ARLINGTON, Texas — Can you taste it? Vindication with undertones of elation and relief, mixed with a lingering note of devastation.
It’s that close.
The roof was closed to keep out the demons on Sunday night and the baseball fates that have toyed with the Dodgers for 32 years – and Clayton Kershaw for the past eight – took the night off, no doubt exhausted by their shenanigans a night earlier.
Kershaw recorded 15 outs, the Tampa Bay Rays chipped in two more with their baserunning and they didn’t ask any more of their star-crossed future Hall of Famer, turning to the bullpen to hold fast to win Game 5, 4-2, and move within one game of their first World Series title since the year of Kershaw’s birth.
It is the second time since 1988 – always, everything, since 1988 – the Dodgers have been this close. They were one win away in 2017, too. But the trash cans at Globe Life Field all seem to be accounted for and Yu Darvish will not be admitted for the final act in this drama.
Instead, it will be rookie right-hander Tony Gonsolin who gets the start with the Dodgers on the precipice of a championship. Pitching on just two days’ rest, Gonsolin lasted only 1-1/3 innings in Game 2 against the Rays. He will be on five days’ rest in Game 6 after a day off Monday for both sides to collect their thoughts.
The Dodgers will only have one.
“The off day is going to be hard tomorrow, I think,” Kershaw said. “It’s going to be good for us, resetting our bullpen and things like that, which is huge. But sitting around one win away from a World Series is going to be hard – especially when you’ve been in the same hotel for four weeks now.
“But I think we can wait one more day.”
The Dodgers were so traumatized by their self-immolation in the ninth inning of Game 4 that it took them two whole batters to start scoring runs again in Game 5.
Mookie Betts led off with a ringing double into the left field corner and Corey Seager followed with an RBI single (part of a stretch of six consecutive plate appearances that ended with him reaching base). Ten pitches into the game the Dodgers had a lead. Joc Pederson and Max Muncy added to it with home runs.
But the focus became protecting that lead like a Faberge egg for the rest of the night.
Going into Game 5, the Dodgers had determined an outer limit for Kershaw – something they had been far too fickle about in past Octobers, leading to many of the scars Kershaw wears after being asked for too much on a postseason mound.
“If you look at his start or any starter, for the most part, you’re talking 21 to 24 hitters,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “That’s kind of where guys are at, 21 to 24. So you kind of have an idea where guys are going to be and then you kind of layer in how they’re throwing the baseball.”
If that was his ration, Kershaw was burning through them in the first four innings.
For only the sixth time in his career (regular season or postseason), Kershaw allowed the leadoff batter to reach base in the first four innings of a start.
He danced out of trouble in the first two innings, but an infield single in the third was followed two batters later by a line drive down the right field line by Yandy Diaz. Betts moved to cut it off but took a flat route toward the ball and it skipped past him to the wall for an RBI triple. Diaz scored when Randy Arozarena singled through the left side of the Dodgers’ infield.
But Arozarena was thrown out trying to steal second as Brandon Lowe struck out, ending the inning for Kershaw.
“Tonight, the whole night it was kind of a grind,” he said. “I wasn’t near as crisp as I was in Game 1. My slider really just wasn’t as good as it was in Game 1 and my curveball, too, actually.”
Back-to-back walks started the fourth inning with the Rays now trailing by just one, 3-2. Kershaw got a pop out and a strikeout (on his way to passing Justin Verlander to become the all-time postseason leader), bringing up Kevin Kiermaier.
The Rays made a calculation and decided Kiermaier’s chances of driving in the run with two outs were less than a bold gamble – Manuel Margot tried to steal home, bolting as Kershaw reached his arms high over his head and paused in his distinctive delivery.
Muncy alerted him and Kershaw quickly threw home. Margot was called out. But the play was so close it went to replay review where squinting and rewinding and freeze-framing didn’t change the call.
“That’s happened to me before. I think it was Carlos Gomez with Houston and I think it was the same situation – two outs, trying to steal a run right there,” Kershaw said. “I wasn’t really anticipating it. But I have talked to first basemen in the past – Muncy, I’ve talked with him about it as well. ‘Hey, I look at them originally but when I come set I don’t really see the runner so you’ve got to yell at me if they start going.’”
The play actually settled Kershaw. He retired the side in order without a baserunner in the bottom of the fifth, striking out two, then retired the first two batters in the sixth – his sixth and seventh consecutive batters retired – each on one pitch.
But Lowe was batter No. 21 for Kershaw and, sure enough, Roberts came out of the dugout bound for the pitcher’s mound. The Dodgers’ infielders were more surprised than Kershaw and a roundtable discussion ensued.
“That’s just one of those things where they talked about what was going to happen before that inning even started. That was the plan the whole time,” Muncy said. “I think all of us wanted Kersh to stay in. But they had a plan and they executed the plan and it worked out for us.”
Not before third baseman Justin Turner was caught by the Fox cameras and, even with rudimentary lip-reading skills, seeming to say, “I think he can get this (expletive).”
“Oh, it was Justin trying to lobby to keep him in the game,” Roberts confirmed later. “You saw it right.”
Roberts stayed the course he had set before the inning. Kershaw walked back to the dugout while the Dodger fans in attendance gave him an ovation. Roberts walked back to a cascade of boos.
“That was the plan,” Kershaw said. “We talked about it before the inning. Even though it was just two pitches and made it seem super fast – you know, two outs and nobody on – we stuck with the plan. Credit to Doc for that one.”Those other scars October has inflicted on Kershaw often happened when the bullpen behind him poured acid all over the work he had done.
Not this time. Overamped in his previous World Series appearance, May was overpowering this time. He retired five of six batters, giving up a single to Kiermaier in the eighth before handing the ball to Victor Gonzalez with one out.
Gonzalez walked pinch-hitter Mike Brosseau to put the tying runs on base but he retired the two most dangerous hitters in the Rays’ lineup – Arozarena and Lowe. Returned to center field after his back tightness Saturday, Cody Bellinger came roaring in to snag Lowe’s sinking liner and end the inning.
Having used rookies (May and Gonzalez) to get seven of the game’s most pressure-packed outs, Roberts wasn’t willing to ask another (Brusdar Graterol) to get the last three. He had two veterans to choose from – Blake Treinen and Kenley Jansen. Both had pitched in each of the previous two games.
“Kenley went two in a row. Blake went two in a row,” Roberts said. “I just know we’ve done Blake three in a row more times. … So to feel that he can bounce back that third day is an easier bet for me.”
Roberts still insists deposed closer Jansen is “a high-leverage guy.” Treinen retired the side with little drama.
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