One big swing by Chris Taylor on Wednesday sent the Los Angeles Dodgers soaring and the St Louis Cardinals crashing in a 3-1 result.
Taylor hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to advance the Dodgers in a scintillating National League wild-card game.
Justin Turner homered early as the 106-win Dodgers advanced to a best-of-five Division Series against NL West champions the San Francisco Giants, who won 107 games to barely hold off Los Angeles for the division title.
Photo: AFP
“That’s gonna be fun. Yeah, two of the best regular-season records of all-time. We’ve been battling all year, so I expect a hard-fought series,” Taylor said.
The Dodgers celebrated on the field before heading into their clubhouse to continue the party.
Champagne and beer were poured over the heads of shirtless, goggle-wearing players, thrilled to have stayed alive for a shot at their Bay Area adversary.
Photo: AP
“One of the great rivalries in sports,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s happening.”
The sellout crowd of 53,193 at Dodger Stadium hung on every pitch as the tension of a tied game built from the fourth inning on.
Fans waved blue towels, futilely urging on the few balls launched into the outfield only to see them caught in a winner-take-all matchup between two of the NL’s most storied and successful franchises.
Photo: AFP
The crowd was on its feet in the ninth, anxiously waiting to see if the defending World Series champions could pull out a must-have win.
Cody Bellinger got the Dodgers started when he drew a two-out walk from T.J. McFarland.
Alex Reyes entered to face Taylor and Bellinger stole second.
“That’s huge, knowing I don’t have to do too much,” said Taylor, who was batting in the No. 9 slot after entering to play left field as part of a double switch in the seventh inning. “It kind of settled me down a little bit.”
Taylor then sent a 2-1 breaking ball into the left-field pavilion, triggering an explosion of cheers and ending a struggle that lasted 4 hours, 15 minutes.
The versatile veteran struggled last month because of a recurring neck injury. He came off the bench in the Dodgers’ most important game of the season so far.
“Honestly, I was just trying to hit a single,” Taylor said after launching the fourth game-ending homer in Dodgers post-season history. “He gave me a good slider to hit and I was able to get it up in the air.”
Taylor also was involved in a nifty defensive play in the eighth, robbing Edmundo Sosa of a hit for the second out.
Tommy Edman dropped a one-out single into right off closer Kenley Jansen in the top of the ninth and stole second. Paul Goldschmidt took a called third strike and Tyler O’Neill went down swinging to end the threat.
Edman went three for five with a run scored.
The Dodgers’ bullpen stymied the St Louis hitters, allowing just a pair of singles after the fifth inning.
“The whole bullpen stepped up. We’ve been doing it the whole year,” Jansen said. “Off we go up north now.”
Both teams had runners on in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, but couldn’t push a run across.
“It was a grind all night,” Turner said.
St Louis finished none for 11 with runners in scoring position, stranding 11 overall.
“That’s a clubhouse full of guys that are hurting,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that
RSS