Cardinals and Nationals Advance in Playoffs After Braves and Dodgers Collapse

A few days ago, both the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers held two games to one leads in their best of five National League Division Series. The Braves needed just one more victory over the St. Louis Cardinals and the Dodgers needed one more over the Washington Nationals to advance to the National League Championship Series.

That’s as close as they got. The Cardinals and Nationals each won their respective Game 4s, and then they went on to win the decisive Game 5s. St. Louis and Washington will move on and play each other for the National League Championship while Atlanta and Los Angeles will go home and ponder what happened.

For the Braves, Game 5 was essentially over in the 1st inning. The Cardinals scored a whopping 10 runs in the top of the 1st, tying a major league record for most runs scored in a post season inning. St. Louis won 13-1, advancing to its first NLCS since 2014.

In Los Angeles, the Dodgers scored twice in the bottom of the first and added one more run in the second. L.A. starter Walker Buehler allowed just one run in 6 2/3 innings, when he was relieved by Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw has been superb throughout his career during the regular season, but has not been good in the post season. Still, he struck out Adam Eaton to close out the 7th inning.

It was a different story in the 8th. Kershaw allowed back to back home runs to Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto and the score was tied. Kenta Maeda relieved Kershaw, and struck out the side. The Dodgers did not score in the bottom of the 8th.

Joe Kelly relieved Maeda in the 9th. Kelly retired all three batters he faced. L.A. did not score in the bottom of the 9th, so it was on to extra innings.

Kelly, who had rarely pitched more than one inning during the latter part of the regular season was brought out to pitch the 10th and got in trouble immediately. Eaton walked, Rendon doubled, sending Eaton to third, and Soto was intestinally walked. L.A. manager Dave Roberts stuck with Kelly to face Howie Kendrick, who hit a grand slam home run to give the Nationals a 7-3 lead. Roberts still left Kelly in, and the righthander finally retired a batter before allowing a base hit to Yan Gomes. Roberts then brought in closer Kenley Janson, who retired the last two batters of the inning.

The damage was done. The Dodgers did not score in the bottom of the 10th, and the Nationals’ come from behind victory propelled them to their first NLCS since 1981, when the club was the Montreal Expos. Meanwhile, Dave Roberts will have to explain his questionable managerial decisions all winter as the Dodgers ponder another post season without a World Series championship. The Nationals will play the Cardinals in Game 1 of the NLCS in St. Louis on October 11th.