Barnes + Bellinger + Bridge = NLCS

Phil Gurnee ♦ October 10, 2017 ♦ 3 Comments

Cody Bellinger put on his full display of baseball skills to a National audience on Monday night to lead the Dodgers to a sweep of the Diamondbacks putting them on a possible collision course with the World Champion Cubs who need to win one of the next two games to make it happen.

Bellinger had plenty of help but this was his night. Not that he wasn’t without his detractors. After his first at-bat Bellinger had been held hitless since his single in his first at-bat in game one and Dodger twitter fans were getting nervous (talking about you Bobby).  Since that first at-bat, however, Cody did the following:

A crazy catch in the Dodger dugout. All this while his teammates watched the franchise tumble head over first without being there to catch him. WTF was Dave Roberts doing?

When you’re head over heels for #Postseason baseball. pic.twitter.com/m86OwUf9QW

— Cut4 (@Cut4) October 10, 2017

Hit the youngest home run in LAD history in the postseason to put the Dodgers in front 2 – 1.

Make a sweet 3 – 6 – 3 DP

Make a sweet stab of ball headed for RF

Meanwhile, Austin Barnes clubbed a key home run to give the Dodgers some breathing room making the score 3 – 1. After all if Danny Delscaso is going to hit a home run, you can understand the need for some breathing room when facing Goldy/JD/Lamb.  I have to do some research but I think that was the first time two rookies hit a home run in a LAD postseason game.

The bridge belonged to Cingrani who was allowed to face one batter and get a double play. Brandon Morrow who took care of four outs to get the game to Kenta Maeda for the 8th. Kenta was so strong I would have not complained if he had been allowed to pitch the 9th( I lie).  Kenley finished the 9th and it worked just as it was drawn up.

Yu Darvish was brilliant. For five innings. Which I guess is all you need in October. He did what he needed to do except for one pitch.  The Dodgers acquired Yu to pitch well in October and he did exactly that.  For fifteen outs Darvish was masterful and looked to be on his way to pitching the best postseason game since Jose Lima. He was doing so well that Dave Roberts let him bat with a  runner on 3rd and only one out. One batter later he had been removed from the game and you could justifiably shake your head. Why let him hit if you were only going to let him face one hitter? That one hitter, however, took a ball to the noggin right after taking a ball to the nob of the bat.  I think Andy McCullough nailed the reason on the head.

It doesn’t make sense to let Darvish bat in 5th if leash was one batter.

It does make sense to react when you see his command evaporate.

— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughTimes) October 10, 2017