National Post (National Edition)
Magical moment sends Nats to L.A. with spring in step
VETS ZIMMERMAN, SCHERZER LEAD CHARGE AS TEAM EYES MAJOR UPSET AGAINST DODGERS
Moments like Ryan Zimmerman’s goosebump home run at Nationals Park Monday in Game 4 of the National League Division Series are why baseball is played and why we watch it for a lifetime.
The oft-injured Zimmerman, 35, has been unseen for months at a time this season. Years removed from his turn as face of the franchise, he has been consigned by many to the sport’s scrap heap. But in the fifth inning, with the Nats clinging to a 2-1 lead in an elimination game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Zimmerman blasted a monstrously high flyball that momentarily disappeared from sight at light-tower level. The drive seemed to hang, blocked and battered by a flag-snapping crosswind from left to right field that should have knocked it down into a fielder’s glove.
But when Zimmerman’s threerun blast landed beyond the centre-field fence, it was the Dodgers who were knocked to the deck, trailing 5-1 and on the way to a 6-1 loss that forced a decisive Game 5 Wednesday in Los Angeles.
Asked about the chance this might have been the last game he plays in Nationals Park, Zimmerman began to repeat his pre-game quote on the same subject: “I plan on playing more games. I feel like a lot of people think I’m not going to play more games (ever again). But I feel good. I feel like ... “
Max Scherzer cut him off, snapping sarcastically, “I really don’t think these are his last games. Only you think these are his last games.”
Talk about a contract push!
Let the record show that after a fist-pump at first base, Zimmerman ran the bases with hard determination still locked on his face — perhaps showing how desperately he felt the need to deliver after striking out in his first two at-bats.
The hang time for his 414-foot blast was a preposterous 6.1 seconds, long enough for Trea Turner to round the bases twice. OK, long enough for a fast man to get from home to second base or Atlanta’s Ronald Acuna Jr. to get out of the batter’s box.
As if to underline the D.C. mythology of Zimmerman’s blow, Dodgers power-hitter Max Muncy crushed what looked like a long home run to centre in the eighth inning, a shot that sent Michael A. Taylor to the wall, looking up, before he had to dash in a few feet to make the catch.
“I was just hoping it didn’t hit that wall of wind,” GM Mike Rizzo said. “But when Zim hits ’em, they stay hit.”
Manager Dave Martinez started laughing and imitated his own “blowing” in the dugout, trying to help the ball.
“He’s a beast,” fellow Nats first baseman Matt Adams said.
As usual, Zimmerman tried to be modest — always the same approach, don’t try to do too much: “Got on top of a high fastball — finally.” But then he said, “This is what we live for. ... No, I can’t explain how those moments feel. You can’t replicate it anywhere else. But afterwards, you take some time to cherish it.”
Others will, too.
This game, setting up a do-ordie meeting with the possibility of the wild-card winners beating the 106-win, back-to-back pennant-winning Dodgers, had other hair-raising moments. In the seventh inning, an exhausted Scherzer faced left-handed slugger Joc Pederson as Martinez was nailed to the top dugout step, even though the Nats’ lone lefty, Sean Doolittle, was warm.
Pederson lashed a bases-clearing, three-run double down the right-field line — at least that’s what they may tell you in L.A. Right-field umpire Ted Barrett called it foul. Replay showed that it was foul by perhaps a half-inch. If Barrett had pointed fair, would there have been enough evidence to reverse the call? We’ll never know.
We do know Scherzer’s next pitch, his 109th, produced a groundout, ending the ace’s night at seven innings of three-hit, onerun, seven-strikeout ball. And with that hairbreadth escape, the last big Dodgers push died.
“You never know what might’ve happened,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, “but, shoot, Max threw the heck out of the ball.”
The implications of this victory, which had most of the crowd of 36,847 standing for much more than an hour, from the moment Zimmerman’s homer landed, could have lasting ramifications. Why? Because the Dodgers, to the despair of their fan base, are suddenly in deep doo-doo. The pressure meter at Chavez Ravine has jumped higher than the San Gabriel Mountains.
The Dodgers have a six-footfive, 235-pound problem, one with a 0.64 career ERA in the post-season. The new Hollywood horror flick is scheduled to open Wednesday and the lead will be played by Stephen Strasburg, once described by teammate Jayson Werth as “just a big, hairy, scary, furry animal.”
The Dodgers, for all their money, all their tradition and, at times, all their haughty vanity, have found more ways than their oldest fan has fingers and toes to avoid winning a World Series since 1988.
Now, from the 101 to the Slauson Cutoff, from the hours-long traffic jams on Interstate 5 to the smoggy vastness of the city’s banal suburban sprawl, one name will be on every baseball tongue: Strasburg, who fanned 10 Dodgers in six innings of Game 2 on just two days’ rest after winning the wildcard game in three innings of relief.
What’s Mr. Hairy Scary going to do on full rest?
“We got another game to play,” said Strasburg, almost smiling and adding that after his relief stint six days ago he’s finally back on his regular routine and feels “real good” for a start on full rest.
Asked why he has done so well in the playoffs, Strasburg said, “You train for this, dream of this from the time you’re a kid. You want the chance to see how your stuff stacks up.”
The Dodgers counter with their own large and menacing righthander, Walker Buehler, one of the few pitchers with stuff roughly comparable to Strasburg’s. He held the Nats to one hit in six scoreless innings in a Game 1 victory.