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Jeff PassESPN
ARLINGTON, Texas – Comebacks complete, crises averted, the Los Angeles Dodgers are back in the World Series, determined to do what they couldn’t the last two times they tried: end a championship drought of more than three decades. .
Cody Bellinger’s mammoth home run in the seventh inning unleashed a tense and tied game, and Julio Urias beat the lauded Atlanta Braves lineup for the final nine outs in the Dodgers’ 4-3 game win. 7 of the National League Championship Series on Sunday night. .
Once trailing 3-1 in the series, and down in the first five innings of Game 7, the Dodgers rallied with their not-so-secret weapon: the home run. Los Angeles reached 16th in the series, tying an LCS record, and took advantage of Kiké Hernández’s pinch shot in the sixth, followed by Bellinger’s an inning later, to give Atlanta its final sporting blow.
Urias, normally a starter but pitching in a firefighter role, was dynamic through the last three innings and secured the win.
“We never gave up,” said Corey Seager, who set NLCS records with five home runs and 11 RBIs en route to being named a series MVP. “This team never gave up. We went out every night and hoped to win. Tilt your hat to that clubhouse and how we responded, how we got back. We always found the energy, we found the big play, we found the big spark. Whether it was defensive, we found it. offense, pitching, we passed that series. It was really fun to be on top of that one. “
Now comes the hard part for the Dodgers: four more wins – four hard-to-reach victories in 2018 against the Boston Red Sox, out of reach in 2017 against the Houston Astros, and the last of them were theirs in 1988, the year Kirk Gibson hit his famous home run in Game 1 of the World Series.
Since then, the Dodgers have routinely flirted with greatness, winning the last eight NL West championships and teetering on the brink of a title. To do it this time around, they’ll need to beat the Tampa Bay Rays, who nearly lost a 3-0 lead in the American League Championship Series before holding out against the Astros in Game 7 on Saturday.
“The World Series is the World Series, it doesn’t matter what year you come in. ’17 passed, ’18 happened, we fell short, now we’re back,” Hernandez said. “The past is in the past, this one feels super special because it’s in front of us and it’s happening. I’m not going to take anything away from the other two, but this one is extremely special, we were able to stay ‘COVID-free’ all season long. .. We are very lucky, but it shows how focused we were on what is at stake, nobody wanted to put the team in danger in any way.
“We knew from the first day of spring training [our goal] it was to win the World Series. We take care of business in the regular season, we take care of business against the Brewers, we take care of business against the Padres, we take care of business against the Braves. It was a bit more difficult than we thought it was going to be, but I’m glad we made it. “
Hernandez, who arrived at the ballpark for Game 7 in a Kobe Bryant jersey, channeled the Lakers legend in his postgame press conference and told reporters, “The job is not done.”
The Dodgers gave Atlanta another heartache courtesy of Bellinger, the reigning National League MVP whose struggles this season relegated him to No. 6 in the lineup this postseason. Reliever Chris Martin, who had worked his way through the previous three batters he faced, splashed the outside corner against Bellinger, who messed up pitches to stay alive with two strikes. On the eighth pitch of the at-bat, Martin dropped a fastball over the heart of the plate, and Bellinger hit it 417 feet into right-center field, a majestic shot that left a crowd of 10,920 Dodgers professionals in the Globe. Life Field screaming. gladly.
Bellinger confirmed after the game that his right shoulder jumped when he and Hernandez held a Bash Brothers celebration after Bellinger’s home run.
“It’s not the first time it’s happened,” Bellinger told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt. “I had to run back to the training room, and they had to put it back very quickly. But it felt good; I was good enough to play defense and finish the game, that’s for sure.”
Bellinger caught the last out of the game from his position in center field.
The Braves had three chances in a win and their best starters, Max Fried and Ian Anderson, lined up on full rest for Games 6 and 7. They proceeded to lose all three and haven’t been to the World Series since 1999.
Atlanta had its chances too. The Braves scored in the first inning with two walks and a single by Marcell Ozuna, then in the second with a home run by Dansby Swanson. A two-run single by Dodgers catcher Will Smith off Anderson in the third tied the game. Atlanta followed its first-inning formula, with Austin Riley providing the single to regain the 3-2 lead.
There had already been chaos. The Braves gave away two outs on a wild play by Riley and Swanson in the top of the fourth. The Dodgers stranded eight runners in the first four innings, including bases loaded late in the fourth. And that madness also did not budge while the game continued.
In the top of the fifth, Freddie Freeman, who would have been the MVP of the series if the Braves had won, fired a towering shot off Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen. For the second day in a row, with his back against the wall in right field, legs extended in the air, Mookie Betts jumped for an incredible catch, saving a home run.
After trading Betts in February and signing him to a $ 365 million contract extension, the Dodgers believed they had assembled a roster talented enough to end their 31-year championship drought. That hope lives on between Betts and Seager, starter Walker Buehler and the array of live weapons, and even Hernandez, the utility vehicle whose pinch homer off AJ Minter was the first for the Dodgers to tie a playoff game or put them ahead since Gibson. in 88.
“This was the first time we had our backs against the wall,” Betts said. “All season we’ve been controlling games, controlling series and all that. It seemed like they were managing us a bit from the beginning. We were able to control everything and control ourselves. Start fighting and it shows you the type of group and type of guys that We have. We’re never going to give up. Nothing’s going to be easy. We’re going to attack fast before you even think about it and that’s what we did. “
The upcoming World Series against the Rays also provides an opportunity for redemption. The Dodgers are still divided in 2017, when they dropped the seventh game to an Astros team that was ultimately exposed for cheating with a signal stealing scheme. Although the 2018 Red Sox team that beat the Dodgers did not participate in such an elaborate system, it was also disciplined by Major League Baseball for violating technology usage rules.
These Dodgers’ aspirations have been bigger than the National League pennant since they returned from the pandemic-induced delay and labor to play a 60-game season.
“To see where we come from … to start with the pandemic and many things that happen and the boys who are not with their families, and all the social injustice, there have been many sacrifices on the part of the boys,” said the manager of the Dodgers, Dave Roberts. he said in describing his emotional reaction to leading this group to the World Series. “And the guys were uncomfortable, but still like to buy the Dodgers and what we’re doing to win baseball games, and make such a difficult year in some cases a positive and a championship year for the Dodgers and the city of Los Angeles Angels.
“We had our backs against the walls and we had to win three games in a row against a very good baseball club. So a lot of things had to happen, and we did.”
The Dodgers were clearly the best team in baseball during the regular season, going 43-17 and outscoring their opponents by 136 runs. Both Los Angeles and Atlanta went through their wild card and division series matchups and entered the NLCS undefeated.
From there a series developed that until the seventh game had not seen a close fight back and forth despite the fact that both teams played well at times. Game 7, on the other hand, won’t be easy to forget.
