The scene was acquainted, because the Dodgers poured out of their dugout Thursday night time in celebration of a Nationwide League West title, one they clinched with a 7-2 defeat of the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium.
Nevertheless, this accomplishment — the franchise’s twenty second division championship, and eleventh within the final 12 years — felt a bit of totally different.
And, in contrast with the final couple years, got here a lot more durable earned.
This season, in any case, wasn’t like most within the membership’s decade-long run of regular-season dominance, once they’ve usually locked up the division properly earlier than the end line, coasting down the stretch with double-digit recreation leads.
It wasn’t like 2018, both, when the Dodgers dug themselves out of an early-season gap and surged to the title in Recreation 163; the final time they’d clinched the division at Chavez Ravine.
Claiming this 12 months’s crown adopted a distinct sort of script — one shrouded in unprecedented expectations following their billion-dollar offseason, repeatedly derailed by accidents to their patchwork beginning rotation and eventually secured with a string of season-defining moments that littered the stretch run.
“Like I’ve been saying,” veteran shortstop Miguel Rojas stated, “this is gonna prepare us for what is coming next.”
Their collection win over the Padres this week epitomized all of it.
After dropping Tuesday’s opener on a surprising, game-ending triple-play, trimming the division lead over second-place San Diego to only two video games with 5 to go, the Dodgers responded with two come-from-behind wins, following up Wednesday’s 4-3 nail-biter with a flurry of late scoring Thursday.
Trailing 2-0 getting into the seventh inning, the Dodgers surged to life for his or her NL-leading forty first comeback of the season, scoring 5 instances within the seventh and twice once more within the eighth.
The Dodgers are NL West Champions for the eleventh time in 12 years. However can they get to the World Sequence this 12 months?
Will Smith began the rally, smacking a game-tying two-run homer to straightaway heart that he celebrated with a two-handed bat flip.
Shohei Ohtani put the Dodgers in entrance three batters later, sneaking a go-ahead RBI single via the proper aspect of the infield to proceed his torrid late-season tempo.
Mookie Betts added an exclamation level, slapping a two-run single the opposite strategy to open a three-run lead that grew much more within the eighth on a two-run homer from rookie Andy Pages.
“Today sort of epitomized our season,” stated supervisor Dave Roberts, who has been on the helm for the Dodgers’ final eight NL West championships. “Just kind of battling from behind, fighting, scratching, clawing and willing ourselves to victory.”
Fittingly, it additionally got here with a second of adversity, when Freddie Freeman exited the sport with what initially regarded like a regarding proper ankle damage.
After Betts made the rating 5-2 within the seventh, Freeman badly rolled his ankle making an attempt to keep away from a tag on a play at first base. He left the sphere underneath his personal energy, however walked gingerly to the clubhouse as a hush fell upon a sellout crowd. Throughout the Dodgers’ clubhouse celebration, he was sporting a strolling boot whereas leaning on crutches.
Fortunately for the Dodgers, Freeman informed reporters it was solely a sprained (and considerably swollen) ankle, leaving him optimistic he’ll be prepared for the Nationwide League Division Sequence opener on Oct. 5.
“It hurt for a while [but] I’m OK right now,” Freeman stated with a relieved smile on the sphere afterward. “We’ve already done a lot of treatment on it. I’m trying to get the swelling off of it. I’m not going to travel this weekend [to the team’s series in Colorado]. I’m going to stay back to treat this thing and hopefully be ready to go by Saturday.”
It wasn’t the primary impediment the Dodgers have confronted of late, not after dropping each member of their opening day beginning rotation to accidents (solely Yoshinobu Yamamoto has returned in time to pitch within the postseason) and watching a as soon as nine-game division lead dwindle to the red-hot Padres.
“It would’ve been easy for us to make excuses,” Roberts stated. “You lose three, four, five, six, seven starters — write the season off. But not one person in this clubhouse did that.”
