Dodgers advance to the World Series
The 2018 Los Angeles Dodgers have spent nearly seven months tormenting themselves and their fans, operating as if a pennant were their birthright. They tantalized with their talent and tortured with their results. They lost games when they shouldn’t have, but won every game that needed to be won. They required 163 games to win the division. If the commissioner’s office at Major League Baseball would have allowed it, the Dodgers would have taken the National League Championship Series to Game 8.
The route back to the World Series may have been circuitous, a journey of fits and starts and lineup alterations, but the destination remains as sweet. Because for the second season in a row, the Dodgers will reign as champions of the National League, downing the Milwaukee Brewers with a 5-1 victory in Game 7 of the NLCS. The Dodgers operated in this series as they have all season: They played themselves into a corner, and then muscled their way out. Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig celebrates with teammates after hitting a three-run homer in the sixth inning.
The emotion and elation of this trek manifested in the persona of one man, Yasiel Puig, as he rounded the bases in Saturday’s sixth inning. He had just launched a three-run homer to break the tension of the early going. Upon contact, Puig flipped his bat. As he rounded first base, he turned to his dugout and chopped at his crotch. At third, he thumped his chest. After touching the plate, certifying his blast in Dodgers history, he wagged his tongue and accepted the adulation of his teammates.
The mob included all the stars from Saturday: Cody Bellinger, who provided a lead with a secondinning home run. Walker Buehler, who struck out seven during 4 2/3 innings and protected the advantage bequeathed to him. Chris Taylor, who stole a game-tying, extra-base hit from Brewers All-star Chris Taylor in the fifth. The rest of the contributors resided in the relief corps, who silenced Milwaukee’s offense all series. Clayton
Kershaw loped in from the bullpen to finish the ninth.
In the midst of the sixthinning throng, manager Dave Roberts left the dugout’s top step to embrace Puig. The manager has emerged as the avatar for this club, the source of frustration for fans who have not embraced the Dodgers’ organizational philosophy emphasizing depth, versatility and sacrifice. The culture survived the frights of the regular season. The culture has carried the club through October.
This group has become the first Dodgers team since the 1977-1978 editions to win back-to-back pennants. The team aims to secure its first championship since 1988 when the World Series begins against Boston on Tuesday at Fenway Park. They enter the series in unfamiliar, but perhaps welcome territory.