LOS ANGELES — An epic game ended with an error, and it means the Los Angeles Dodgers are going to the NLCS.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the 11th inning, Andy Pages — the Dodgers’ worst hitter of the postseason — hit an easy ground ball to reliever Orion Kerkering. Kerkering booted the ball, then threw it toward home but out of the reach of catcher J.T. Realmuto — too little, too late to save his team’s season. The winning run crossed the plate, and the Dodgers won 2-1 in Game 4.
Dodger Stadium exploded with noise as soon as the ball left Kerkering’s hand, leaving the Phillies walking off the field, shell-shocked. With that, the Dodgers advance to face the winner of the Brewers-Cubs series in the NLCS.
Advertisement
[Yahoo Sports TV is here! Watch live shows and highlights 24/7]
For six innings, the game in L.A. was a full pitchers’ duel. Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez answering the bell was hardly surprising after a season that will see him finish as a Cy Young finalist, but Tyler Glasnow came up huge for the Dodgers nearly two weeks after his most recent start.
Glasnow and Sánchez exchanged zeros into the seventh inning and allowed six hits combined across that span. It was only in that seventh inning that both bullpens got involved, in ways that inspired second-guessing on both sides. Despite Glasnow being at only 83 pitches, the Dodgers opted to pull him for Emmet Sheehan, who promptly gave up a go-ahead run on a Nick Castellanos double in the seventh.
Sánchez stayed in to start the seventh but allowed two baserunners with one out. The Phillies then summoned rested closer Jhoan Duran to put out the fire. An Andy Pages grounder put runners on second and third with two outs, and then the Phillies intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani, who to that point was 1-for-17 with eight strikeouts in the series.
Advertisement
That decision blew up in the Phillies’ faces when Mookie Betts worked a full-count walk to tie the game, but that obviously wasn’t the end of their mistakes.
Read the full article here