ARLINGTON, Texas – It will be up to ace Max Fried and, perhaps, his rookie running mate, Ian Anderson, to determine if what we saw Friday night in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series was merely a highly-entertaining delay in an Atlanta Braves coronation.
This NLCS got wild in a hurry, the game turning on a historic showdown of men with the same name, the momentum swinging on the ever-popular 9-2-5 double play, the Los Angeles Dodgers suddenly finding a bumper crop of shutdown relief pitching after a five-alarm fire out of their bullpen through the first four games.
Oh, the Braves will probably sleep well enough into Saturday morning, knowing that Game 1 winner Fried and indomitable playoff starter Anderson loom in Games 6 and 7. But it will sting to know they had the NL pennant in their grasp, only to see it slip away in a startling turn of events in the middle innings, resulting in a 7-3 Dodgers victory.
They’ll all report back here Saturday afternoon for Game 6, Fried and Walker Buehler in a Game 1 rematch, Anderson and probably Tony Gonsolin set for a possible Game 7 and the Braves knowing they prevailed both times those pitchers all locked horns.
Yet, while the Braves have flexed their muscles in this series and drawn upon a gaggle of startling, inspired performances – opener A.J. Minter’s career-high three innings and seven strikeouts in Game 5 the latest – there’s also a sense of tip-toeing around a Dodger club that hopefully wouldn’t awaken and play to its full capabilities.
It has only come in fits and bursts. Friday’s dose was something to behold.
Shortstop Corey Seager scorched a pair of home runs, a solo shot to halve a Braves lead to 2-1, and then a two-run homer in the seventh, his fourth of the NLCS, to give the Dodgers crucial breathing room on a night they deployed seven pitchers.
BIG WILLIE STYLE: Will Smith homers off Will Smith
SCHEDULE: World Series dates and TV times
Right fielder Mookie Betts turned in a stupendous all-around performance, racing in to make a shoe-string catch on Dansby Swanson’s sinking line drive in the third inning and then firing home. The sequence was so wham-bam that Marcell Ozuna scrambled back to tag up, left too soon and ended being called out on replay review, preventing the Braves from pushing their lead to 3-0.
“If you’re talking about momentum shifts, that’s the play of the year for me,” says Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “I just thought there was no way he’d make that play. He’s just kind of the straw that stirs us.
“When Mookie gets on base, we just kind of follow.”
That would come in the sixth, when Betts beat out an infield single on a grounder to third base. He did the same in Game 2, a drop of water , which in Game 2 was the drip of water that led to a record 11-run, first-inning deluge.
On this night, it set up the Dodgers’ season-saving moment.
That came four batters later, in a moment the baseball geekerati had been waiting for all series: Braves reliever Will Smith vs. Dodgers catcher Will Smith.
Yes, it was the first time a pitcher and batter with the same name faced each other in a playoff game. Who knew this odd bit of trivia would come at such a pivotal moment: Sixth inning, elimination game, Braves nursing a 2-1 lead.
The younger Smith would prevail.
He fell into a two-strike hole before clouting a full-count fastball into the left-field giving the Dodgers a 4-2 lead and, more important, life.
This was an all-hands effort: The Dodgers bullpen, boosted greatly by Betts’ defensive prowess, retired 11 consecutive batters from the third through the sixth innings, and even got a perfect ninth from the struggling Kenley Jansen, who struck out the side.
Perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise. This NLCS has shown things can get turned on their ear quickly. Chapter 6 is next.
