Written by Andy McCullough at LA Times.com
The stream of Chandon Brut flowed through the bottle’s green stem, across the shorn-tight skull of Dave Roberts and down his forehead. His face clenched when he felt the sting.
During his first season as manager of the Dodgers, an eight-month odyssey through a record-setting slew of injuries, Roberts had stood on the verge of tears, tested the depth of his stamina and approached the limits of his patience. Now he squinted through the sweetest form of pain: A burst of champagne in his eyes.
“We’re going to be ready to go Tuesday,” Roberts said, “once I get my eyes open.”
Roberts groped blindly for dry cloth. A man nearby offered a shirtsleeve. Roberts cleared his field of vision and witnessed joy all around the clubhouse at Dodger Stadium. A lagoon of liquid pooled in the center of the carpet, while the room stank of fermented grapes and cigar exhaust — the sights and smells that greet baseball’s victors, teams like the Dodgers, who claimed a fourth consecutive National League West title with a 4-3 victory over Colorado on Sunday.
The Dodgers (90-66) clinched a date with the Washington Nationals, the champions of the East, in the National League Division Series in two weeks. The two clubs will jockey for homefield advantage during the final six games of the season. Washington holds a 1 1/2-game advantage.
The Dodgers effectively ended the division race by downing San Francisco in a series last week. But a late-night, extra-innings victory by the Giants on Saturday delayed the party by 18 hours. Trailing by a run in the ninth inning on Sunday, a homer by rookie sensationCorey Seager tied the score. An inning later, seldom-used infielder Charlie Culberson delivered the winning run with a homer of his own.
The finish provided a storybook ending to Vin Scully’s last broadcast at Dodger Stadium, allowing him to coat a walk-off, division-clinching victory in his unmistakable gloss: “Would you believe a home run?” Scully marveled as Culberson’s ball landed in the Dodgers bullpen for his first homer of the season. A crowd of teammates awaited him at the plate. A wave of relievers sprinted from the bullpen as he rounded third base.
The group engulfed Culberson, the personification of president of baseball operationsAndrew Friedman’s obsession with maximizing the margins of his roster. Over and over, the Dodgers front office repeated the word “depth” this season. At times, as the team set a major-league record with 28 players on the disabled list, the mantra sounded like a punch line. The Dodgers treated it like gospel. Culberson represented a tidy bow on their rhetoric.
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