Andy Pages hit a ground ball to the mound.
Orion Kerkering picked it up and threw away the Philadelphia Phillies’ season.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th in Game 4 of the National League Division Series on Thursday, that’s how the Dodgers secured a walk-off, series-clinching 2-1 win that sends them to the NL Championship Series.
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On a throwing error from Kerkering, who initially booted the broken-bat grounder before retrieving the ball in front of the mound.
On a toss home that went sailing to the backstop, even as catcher J.T. Realmuto motioned for Kerkering to get the sure out at first base.
On a brutal, inexplicable decision from the Phillies’ 24-year-old reliever, one that allowed Hyeseong Kim to score from third and pandemonium to be unleashed inside Dodger Stadium.
“Instant classic,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
“That ranks up there,” third baseman Max Muncy added.
In what started as a pitchers’ duel between two dominant starters, then morphed into a battle of the bullpens that stretched into extra innings, the Dodgers finally prevailed with a rally in the 11th, when they loaded the bases on singles from Tommy Edman and Muncy, then a two-out walk from Kiké Hernández.
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With two outs, Pages came to the plate amid a one-for-23 start to his postseason. As Dodger Stadium stirred, he swung through a first-pitch sinker before calling time to gather himself.
Then, in a blink, the shocking end unfolded.
On another sinker, Pages cracked his bat on a two-hopper that went skipping to the mound. Kerkering didn’t field it cleanly, with the ball hitting off his foot and bouncing in the direction of the plate. But by the time he grabbed it, Pages was still only halfway up the first baseline — leaving plenty of time for the scrambling pitcher to throw to first.
Instead…
Kerkering panicked and rushed a throw to the plate. The ball sailed on him and missed Realmuto.
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Kim crossed the plate, then went back and stomped on it again just to be certain. Kerkering bent over in immediate regret. The Dodgers poured out of the dugout in equal parts celebration and disbelief.
“I thought he was going to throw it to first,” Pages said in Spanish during an on-field interview moments later. “But when I saw him throwing home, I figured this was over.”
Thus, the Dodgers won the series and avoided a decisive fifth game back in Philadelphia. They moved on to their seventh NLCS in the last 10 seasons, where they will await the winner of the league’s other division series between the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers.
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“To be here, knowing that we don’t want to go to Philly and play a Game 5 over there in that atmosphere, it was really important for us to win tonight,” veteran infielder Miguel Rojas said.
Still, in the Dodgers’ beer-soaked postgame clubhouse celebration, the ending continued to stir a confounding amazement.
“Extra innings at home, against a really, really, really good team, for it to end on a throwing error by a pitcher back to home plate,” Muncy said, before repeating himself again, “that definitely ranks up there.”
In both exultation, but also sheer relief.
Tyler Glasnow, who kept the Dodgers in the game early with a scoreless six-inning start, voiced the most common reaction: “It was kind of crazy. I thought he was gonna go to first.”
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Hernández, who ran hard from first to second thinking the grounder might trickle to the middle of the infield, couldn’t believe what he saw when he turned back to see where the ball went.
“I kind of peeked, and I didn’t see [Phillies first baseman Bryce] Harper try to catch the ball, and I’m like, ‘What the…'” he said. “And then I looked home, and the ball was in the net, and the place was going crazy.”
Kim, who had entered as a pinch runner for Edman earlier in the inning, was so surprised by Kerkering’s decision that he didn’t even slide as he raced home from third.
“I ran for my life,” he said through an interpreter. “I just ran as hard as I could.”
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Pages, who was mobbed by his teammates in the aftermath of the walk-off, was still just as shocked as he recounted it all again.
“When I hit the ball, I saw [Kerkering] didn’t grab it, so I kept running,” he said in Spanish. “Then I looked back and I saw that he threw home, and I just thought, ‘No, he threw the game away.'”
Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow delivers against the Phillies in the fourth inning Thursday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
In a somber visiting clubhouse, Kerkering acknowledged that “the pressure got to me” as he relived the nightmare sequence.
“I just thought there’s a faster throw to JT, little quicker throw than trying to cross-body it,” he said.
Amid their celebration, the Dodgers also felt his pain.
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“It’s brutal,” Roberts said, describing Kerkering as a “stud” reliever. “It’s one of those things that it’s a PFP, a pitcher’s fielding practice. He’s done it a thousand times.”
All afternoon, the tension had been building at Chavez Ravine.
Through six innings, both Glasnow (who rode a lively fastball to eight strikeouts before exiting with just 83 pitches because of cramping) and Cristopher Sánchez (who flummoxed the Dodgers for the second time this series with a flurry of sinkers and changeups) had kept the opposing lineup off the board as shadows stretched across the plate.
In the seventh, both teams eventually broke through after getting relievers onto the mound.
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Read more: Plaschke: A wild finish propels the Dodgers into NLCS and past their toughest playoff test
The Phillies scored first, when an error by Dodgers reliever Emmet Sheehan — who missed a throw while covering first on a potential double-play grounder — led to an RBI double from Nick Castellanos.
The Dodgers answered when Mookie Betts drew a bases-loaded, two-out walk from Phillies closer Jhoan Durán that tied the score.
At that point, the Dodgers turned to their bullpen savior, getting three perfect innings of relief from rookie right-hander Roki Sasaki.
“One of the great all-time appearances out of the ‘pen that I can remember,” Roberts said of Sasaki, who has allowed just one baserunner over 5 ⅓ scoreless postseason innings after returning late in the season from a long-term shoulder injury.
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Alex Vesia followed him with an escape in the 11th inning, stranding a runner at second by striking out Harrison Bader in a 10-pitch at-bat.
“Inning to inning, pitch to pitch, I mean, that was a heavyweight battle,” Vesia said. “They were not going to go down without a fight. But at the same time, you can’t count out the Dodgers. From top to bottom, that was a badass game.”
Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki exults after a strikeout in the ninth inning against the Phillies in Game 4 of the NLDS. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers finally ended it in the bottom of the 11th, starting with singles from Edman and Muncy that forced Jesús Luzardo (the Phillies’ projected Game 5 starter who had come on in relief an inning prior) to give way to Kerkering.
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His first hitter was Hernández, the longtime Dodgers postseason hero who made his latest contribution by working a full-count walk to load the bases.
Then, it came down to Pages — who made just enough contact to force Kerkering’s blunder.
“It wasn’t even the best contact or the best result,” Pages said, “but with that, I was able to end the game.”
In infamous fashion for the title-starved Phillies. In a triumphant scene for a Dodgers team vying for a second straight championship.
“I would much rather have seen a line drive in the gap or something,” catcher Will Smith joked. “But, yeah, that’s just pressure. … And they didn’t make the play.”
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Read more: Tommy Edman and Andy Pages put struggles aside to be key part of decisive Dodgers’ inning
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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