Dodgers go up 2-0 on JT’s walkoff HR
LOS ANGELES — Justin Turner hit a walkoff three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-1, last night to take a 2-0 lead in the NL Championship Series.
Turner drove in every run for Los Angeles, getting an early RBI single before sending a long shot to center off John Lackey in the ninth. Turner’s second homer of the postseason ended another dramatic night for the Dodgers, who remained unbeaten in these playoffs and moved within two wins of their first World Series appearance since 1988.
And Turner even did it on the 29th anniversary of Kirk Gibson’s pinchhit, walk-off homer to beat Oakland in the opening game of the Dodgers’ last World Series victory.
“It’s very cool, and JT, we were talking about it in there after the game,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Twentynine years to the day. It was special. Our guys feel it.”
Game 3 in the best-ofseven series is tomorrow night at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Midseason acquisition Yu Darvish starts for the Dodgers against Kyle Hendricks.
Yasiel Puig drew his third walk of the game leading off the ninth, and Charlie Culberson bunted him to second. After Brian Duensing struck out pinch-hitter Kyle Farmer, Chicago manager Joe Maddon went to the bullpen for Lackey, a starter who pitched on consecutive days for the first time in his 15-year career.
Lackey got the call over All-Star closer Wade Davis, and the veteran starter walked Chris Taylor on six tense pitches.
Turner stepped up and ended it with his long drive — the fourth playoff homer of his career and the Dodgers’ first walk-off homer in the postseason since Gibson’s famous shot.
“We’ve been doing it all year long,” Turner said. “We’re never out of a game. As long as we have outs left, we’re going to keep fighting.”
Completing the poetry of the moment, a Dodgers fan in the center field bleachers caught the ball in his glove.
Turner has been at his best in October, batting .377 with four home runs and 22 RBI in his postseason career. He is 13-for-18 with runners in scoring position in playoff at-bats.
Addison Russell homered in the fifth for the Cubs, who are down early in this rematch of the 2016 NLCS. Chicago won that series in six games and went on to its first World Series championship since 1908.
The Cubs’ Jon Lester yielded three hits and five walks while failing to get out of the fifth inning in the shortest start of his long postseason career, but the Dodgers couldn’t take advantage of a rare shaky night. Rich Hill struck out eight in five innings for the Dodgers, but he was pulled for a pinch hitter by Roberts.