than the sequence may return to Los Angeles. Some questionable pitching choices doomed the Dodgers that evening. Tyler Anderson was cruising when the bullpen took over. Their finest reliever on the time, Evan Phillips, watched from the sideline as catastrophe ensued in a five-run seventh that determined the sequence. At one level, Yency Almonte missed a pickoff signal from the dugout in an effort to permit Alex Vesia extra time to heat up. As a substitute, he threw a ball. Vesia, who afterward stated he was already heat, then entered in the course of the at-bat and surrendered the eventual game-winning hit. By the point Phillips pitched within the eighth and struck out the facet, it was too late. Roberts obtained crushed for the strikes, as he did in 2018 for pulling Wealthy Hill within the World Sequence and in 2019 for placing Clayton Kershaw in aid in opposition to the Nationals.
This was each redemption and aid.
Roberts delivered a masterclass all through the 2024 NLDS because the Dodgers outpitched, outhit and outmanaged their opponent.
In Sport 4, the Padres’ resolution to make use of Dylan Stop on quick relaxation for the primary time backfired, whereas Roberts’ knowledgeable precision in deploying eight relievers resulted within the largest shutout win in Dodgers postseason historical past.
In Sport 5, San Diego supervisor Mike Shildt determined to let starter Yu Darvish hold going into the seventh in a one-run sport a 3rd time by way of the Dodgers’ lineup, as a substitute of turning to one of many scariest back-end bullpens within the sport. The transfer proved expensive. Teoscar Hernández delivered within the clutch as he has all season in Los Angeles after signing a one-year take care of the membership, depositing a no-doubt shot into the left-field pavilion and giving the procession of Dodgers relievers somewhat respiration room.
The primary matchup between two Japanese beginning pitchers in MLB playoff historical past didn’t disappoint. By six innings, the one harm for both crew got here off the bat of Kiké Hernández. Roberts performed the versatile place participant with the season on the road due to his penchant to ship in October.
“It is type of the particular person, that individual second,” Roberts stated, “and you have to make a guess.”
The evening earlier than the deciding Sport 5 of the 2017 NLCS in opposition to the Cubs, Hernández determined to begin visualizing his success. He envisioned how the following day would go, the pitchers he would face, and the way he’d ship within the clutch. He proceeded to swat three house runs the following day to ship the Dodgers to the World Sequence. He has continued that visualization approach and is hitting .394 with six house runs within the playoffs because the begin of the 2021 postseason.
“There’s anxiousness and issues like that, that we undergo as athletes, particularly in massive conditions, massive video games, particularly in October,” he stated earlier than Sport 5. “And everytime you really feel that little anxiousness or no matter it’s creep in, you simply return to visualizing your self having success.”
On Friday, he wore a shirt earlier than the sport that learn “Good Vibes Solely.” Then he delivered a solo shot within the second inning, which finally offered Yamamoto with the one cushion he wanted.
Roberts may have let Yamamoto hold going at 63 pitches by way of 5 frames. The starter was holding his velocity and hadn’t allowed a run, whereas getting away with some fastballs that leaked over the plate. However he had executed his job. As a substitute, Roberts prudently turned to Phillips, who recorded the following 5 outs. Vesia adopted with one other, because the duo struck out the facet in opposition to the center of the Padres’ order within the seventh.
Vesia was anticipated to remain out for the eighth, however an harm to his facet pressured him out throughout warm-ups. No panic. Roberts turned to Michael Kopech for that body, then Blake Treinen for the following. The bullpen didn’t allow a single baserunner.
Along with his crew on the brink, Roberts stated Sport 5 was as careworn as he’d been “in fairly a while.” He did not present it, pushing all the precise buttons.
Roberts has now received six of his eight winner-take-all matchups.
“I assumed he was surgical in Sport 4 and in Sport 5,” Friedman stated. “I assumed he had the precise really feel and pulse for when to make a transfer and who to go to.”
The end result was the Dodgers’ first postseason sequence clinch at Dodger Stadium since 2013, not together with wild-card video games. In 2020, their run to the World Sequence got here in a bubble in Texas. Whereas they received all of it that yr, lots of their gamers have expressed a need to win a full-season championship to allow them to have a good time it with followers.
On Friday, going through a division rival that had been the most well liked crew in baseball for the previous 4 months, the Dodgers’ clutch supporting gamers, together with their maligned pitching workers and supervisor, obtained them one step nearer.
“We all know who we’re,” Muncy stated. “We are the f—ing finest crew in baseball, and we’re on the market to show it.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB author for FOX Sports activities. He beforehand lined the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved again to the West Coast in 2014. Observe him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
[Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.]
Get extra from Main League Baseball Observe your favorites to get details about video games, information and extra