Certainly, the Dodgers as a substitute displayed a stage of character and resiliency that has eluded them the final two postseasons.
Shohei Ohtani, proper, hugs teammate Walker Buehler after the Dodgers defeated the Padres to clinch the NL West division title Thursday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)
For the primary time since their unsuccessful chase of the San Francisco Giants in 2021, the staff has performed significant recreation after significant recreation within the closing stretch of this season’s march.
And repeatedly, they managed to ship, discovering simply the proper mixture of star-studded offense, dependable aid pitching and patchwork rotation manufacturing to cement themselves atop the standings.
“They all feel sweet, but I’ll tell you, man, with what we’ve gone through this year, this feels a tick sweeter,” Roberts stated. “I’m just so proud of these guys, the way that we’ve fought the adversity, stuck together and found a way to win this division again.”
“It was hard-fought,” Roberts added. “We earned it.”
There was the collection win in Arizona a month in the past, when the Dodgers suffered an damage to Clayton Kershaw (whose standing for the postseason stays doubtful) after only one inning, but managed to overpower the then-second-place Diamondbacks to win three of 4 video games.
There was the latest journey to Atlanta and Miami, the place the Dodgers twice dropped opening video games of collection earlier than managing to rally for a four-game cut up with the Braves (highlighted by a comeback win keyed by a seven-run ninth inning on Sept. 15) and a rubber-match defeat of the Marlins (during which Shohei Ohtani reached the 50-50 threshold in historic style).
There was Sunday’s walk-off in opposition to the last-place Colorado Rockies, when Ohtani and Betts created the sort of late-game magic the staff will most likely have to faucet into come subsequent month.
After which all of it culminated on Thursday night time in opposition to the Padres, in a victory keyed by a five-inning, one-run begin from Walker Buehler to maintain the lineup inside hanging distance.
“I think this is a great example that this team is ready,” stated Rojas, who missed the sport with an adductor damage however helped lead the clubhouse Champagne celebration. “With the pieces that we acquired, the organization put ourselves in the best position to actually have success in October. So all I have to say is, we’re ready to approach this postseason a little bit better than before.”
Loads of questions will observe the Dodgers into October — the place they’ve been assured of a first-round bye (and have the within monitor to clinching home-field benefit all through the playoffs) however little else.
The beginning rotation stays a severe concern. Jack Flaherty completed his common season with two underwhelming begins. Yamamoto has but to pitch previous the fourth inning since coming off the injured checklist earlier this month. Buehler completed his 12 months with 5.38 ERA, regardless of the enhancements he flashed Thursday night time. Landon Knack, the opposite seemingly member of an October rotation, is a rookie with simply 14 profession big-league outings.
The lineup has query marks of its personal, from the latest accidents to Freeman and Rojas, to late-season scuffles from Betts and Smith, to a forged of bottom-half hitters who, on a night-to-night foundation, have been routinely hit and miss.
To make a deep postseason run, many issues will most likely must go proper: Ohtani sustaining his torrid late-season tempo; the bullpen compensating for an anticipated lack of manufacturing from the beginning rotation; clutch high-leverage hitting that the Dodgers have struggled to supply in latest postseasons; and positively no additional accidents to a shorthanded pitching workers.
However on the very least, the Dodgers have primed themselves for a positive path, avoiding a best-of-three wild-card spherical that will have additional burdened their pitching.
Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy, proper, celebrates with catcher Will Smith after Smith hit a two-run dwelling run within the seventh inning Thursday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)
They’re NL West champs once more, an honor that appeared to hold a bit of extra which means this season.
“A lot of people, they don’t show a lot of emotions, and I know people think we’re not fighters,” Rojas stated, amid a comparatively delicate clubhouse celebration that belied the problem of the journey they took to get there.
“But it’s not like that,” Rojas declared. “In this clubhouse, everybody knows that the heart is there for the team. I think this year we’ve got a lot of things to prove. And we’re gonna go to the postseason thinking about it that way.”
