SPORTS E3 USA TODAY z WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2019 z 3C
WASHINGTON – The Dodgers won
106 games during the regular season
just so they could play a deciding game
in the playoffs in front of their home
fans in Los Angeles.
That moment comes Wednesday,
when they host the Nationals in Game 5
of the NL Division Series.
The Dodgers had a chance to close
things out on the road, but the Nationals
came through with a 6-1 victory Monday
night to tie the series.
“We were prepared to go all five,”
rookie catcher Will Smith said as play-
ers filed out of a subdued Dodgers locker
room. “We’re still liking our chances.”
The Dodgers were the NL’s best team
at home, going 59-22 at Dodger Stadium
during the regular season. Although
they lost Game 2 there to the Nationals –
and will have to face Game 2 winner Ste-
phen Strasburg again – the Dodgers re-
main confident.
One reason the Dodgers are so opti-
mistic: They’ll have right-hander Walk-
er Buehler on the mound.
“I guess this will be my third of those
scenarios, so (it’s) something I’m famil-
iar with,” Buehler said. “Getting to do it
at home certainly helps, and there’s not
a lot to it. We got to win a game, and if we
don’t, we go home.”
Buehler is coming off a masterful
start in the series opener, when he shut
out Washington on one hit over six in-
nings and struck out eight.
In just his third major league season,
this will be Buehler’s sixth playoff start.
He hasn’t allowed an earned run in his
last 17^1 ⁄ 3 postseason innings, dating to a
first-inning home run by Christian Yel-
ich of the Brewers in Game 7 of last
year’s NL Championship Series.
Ho-hum. Just another big game with
a 25-year-old right-hander on the
mound.
“In those kinds of games, I think it
also helps to know you got everyone else
behind you,” Buehler said. “I think the
pressure ... if you spin it in your head the
right way, it can make it more fun. So
that’s our plan.”
This used to be the kind of situation
where the Dodgers turned to three-time
Cy Young Award winner Clayton Ker-shaw. But with Buehler getting the call
in the series opener, the torch might
have symbolically been passed.
One benefit is that the Dodgers will
have Kershaw available to come out of
the bullpen on full rest as a super-reliev-
er, in much the same way the Nationals
did with Strasburg in their wild-card
win and with Max Scherzer earlier in
this series.
After pitching six innings in the
Game 2 loss on Friday, Kershaw was up
and throwing in the bullpen at one point
during Game 4.
Manager Dave Roberts said he was
ready to call on Kershaw if the Dodgers
had been tied or leading in the late in-
nings. “Obviously, the game got away
from us and so now to preserve him and
to have him ready to go, whatever we
need from him for Game 5, is certainly a
good thing,” Roberts said.
The Dodgers will have their entire
pitching staff available, but the most
likely path to victory goes Buehler to
Kershaw to closer Kenley Jansen.
But it all starts with the new staff ace,
a 25-year-old right-hander from Lex-
ington, Kentucky.“Game 5. Win or go home. Buehler-
Strasburg,” Roberts mused. “As a fan, as
a player, you live for moments like this.”NLDS PREVIEW NATIONALS-DODGERS
Dodgers go to new ace for Game 5
Steve Gardner
USA TODAY
Walker Buehler was masterful in
Game 1 of the NLDS and will start for
the Dodgers in the finale.
JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA/USA TODAY SPORTSATLANTA – The Braves are back in
the A-T-L for a decisive postseason
game.
That’s not necessarily a good omen
for the home team.
Over the years, Atlanta is the place
where other teams come to celebrate in
October.
The Cardinals hope to continue that
trend when they face the Braves in
Game 5 of the NL Division Series on
Wednesday.
“I was just a little kid when that hap-
pened,” Braves shortstop Dansby Swan-
son said. “History is history. We’re in the
moment now. This is a completely dif-
ferent and new team. So we’re going to
focus on being the best we can tomor-
row.”
Swanson was 7 when Atlanta began a
streak of nine straight postseason-
round losses with a five-game setback
to Arizona in the 2001 NL Championship
Series.
Still, it’s impossible to ignore that the
Braves are just one series loss away
from equaling an ignominious record
set by the Cubs between 1908 and 2003.
