Written by Gabe Lacques at USAToday.com
In a postseason marked by clubs aiming to end championship droughts, the year 1988 does not conjure the same sense of desperation that 1908 or even 1948 evoke.
Yet, the Los Angeles Dodgers have seen their own travails in the nearly three decades since Orel Hershiser and Kirk Gibson last brought a championship to Chavez Ravine. Now, their road to end that stretch runs right through Chicago.
The Dodgers chewed through the Washington Nationals’ ace and their sturdiest bullpen arms during a four-run seventh inning Thursday night, summoning the resolve that marked much of their season, and then hung on to register a 4-3 victory in Game 5 of the National League Division Series.
The 4 hour, 32-minute epic ended in unlikely fashion, with Game 4 starter and franchise icon Clayton Kershaw summoned to record the final two outs – the first against the unstoppable Daniel Murphy with the tying and winning runs on base. He got Murphy – 7 for 15 in the series to that point – on a pop fly to second and struck outWilmer Difo to end it, sending a jubilant sea of blue tumbling over the visitor’s dugout atNationals Park in relief.
Kershaw’s two-out save on just one day of rest put an end to a series marked by marathon games and rampant momentum swings, not unlike a Dodgers season that seemed lost when their ace suffered a back injury in June.
“This kind of encapsulates our entire season – where it takes 25 guys to win a game, and that’s what we did tonight,” manager Dave Roberts said amid showers of champagne in the visiting clubhouse at Nationals Park.
Now, they’re just four victories away from the World Series.
“This whole season, this team, man – , I’ve got so much love for all these guys,” said Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen, who fell just two outs shy of a three-inning save, throwing a career-high 51 pitches to carry his club from the seventh inning to Kershaw’s surprise finish.’
“We trust every one of each other. We talked about how this wasn’t going to be easy. To get to that goal, we just have to keep fighting.”
So now, the team with the biggest payroll among playoff teams will touch down on Friday in Chicago for the National League Championship Series as decided underdogs, both in talent and narrative. The Chicago Cubs have already won 106 games this season, counting their four-game conquest of the San Francisco Giants in their NLDS, and with All-Stars or rising stars at every position, outflank any club still alive.
To continue reading this article, click here.
