ARLINGTON, Texas — Turns out the best cure for the shock of a sudden, unexpected and heart-wrenching loss is the comfortable presence of an old reliable.
A day later than they hoped but a day closer to their dream, the Los Angeles Dodgers answered the Rays’ dramatic win Saturday with a steady, sturdy game built upon the foundation of LA’s era, lefty Clayton Kershaw. The Dodgers got ahead early, Kershaw kept them ahead in the middle, and the bullpen followed a plan hatched earlier in the day for a 4-2 victory in World series Game 5 on Sunday night at Globe Life Field. The win puts the Dodgers ahead, three games to two, in the best-of-seven series and one win away from the franchise’s first title since 1988.
In their first crack at the Rays since the chaos of Saturday’s ninth inning, the Dodgers grabbed a lead before Tampa Bay had an out and left the bottom of the first with a two-run lead for Kershaw. Joc Pederson and Max Muncy hit solo home runs to double the scoring.
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Kershaw, the future Hall of Famer, pitched 5 2/3 solid innings and appeared ready to go deeper into the game when manager Dave Roberts stuck to the script and came and got him. The lefty’s workday was done.
The stress was about to start.
“The actual day that you pitch you feel that you have some say, some control of the game,†Kershaw said. “Sitting there in the dugout and watching the last few innings or watching the whole game for that matter — it’s so stressful, especially in the postseason. It’s way more stressful watching than pitching.â€
The Dodgers tasked three relievers with getting the final 10 outs of the game, and Kershaw stared from the dugout as the ninth inning arrived, one of those three relievers, Dustin May, standing beside him. Tampa Bay got a leadoff single and thrice brought the tying run to the plate before Blake Treinen retired three consecutive Rays for the first postseason save of his career. The win went to Kershaw. The victory to Roberts, innings after he was booed.
Kershaw got the first two outs of the sixth inning on two pitches, and he had retired seven consecutive Rays. An inning earlier he struck out Kevin Kiermaier to set the career record for strikeouts in the postseason, and he pushed that total to 206 with another strikeout in the inning. Despite groping for his breaking balls all game, Kershaw struck out three of the final six batters he faced, but that did not deter Roberts from the plan he presented the lefty before the start of the sixth. The idea was to get the starter through 21 to 24 batters and then move on before the innings ever had a chance to unravel. With two outs and no one on, Kershaw had just faced his 21st batter. Roberts emerged from the dugout and was greeted by boos.
Third baseman Justin Turner tried to lobby in the moment for Kershaw to stay in the game. The boos grew louder from the Dodger-leaning 11,437 at the neutral-site park. They would blend into an ovation as Kershaw left the mound.
“I understand that fans and players get caught up in the emotion, and I’m emotional,†Roberts said. “But I still have to have clarity in making decisions. Ultimately my job is to help the Dodgers win the World Series. So I can’t get caught up in the fans’ reactions with a decision that I make. … I felt I wanted to take the baseball from him. He grinded. He willed himself to that point.â€
The biggest threat Kershaw faced ended with a throw home, but not a pitch.
Manuel Margot drew a leadoff walk in the fourth inning. He stole second, and the throw glanced off Chris Taylor’s glove to allow Margot to reach third. Kershaw had no outs and the tying run at third base in the speedy Margot. A walk to Hunter Renfroe put the go-ahead run on base, and then Kershaw went adroitly about disarming the mousetrap. He got a popup from Joey Wendle to keep both runners stuck. He struck out Willy Adames to avoid a ball in play that would have tied the score, 3-3.
The Rays’ aggressive running from third won Saturday’s game as Randy Arozarena rumbled, stumbled, and then reached to score the winning run by forcing a throw to the plate. Eager and somewhat antsy to get the tying run in, Margot felt he had a read on the lefty’s delivery and that Kershaw “wasn’t paying attention to me.†He was right. Kershaw could not see the runner once he was set, and he has asked his first baseman to help him out in that situation.
Muncy did, shouting that Margot was on the move.
Freelancing the steal attempt, Margot broke for home with Kevin Kiermaier at the plate. Rather than get through his delivery, Kershaw broke from the rubber and threw home in time for catcher Austin Barnes to meet Margot with his mitt. Margot initially waved to the dugout and cupped his ears as if to encourage a replay review, but the replay on television showed Barnes’ glove touching Margot before Margot touched the plate, and his eyes squeezed tight as it happened.
It was the first attempted steal of home in a World Series game since 2002, and it was as successful as the inning for the Rays.
Neither was.
“We try to do things and make decisions and allow players to be athletic and be the athletes that they are,†manager Kevin Cash said. “If Manny felt that he had a read on it for whatever reason, it’s tough for me to say yes or no.â€
The Dodgers jumped Rays starter Tyler Glasnow for two runs in the first inning when the first two runners reached. Glasnow threw two of his World Series-record three wild pitches to grease the Dodgers’ offense, and an infield single by Cody Bellinger brought home one of the runs. Kershaw hadn’t thrown a pitch yet and the Dodgers had a 2-0 lead. They’d widen that to 3-0 when Joc Pederson sizzled a home run to left-center field for his second of the postseason.
The Rays tried to organize a response in the third inning that ended with Arozarena skipping his 27th hit of these playoffs to left field, and — voila — the Rays had slimmed the Dodgers’ lead down, 3-2. In his 19th playoff game this season — the most ever played by a player in a single postseason — Arozarena moved ahead of Pablo Sandoval’s 2014 record with 26 hits in 78 plate appearances.
Arozarena got his 27th in his 80th plate appearance.
In the eighth he came to the plate with two runners on and a lefty on the mound — all part of Roberts’ plan. Arozarena had gone eight-for-20 with four homers against lefties in the regular season, but LA wanted the matchup with the “spinning†breaking balls of lefty Victor Gonzalez. The reliever got the outs, retiring both Arozarena and Brandon Lowe to keep the Rays scoreless in the eighth. Kershaw watched the whole inning unfold, and he talked about having to buy into the plan after the game with two of his three kids beside him.
He thinks two of them will remember “the bubble time†together and his daughter said that he loved the evening. She’s old enough to remember this postseason, possibly her father’s best.
When Treinen got the final out, Kershaw’s watch had ended.
Now something just as a preoccupying begins.
The anticipating.
“Sitting around one win away from a World Series is going to be hard, especially when you’ve been in the same hotel for four weeks now,†Kershaw said. “We can wait one more day.â€