Chicago finally ended its playoff mis-
ery in Game 5 of the ’03 NL Division Se-
ries – at Turner Field, of all places. In
fact, it became a bit of a running gag that
one of baseball’s most popular spots for
celebratory pictures was the pitcher’s
mound in Atlanta, with the center-field
scoreboard in the background, since
nine visiting teams eliminated the
Braves at their previous ballpark, with
the Cardinals doing it twice.
“I don’t think any of those guys in
there think about any of that,” manager
Brian Snitker said. “Most of them don’t
remember it. They were probably in
grade school. And they talk about that –
well, you haven’t won a playoff series,whatever – and again I say, we haven’t
won one in a year as far as I’m con-
cerned.”
The move to SunTrust Park in 2017
didn’t change Atlanta’s fortunes.
Last season, the Braves were closed
out at home by the Dodgers in Game 4 of
the NLDS.
“This is our second year with this
group,” Snitker said. “I don’t think guys
process that and think too much about
it. I think their focus, their energy and
their passion and the whole thing is go-
ing to be on that game tomorrow.”
The Braves came within four outs of
finishing off the Cardinals on Monday in
St. Louis, only to lose 5-4 in 10 innings.
Perhaps it was only appropriate that
this best-of-five series comes to a deci-
sive contest. Three of the games have
been decided in the final inning. The
margin between the teams has been two
runs or fewer in all but three of 37 in-
nings.
“This has been an unbelievable se-
ries,” Snitker said. “My God, both teams
just banging at each other and the close
games and the late-inning heroics. It’s
been something. It’s been exhausting, I
know, when you’re a part of it. But it’s
been a heck of a series on both sides.”
The pitching matchup will be a re-
match of Game 2, when Atlanta’s MikeFoltynewicz outdueled Jack Flaherty of
the Cardinals for a 3-0 victory.
Foltynewicz, an All-Star in 2018 who
was demoted to Class AAA for more
than a month after getting off to a ter-
rible start, pitched three-hit ball over
seven innings in another stellar per-
formance for his tale of two seasons. He
was 6-1 with a 2.65 ERA in 10 starts after
returning from the minors, and he car-
ried that form right into the postseason.
Flaherty had one of the great second
halves in baseball history and pitched
well in his playoff debut. But a two-run
homer by pinch-hitter Adam Duvall
sealed the victory for the Braves, mark-
ing only the second time since the All-
Star break that the 23-year-old right-
hander gave up as many as three runs in
a start.
The way both guys pitched Friday,
Game 5 figures to be another nail-biter.
The Braves desperately need to get
the middle of their lineup going, espe-
cially slugging first baseman Freddie
Freeman. Clearly bothered by a sore el-
bow, he is hitting .125 (2 of 16) in the se-
ries, with his lone RBI coming on a hom-
er in Game 1. Those behind him haven’t
done much either, with cleanup hitter
Josh Donaldson at .133, Nick Markakis
at .176, Matt Joyce at .111 and Brian
McCann at .154.NLDS PREVIEW CARDINALS-BRAVES
Braves hope to buck home playoff history
Paul Newberry
The Associated Press
Dansby Swanson (7) and left fielder
Rafael Ortega hope to celebrate
Wednesday like they did in winning
Game 3. JOE PUETZ/USA TODAY SPORTSMINNEAPOLIS – Manager Aaron
Boone was lying completely sprawled
out in the hallway outside the Yankees’
locker room late Monday evening at Tar-
get Field.
Inside,the Yankees celebrated their
AL Division Series sweep over the
Twins, spraying champagne and beer,
but it was as if someone called the cops
and shut the party down for violating a
noise ordinance.
The party lasted for no more than 30
minutes, until the ripping sound of plas-
tic protecting the lockers came off the
wall, and just like that, the Yankees
looked barely more excited than if they
just swept the Orioles in July.
The Yankees entered this series Fri-
day with the task of shutting down
baseball’s greatest power-hitting team,
conquered, and swiftly dismantled the
Twins by a combined score of 23-7 as if
they just stole a car, stripped it down
and sold it for parts.
