With one loud swing of his bat, Cody Bellinger silenced a raucus crowd in San Francisco while simultaneously exorcising the demons of his 2021 regular season.
Bellinger’s ninth inning RBI single off Giants’ closer Camilo Doval knocked in the game-winning run and lifted the Los Angeles Dodgers over the rival San Francisco Giants 2-1 in an instant classic Game 5 of the National League Division Series.
With the victory, the Dodgers will advance to their fifth NL Championship Series in six years, in a rematch of the 2020 NLCS against the Atlanta Braves.
The go-ahead run by Bellinger also kicked off a dance party back at Dodger Stadium for the equally euphoric crowd watching on the videoboard at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers threw the baseball world a curveball hours ahead of the winner-take-all elimination game for both teams by announcing that relief pitcher Corey Knebel would start Game 5 as an opener instead of Game 2 starter, and 20-game winner Julio Urias.
The opener strategy ultimately worked, albeit not without a few hiccups. Knebel put Dodgers’ fans on pins and needles as the first three hitters of the game hit the ball with exit velocities of 97.5MPH, 104MPH, and 101.3 MPH, respectively.
Next it was Brusdar Graterol out of the bullpen to take down the Giants’ lineup in the bottom of the second inning. After a broken-bat infield single by Kris Bryant, and a bloop hit on soft-contact by Wilmer Flores, Graterol got out of the inning unscathed, leaving six less outs for Urias.
The Dodgers finally broke through against Logan Webb in the 6th inning. Mookie Betts hit a one-out single and 2020 World Series MVP Corey Seager followed with a double down the left field line for the game’s first run.
Entering the game, Logan Webb was a perfect 13-0 with a 1.80 ERA in the regular season and postseason combined in 2021.
Thursday was only the fifth ever matchup in MLB history in a winner-take-all Game 5 between two teams that both won 100+ games. It’s the first time ever it happened in the Division Series.
Entering the game Urias had a 1.78 ERA in 25.1 innings out of the bullpen in the playoffs.
Mookie Betts became the first Dodgers player to have four hits and a stolen base in a winner-take-all game.
Urias now has the most strikeouts in postseason history by a Mexican born player (49 and counting in the 6th inning).
Following two long and loud outs in his first two at-bats, Darin Ruf hit a game-tying homer that travelled 452-feet.
Please refresh this page for more updates….
