DODGERS WIN 1ST PENNANT SINCE ’88
Hernandez 3 HRs, 7 RBIs furnish power for
CHICAGO — The Dodgers throttled the regular season with a gusto seldom seen in the franchise’s storied history and were even less subtle in the manner in which they won the National League pennant Thursday night.
It was over almost before it got started, with a respectable, yet hardly imposing, figure dropping a sledgehammer that ended the Cubs’ world championship reign.
Kiké Hernandez, a spare part in the Dodgers’ outfield mix, smashed three home runs, including a grand slam, powering Los Angeles to an 11-1 rout of the Cubs in Game 5 of the NLCS at Wrigley Field.
Hernandez homered twice in the first three innings and then hit a two-run blast against Mike Montgomery in the ninth to punctuate the victory. Hernandez finished with seven RBIs.
“It’s pretty cool that I had that game because it’s special to get to the World Series,” Hernandez said. “But more importantly this tells you what this team is all about. Every game another guy comes up big.”
Their first pennant since 1988 in hand, the Dodgers will host Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday against the Yankees or Astros, with Clayton Kershaw scheduled for the start on full rest.
Dodgers Hall of Famer and former manager Tommy Lasorda, now a club ambassador, said he is hoping his team plays the Yankees.
“It would put the entire nation from here to here, all into the baseball view,” Lasorda said, holding his arms apart. “If the Yankees win it, it’s going to be a great Series.”
After winning 104 games during the regular season, anything short of a World Series appearance would have been considered failure for the Dodgers, who avenged last season’s loss to the Cubs in the NLCS. And the Dodgers made it look relatively easy, save for a Game 4 loss in which Jake Arrieta tamed this dangerous lineup.
Kershaw was handed a nine-run lead by the fourth inning and cruised to the victory. The stud lefty allowed one run on three hits over six innings, as the Dodgers improved to 7-1 this postseason.
“There are so many things that I could probably touch on, but the first thing that comes to mind is Clayton and how long he’s been a Dodger and how much he wanted this opportunity to win a championship,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
Hernandez ended any drama with his grand slam in the third that gave the Dodgers a 7-0 lead. As the ball settled behind the wall in right-center, Hernandez raised his hand in celebration as he ran to second base and Wrigley Field went numb. It was here last year that the Cubs beat Kershaw in Game 6 of the NLCS to reach the World Series for the first time since 1945. No longer lovable losers, the Cubs will spend the winter in search of pitching options to augment a talented lineup.
The Cubs, who last year won the World Series for the first time since 1908, never seemed
to click this postseason. Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Javier Baez, among others, disappointed at the plate, and the bullpen struggled.
If there was a punch from which the Cubs never seemed to recover, it was Justin Turner’s walk-off homer in the ninth inning in Game 2 in Los Angeles that put the Dodgers in firm control of the series.
Turner, the former Mets infielder, is batting .423 with three homers this postseason and was named co-MVP of the NLCS with Chris Taylor.
“We [have] talked about unfinished business and wanting to bring a World Series back to Los Angeles,” Turner said. “We had a bad taste in our mouth the last four years, not finishing what we started.”
In their most recent World Series win, in 1988, the Dodgers were scrappy underdogs who upset a talented Athletics team, after gimpy-legged Kirk Gibson hit a game-ending homer against Dennis Eckersley in Game 1. But this season, with a payroll in the $260 million neighborhood (the highest in the major leagues), the Dodgers won’t carry the underdog tag, regardless of the opponent.