This isn’t a series, it’s calisthenics.
The Dodgers shouldn’t be here battling baseball’s junior varsity, and they know it, and they’re intent on pounding and pitching their way out of this embarrassing situation as quickly as possible.
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Wild-card round? The defending champions are nobody’s wild card.
The Cincinnati Reds? Human byes.
October came a day early to Chavez Ravine on Tuesday and the shouldn’t-be-here Dodgers welcomed it with their annoyance, tying a club postseason record with five homers and dismantling the Reds 10-5 in the opener of a three-game wild-card series that should be mercifully completed by midweek.
Read more: Dodgers waste no time finding their October groove in Game 1 win over Reds
The Dodgers finished 10 games ahead of the Reds in the standings, and won five out of six during the regular season, and only got lumped with the pretenders when their bullpen fell apart and they blew a chance at having the week off.
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If the Dodgers had taken care of business they would have finished with one of the two best records in the National League and would have drawn a first-round bye as they did the previous three seasons. But, no, they finished behind Milwaukee and Philadelphia and so, even though they claimed the National League West title for the 12th time in 13 years, they were forced into a three-games-at-home wild-card round.
Hello, Reds.
Goodbye, Reds.
The Dodgers will sweep this series with a win in Game 2 on Wednesday, and considering they’re sending ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the mound, a victory seems likely. In any event, there’s no way the Reds are winning two straight at rollicking Dodger Stadium, so book your attention to Philadelphia this weekend for the beginning of the five-game division series against the Phillies.
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The only way the Reds made it this far was because the New York Mets stumbled down the stretch and lost in Miami on the final day of the season. And if Tuesday was any indication, there’s no way the Reds are getting out of here alive.
The Dodgers knocked them backward on the game’s fifth pitch with a scorching home run by Shohei Ohtani against Reds ace Hunter Greene, the second consecutive year Ohtani has started the Dodgers’ postseason scoring with a longball.
The Dodgers knocked them flat two innings later with four runs on homers by last season’s playoff heroes Teoscar Hernández and Tommy Edman.
The game was over within its first hour, and the Dodgers were just getting started.
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Hernández later added a second home run and, oh yeah, so did Ohtani, two of last season’s postseason stars who love the moment.
“I think it’s the clutch gene,” said Dodger manager Dave Roberts. “I think they’re not afraid to fail. They like the spotlight. And it’s just a really good heartbeat for those guys in those big moments.”
And to think, neither qualified as the game’s hero.
That title belonged to starter Blake Snell, who fooled the Reds into quick swings, wild swings, silly swings, and just four hits with nine strikeouts in seven innings. Perhaps just as important, he lasted 91 pitches, allowing Roberts to stay out of the dreaded bullpen as long as humanely possible.
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“The deeper that the starters go in the game, one, it means we’re pitching good; but, two, it means you’re giving the bullpen a break and breather,” said Snell. “And they get to be 100% every time they come out. So it just makes for a different game that favors us.”
Dodgers pitcher Blake Treinen, right, and catcher Ben Rortvedt (47) embrace after Treinine closed out the team’s 10-5 win over the Cincinnati Reds. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Of course, Roberts had to eventually crack that left-field door, and disaster very nearly occurred when three Dodger relievers accounted for four walks that led to three eighth-inning runs. But Jack Dreyer managed to get two outs with the bases loaded and Blake Treinen finished the game by giving up just a bloop single in the ninth.
“If we don’t feel comfortable using certain guys with an eight-run lead, then we’ve got to think through some things,” said a dismayed Roberts.
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It turns out, even the weakest part of this Dodger team was enough to eventually quiet the visitors, who shouldn’t be here too much longer.
It’s almost as if the Reds were intimidated even before the game began, as the Dodgers buried them in their thickest pregame brine.
Ice Cube was on the video board screaming that it’s time for Dodger baseball. Mariachi Joe Kelly was on the mound delighting the roaring crowd with a ceremonial first pitch that appropriately bounced. Keith Williams Jr. was bringing the chills with his usual falsetto-laden national anthem.
Jason Alexander was on the video board begging the fans to cheer louder… wait a minute. Jason Alexander? Didn’t his Seinfeld character work for the New York Yankees? What was he doing in the heart of Dodgerland? No wonder the fans were ignoring him.
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Alexander’s appearance was one of the only mistakes on a night that gave hope that the Dodgers’ late-season steam — they finished 9-2 and led the league in scoring in the final weeks — could carry them far past this miserable little first-round dalliance.
“Momentum is real,” Roberts said, later adding, “I think that whether it’s the Rangers find their way into the postseason to then win the World Series or some team finishing hot and remaining hot or in a particular game, I do believe in a postseason game, momentum is real.”
As usual at Chavez Ravine, that momentum built as the game went along, rare empty seats in the stands but full-throated scream from the fans, yet another reason the Dodgers blew it by not getting home-field advantage in later rounds.
“I do love being at home because a lot of times that’s what perpetuates it, the home crowd, the energy,” said Roberts.
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But, seriously, about that bullpen…
Before the game, Dodgers baseball boss Andrew Friedman bravely faced the question of his bullpen, a mess that he created with poor winter signings and unwise midseason inactivity.
Not surprisingly, he defended his guys.
“They’ve had stretches of good, they’ve had some stretches where it’s been really tough and challenging,” he acknowledged. “At the end of the day, as we’re working through it the last couple of weeks, it’s not a talent issue.”
In other words, they’re competent relievers just going through a bad, awful, horrible, season-altering stretch?
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“Relievers, kind of like placekickers, are tightrope walkers,” Friedman said. “It’s what they do for a living. They do well, people forget about them. They don’t do well and they’re in the ire of everything. So it’s tough.”
Read more: Dodgers hit 5 home runs and Blake Snell shines in Game 1 win over Reds
Friedman said it’s a matter of confidence, which is understandable when a group gets hammered all season like these guys.
“And when the confidence is wavering, the execution is off,” Friedman said. “When the execution is off, you get behind and you come in zone and you’re just more likely to take on damage. So it’s kind of that imperfect storm in a lot of ways.”
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Storm is right. What kind of bullpen fools around with an eight-run lead, as the Dodgers reliever did Tuesday night when threatening to ruin everything?
The bullpen survived, but for how long? This series may soon be over, but Philadelphia awaits. This first step into October was an impressive one. It will also be the easiest one.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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