Dodgers win NLDS 2024

LOS ANGELES — Because the Dodgers confronted elimination in Recreation 4 of the Nationwide League Division Collection, Kiké Hernández felt he wanted to share a message. Hernández, who has by no means been shy of talking up throughout hitters’ conferences, wished to maintain this one quick and easy.

“You need me to maintain it quick?” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy requested with a smile, when requested to recount Hernández’s speech. “‘[Forget] all of them.’ I hope that works for you.”

It positively labored for the Dodgers, who have been sick of listening to it. For the reason that begin of Spring Coaching, they’ve been answering questions on postseason failures of the previous, which have included early exits the final two Octobers.

Altering the narrative is what drove the Dodgers over the past six months. They got here into Friday’s sport with an opportunity to do exactly that. They weren’t going to let this chance go to waste. This time, it was totally different.

With a 2-0 win over the Padres in Recreation 5 of the NLDS at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers superior to the NL Championship Collection for the primary time since 2021 and moved to eight wins away from their final objective.

They subsequent face the Mets, with NLCS Recreation 1 scheduled for Sunday at Dodger Stadium.

“We talked about this sequence. It was going to check us, and we fought,” stated Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts. “We didn’t relent, not one time, and I simply could not be extra excited for this ballclub.”

The sequence between the 2 division rivals lived as much as the hype. It was a five-game thriller between two of the most effective groups within the sport, who don’t significantly like one another. Each groups constantly stated they wished to throw the toughest punch. It was the Dodgers that delivered the knockout on Friday.

Two days after that pre-Recreation 4 speech, it was Hernández once more who jump-started the Dodgers, this time along with his bat, as his two-out blast within the second inning off right-hander Yu Darvish opened up the scoring. For Hernández, it was the 14th postseason homer of his profession. Within the seventh, Teoscar Hernández added a solo homer of his personal off Darvish.

“Inside these doorways, inside these partitions, we don’t actually care,” Kiké stated. “And that’s the place, like, not giving a rattling comes into play of, ‘I don’t care what anyone says, I don’t care what it seems to be like, we’re all on this collectively.’ We consider in one another and we’re going to do no matter it takes to win a ballgame.”

These two homers have been sufficient for the Dodgers to win a ballgame, largely due to one other dominant pitching efficiency. Making the largest begin of his life, Yoshinobu Yamamoto responded, tossing 5 scoreless innings and never working into a lot hassle. The lone time the Padres received something going in opposition to Yamamoto, the Japanese right-hander defused it by inducing an inning-ending double play in opposition to Fernando Tatis Jr.

As soon as Yamamoto set the tone, the Dodgers’ bullpen shut issues down, with Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia, Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen combining to shut out the win. With Friday’s shutout, the Dodgers completed off the NLDS by tossing 24 consecutive scoreless innings in opposition to the most effective offenses in baseball.

“I can’t say sufficient about this workforce,” stated Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. “Twenty-four consecutive scoreless innings. … Our ’pen, they have been all unbelievable. We knew that was a energy of ours coming into the sequence, however to observe it shine the best way it did speaks to not solely how gifted they’re, however what a fantastic tradition and surroundings [bullpen coach] Josh Bard and people guys have created down there. Unbelievable workforce effort.”

Group efforts are what the Dodgers’ season has been all about. Positive, having superstars like Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman positively helps. However because the Dodgers navigated by way of a flurry of accidents this season, they constantly required others to step up as nicely.

Tyler Glasnow, Gavin Stone, Clayton Kershaw and Yamamoto — 4 key items of the rotation — every missed vital time with accidents, with three of them not with the ability to make it again for the rest of the season. Walker Buehler was additionally pressured to overlook time twice this season.

On the offensive facet, Freeman missed two weeks late within the season as he attended to the well being of his son. Betts and Muncy additionally missed months with accidents. Because the blows piled up all through the season, it might have been simple for the Dodgers to consider this wasn’t going to be their yr. However by way of all of it, L.A. caught by way of it and completed with the most effective document within the Majors.

“I haven’t been part of as a lot adversity as this ballclub has had,” Roberts stated. “And never one time have we made an excuse or given ourselves an out to not win 11 video games in October. And that’s a credit score to the character of the blokes, the coaches, the entrance workplace, getting lots of depth that we’ve needed to faucet into. I’ve by no means believed in a bunch of men greater than this group. I actually haven’t.”

Although the Dodgers celebrated arduous on Friday, they know this isn’t the tip of the street. Earlier than Recreation 5, the message on the video board contained in the clubhouse was a quote from Lakers legend Kobe Bryant that has resonated with this metropolis for years.

“Job’s not completed,” the board learn.

However within the sequence that your complete baseball world wished to see, it was the Dodgers who got here out on high.

“I believe we’re all sick of it. We wish to change the narrative,” stated Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux. “This group is a workforce that has lots of grit, competitiveness and we wish to win. We handled lots of adversity by way of accidents, and guys needed to step up all season. I believe in the end, that made us a greater workforce.”