The Los Angeles Dodgers swept the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres on Thursday night. While Game 3 didn’t provide the anxiety that Wednesday night did, the Los Angeles offense made it look easy, putting up 14 hits. The Dodgers rode to a 12- 3 victory and now will face the Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series.
The game saw 11 different pitchers step on the mound for the Padres.
After falling behind early for the third straight game, the Dodgers showed resilience and came back. The Dodger offense has really come to life after that big four-run inning in Game 1. Los Angeles hitters put up a five-run inning after falling down 2-1 in the second frame.
Will Smith, who seemingly had hit every ball hard this series, finally broke out in a big way. Smith set a Dodger record with five hits in a postseason game.
Situational hitting by Corey Seager, Justin Turner, and Joc Pederson helped the Dodgers grab the lead back in the third, and they never looked back from there. Turner would also record his 64th postseason hit, passing Steve Garvey for the most postseason hits in franchise history.
Dustin May started Game 3 for the Blue Crew but was surprisingly pulled after one inning. May did pitch two innings in relief in Game 1, but the short leash was still a bit surprising. Adam Kolarek relieved May in the second inning and ran into a bit of a traffic jam on the bases, surrendering two earned runs on three hits and two walks.
Max Muncy and Cody Bellinger, who’ve struggled in the regular season, have turned it around early this postseason. Muncy recorded three walks and Bellinger went 2-for-5 with three RBI.
Julio Urias would relieve Kolarek and be absolutely outstanding. Urias pitched five innings, only allowing one hit and striking out six batters, the most in Dodger history while pitching in relief. Game 3 was essentially a start for Urias, and he certainly cemented his candidacy for a start in the NLCS.
Blake Treinen, Pedro Baez and Dylan Floro would also put up zeros, as the Dodgers coasted to the series win. As contrary to past Octobers, the Dodger offense has taken care of their opportunities and brought in runs with runners in scoring position.
Now, in the NLCS, two undefeated teams in the postseason will face off. Both the Braves and the Dodgers are undefeated in five games; however, the Braves have pitched shutouts in four out of five games and have pitched themselves to a 0.94 ERA this postseason, which is unheard of in the modern era.
It will be interesting to see if any changes are made to the Los Angeles roster, with Edwin Rios for Gavin Lux being a possibility, depending on the severity of Rios’ injury.
The Dodgers have played the Braves in the postseason most recently in the 2018 NLDS and 2013 NLDS, with the Dodgers being victorious in four games in both series. Both teams have changed a lot since they last met in 2018.
The Braves were the National League’s third best team this year in overall wins, and they have great hitters such as Ronald Acuna Jr. Freddie Freeman, and Marcell Ozuna.
This surely will be a fun series with a lot of firepower.
I like the Dodgers in six games.
After Urias got out of that bases loaded situation, I knew they were going to win. And from that point on it was a fun game to watch. Smith, 0-11 going into the game gets 5 hits. Bellinger has a couple of hits and 3 RBI’s. Turner comes up clutch as always and sets a record for the most postseason hits as a Dodger passing Steve Garvey. And they win a series where they were out homered. Belli had the only bomb in the 3 games. Other than the nail biter in game two, they dominated SD. Take that Machado.
Here, here!
Actually, I should have said hear, hear! But the part about Machado “Bears” repeating.
Well I sure got that homer thing wrong. Have we ever in recent history scored 12 runs without a homer?
It’s really encouraging that we’ve won all 5 playoff games and only hit 2 homers in the 5 games.
One thing I don’t understand is the lack of use of Gonsolin. He last pitched on 9/26. If, for example he starts game 3 of the Braves series, he won’t have pitched in an MLB game for almost 3 weeks. They had better not complain about his command if he isn’t sharp when he next goes into a game.
Biggest anxiety now is waiting to see who is starting game 1 and 2. And to see who is on the next round’s roster. If Rios is healthy, he is back. Lux is a luxury they do not need. Gore is definitely off of the roster.
I agree that Lux and Gore are not necessary. Also agree that if Rios is healthy he should be added. But what if he isn’t healthy? Anyone here bold enough to go 12 position players and 16 pitchers? We haven’t used more than 11 position players in any of the playoff games so far. We’re going to go through a lot of pitchers against the Braves. Let’s just add a couple of pitchers. If Rios is healthy I might even consider removing Beaty since Doc is obviously not very excited about using him either.
If we go with 16 pitchers (something which I don’t really think they would do), the obvious candidates to be added would come from this list: Wood, Sborz, Alexander, White and, as a surprise addition, Gray. Any suggestions?
I would ass White. The Braves have had success with rookies no one knows, so why not the Dodgers. And in his few appearances White has done a very good job getting OUTS. But I do not think AF will go that way.
I think White would be my choice also, but I’m guessing AF would go with Wood. We don’t know how any of these guys did at the alternate site in the last couple weeks. Maybe he would just take the hot hand, but probably would go with guys that have been there before. I still think it would be worth going with 16 pitchers, but also don’t think they would do that.
I agree. Wood does have experience. And he did a decent job in the 2017 World Series, I just hope if he is in there he looks a lot better than what we have seen so far.