WHEN DODGERS WIN AFTER A KILLER ERROR, WHO SEES THEM LOSING ANOTHER TITLE?
Something is special, if not entirely definable, when Philadelphia’s Orion Kerkering throws away the ball — and even if the Cubs are winning while Sister Jean dies, Los Angeles looks invincible again
Can they pronounce Orion Kerkering’s name in Philadelphia? When they try in the future, he might be greeted by D-cell batteries, beer cans, projectile vomiting and the most hostile and obnoxious acts generated by the worst of sports fans. People in that city say we are too abusive of their history, but in the 11th inning Thursday night, did you sense the best two teams in baseball were playing in what could be recalled as the World Series?
And Kerkering, rather than fielding a ball and extending a classic game another inning, did not retrieve it immediately and chose to throw home with the bases loaded. Maybe he would have nabbed the runner, Hyeseong KIm, if he heaved properly. Maybe he could have thrown to first base and ended the inning. He did neither, firing it wildly past catcher J.T. Realmuto. The Dodgers won the National League division series, with a 2-1 victory over the Phillies, and just might have clinched a second straight title thanks to the error.
“Once the pressure got to me, I just thought there’s a little faster throw to J.T., a little quicker than throwing cross-body to first base,” Kerkering said. “Just a horses— throw.”
He knows what awaits him at home. Kerkering saw buried faces in the visitors’ dugout as he hung his head. He is well-liked in the clubhouse, mixing with Bryce Harper and joining in traditional chants. Today, fans will bring up how Dave Dombrowski, president of baseball operations, could have dealt him at one point. He didn’t want to make the trade. Afterward, teammates consoled him.
“He just got caught up in the moment a little bit,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “I feel for him because he’s putting it all on his shoulders. That tells you about what they’re made of. Like I said, they win as a team. They lose as a team. They support each other. As bad as you feel, it’s good to see them be there for each other.”
You watched and realized the Dodgers are guided by a special, if not definable, force. Two nights after refusing to use Roki Sasaki at the start of the ninth inning, manager Dave Roberts used him for three innings. And survived, with the rookie not surrendering a hit and striking out two as he averaged 99.5 mph on his fastball. A fifth game would have required Shohei Ohtani to start as a pitcher as he struggles with the bat, while Sasaki would have sat. It didn’t matter, when a trance that could have continued all night ended with the usual mania in Dodger Stadium.
“They cracked. We didn’t,” catcher Will Smith said.
“Pure joy,” Max Muncy said. “A little bit of laughter because I wasn’t sure what happened. The way everybody was standing around, I thought it was a foul ball at first.”
“They held us at bay for eight innings and we just couldn’t push through in the end,” Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber said.
In Chicago, Wrigley Field loons stayed late in the night as Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker told President Trump to “come and get me” — if he wants to place him in jail, that is. The Cubs are tied 2-2 with the Brewers, this as Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt died at 106. Religion is sprawling, especially when Trump is viewed as the devil. How fun if the Dodgers played on the North Side, and the Cubs won for Sister Jean.
Let’s be real. No one will beat the Dodgers. Not the Cubs, not the Brewers. Not the Toronto Blue Jays and not Seattle or Detroit. How nice to see Ian Happ and even the long, lost Kyle Tucker support pitcher Matthew Boyd. Focus on Milwaukee first.
This is about so much more than the largest payroll in sports history. The Dodgers find a way to piece together victories, with Mookie Betts working a based-loaded walk after the Phillies intentionally walked Ohtani. A walk-off error has ended a postseason game only once before, in 2016. The Dodgers are blessed with a culture that believes. It won’t vanish anytime soon. “It was very stressful the last few innings,” Tommy Edman said. “You knew that every little play meant that much more.”
The final sequence assumed layers of drama. The Phillies came close. They didn’t have enough, as opponents saw last October. “It’s brutal,” Roberts said of Kerkering. “It’s one of those things that it’s a PFP, a pitcher’s fielding practice. He’s done it a thousand times. And right there he was so focused, I’m sure, on just getting the hitter and just sort of forgot the outs and the situation.”
In May, Kerkering said, “Rising again involves falling behind and never seeing defeat.” He’s seeing it, all winter long.
Sasaki is enjoying quick, remarkable success, after staffers helped with a mechanical revamping in September. He is the closer this franchise has desperately needed. “Just felt like my fastball velo was back to where it used to be, and the command of the fastball was where I wanted it to be as well,” he said via an interpreter. “Because of that, I do really feel confident to be able to attack in the zone.”
Said Roberts, who now believes: “One of the great all-time appearances out of the pen that I can remember.”
Rest is coming. Ohtani needs a break. Sasaki can breathe his new life. The pitchers, the hitters — no one senses defeat from a team that wins every way imaginable. Swear to Orion Kerkering.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.