Dodgers close out Nationals, next face Cubs in NLCS
Ace gets final two outs to eliminate Baker’s Nats and face Cubs
WASHINGTON — A little past midnight in Game 5 of the N.L. Division Series, Clayton Kershaw emerged from the bullpen to pitch in relief for the first time in seven years.
Two outs later, the only save of his major league career in the books, Kershaw’s arms were raised and teammates were rushing to celebrate with a guy whose postseason performances have never carried the luster of his regular-season success.
Coming in after closer Kenley Jansen issued a pair of one-out walks in the ninth inning, Kershaw got Daniel Murphy to pop out, then struck out Wilmer Difo to end it. That finished the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 4-3 victory over the Washington Nationals that decided their N.L. Division Series in the wee hours of Friday.
The Dodgers won the last two games of the bestof-five NLDS and now head to the N.L. Championship Series to face the Chicago Cubs. That opens at Wrigley Field on Saturday night.
The Nationals, meanwhile, still have never won a postseason series.
“I’m not ready to go home,” Nationals first-year manager Dusty Baker said. “I haven’t been home since February, but I would have gladly stayed a couple more weeks.”
Kershaw worked two days after throwing 110 pitches over 6 2 ⁄ innings in 3 Game 4, when he had the benefit of only three days’ rest following his win in Game 1 against the Nationals.
Several hours before Thursday’s game began, Dodgers first-year manager Dave Roberts was asked whether Kershaw might be available at all — maybe just for one out, say?
“No,” came Roberts’ reply. “Absolutely not.”
Turned out the threetime N.L. Cy Young Award winner would get a pair of outs in his first relief appearance since the 2009 playoffs.
“Clayton came to me in the seventh,” Roberts explained, “and said that he had an inning if I needed it.”
Kershaw came in after Jansen threw a career-high 51 pitches while getting a career-high seven outs after entering in the seventh.
L.A.’s scoring all came in a four-run seventh off six Nationals pitchers, including Joc Pederson’s homer off Max Scherzer and Justin Turner’s two-run triple off Shawn Kelley.
Washington was leading 1-0 in the sixth, when Werth walked and Ryan Zimmerman smacked a two-out double to left. But third-base coach Bob Henley — whose propensity for waving runners home led to a popular T-shirt among Nationals players that says, “Send ‘em short, send ‘em tall, send ‘em one, send ‘em all” — sent Werth and saw him get thrown out easily on shortstop Corey Seager’s relay. Wasn’t even close. And in the sort of blink-and-you-missed-it game-shifting sequence, Werth’s inning-ending, overzealous bid to score was followed immediately by Pederson’s homer on Scherzer’s first — and, it turned out, only — pitch of the seventh.