Now, after winning their 106th game
of the season, comes the real challenge:
Winning the next round and advancing
to their first World Series in a decade.
They don’t have anything resembling
the 1-2 punch of Justin Verlander and
Gerrit Cole of the Astros. Yet they have
one of their most complete teams since
the turn of this century, able to beat you
with power ball, small ball, defense,
pitching and a clubhouse culture that
has the biggest heart in the land.
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen,” Yan-
kees All-Star infielder DJ LeMahieu
says.“Early on, I felt it was going to be
one of those years. No matter who it is,
they’re going to get the job done, and
that’s a special feeling. Obviously,
there’s a lot of deep talented players
here, but it’s so selfless. Everyone
checks their ego at the door. And roots
for everyone.
“We not only have the talent, but that
chemistry, and that sure can take you a
long way in this game.”
Yankees slugger Aaron Judge says he
has never seen anything like it, and
when he spoke to the team after the
game, hoisting his beer, he made sure to
give the game hero’s championship
wrestling belt to 22-year-old Gleyber
Torres, the youngest star of them all.
“I never been in an organization like
this before where you’re surrounded by
so many All-Stars, superstars, MVPs
and Cy Young winners,” Judge says,
“and they check their ego at the door.
When we come in here, we all fight for
one thing, and that’s to win the ball-
game today. When you’ve got an envi-
ronment like that, there’s no better
place to play and thrive.”
The Yankees have reached the post-
season 18 times, winning six pennants
and four World Series championships
since Brian Cashman became the GM in1998, and yet this group might be the
most unique of them all.
They had a record 30 players on the
injured list this season. Their regular
lineup didn’t play their first game to-
gether the entire season until Game 1 of
the ALDS. Giancarlo Stanton, their
$325 million player, played 18 games.
Their ace, Luis Severino, pitched only 12
innings until Monday night’s clinching
game. Their prime setup man, Dellin
Betances, pitched two-thirds of an in-
ning before his season ended.
Their leading winner, Domingo Ger-
man (18-4), was suspended for the rest
of the season for violating MLB’s do-
mestic violence policy.
So it was only fitting Monday night
that reliever Zack Britton walked off the
mound in the eighth inning with a ten-
der Achilles tendon, closer Aroldis
Chapman’s left hand was wrapped in ice
when he fist-bumped Cashman, and
veteran starting pitcher CC Sabathia
pronounced himself ready for the AL
Championship Series after missing the
division series with a strained shoulder.
This isn’t a baseball team, it’s a caval-
ry in spikes.
“It’s got a lot of resiliency, a lot of
heart and a lot of talent,” Cashman says,
“but in terms of what’s going to make it
unique, it’s got to climb the final two
mountains to compare it to our other
teams. Obviously, a storyline will be
written. We want it to be a positive one.
So we’ll wait and see.”
The Yankees were cautious not to di-vulge who they prefer to play in the
ALCS between the Astros and Rays.
“It really doesn’t matter either way,”
LeMahieu says. “They’re both really
good teams. I just know that if we just
keep playing like we did all year, and this
series, we’re going to be just fine.”
And, well, a little scary.
This is a pitching staff that suffocated
the Twins’ high-powered offense. The
Twins scored just seven runs and pro-
duced only a solo homer the last 21 in-
nings. The Yankees yielded a meager
.218 batting average and 2.33 ERA, strik-
ing out 35 batters in 27 innings.
“I know a lot of people had question
marks about our pitching coming in,”
Judge says, “but we have a lot of guys
that put everything on the line every
time they step on that rubber. When
you’re going against a team that hit the
most home runs during the season, and
shut them down to seven runs, that’s
impressive.”
The Yankees put on a highlight show
with their defense, with dazzling plays
made by Judge, shortstop Didi Gregori-
us and Torres.
If there was an MVP award in the di-
vision series, it would have gone to Tor-
res, 22, who hit .417 in the series with a
.462 on-base percentage, .917 slugging
and a 1.378 OPS.
“It’s awesome to see these guys ball
out,” Stanton says, “but we all know we
got more work to do.
“We’re the Yankees. It’s our time of
year.”Bob Nightengale
Columnist
USA TODAYYankees can sense the end of decade-long drought
MLB