Best Moment of the Year?

                                                      In a season full of great moments, and some not so great, which one is your favorite? Buehler’s 9th inning performance in game 5? Shohei’s three homer, 10 RBI game to reach the 50-50 mark? Freddie’s walk off grand slam in game 1? To my way of thinking, there are just too many to choose from. I have several I felt were pivotable to the season. One of which was the last series they played with the Padres before the season ended. 

                                                                               They needed to win the last two games to clinch the division. That was a point in the season that if it had gone differently, could have changed the whole playoff scenario. Had the Padres managed to win the division, LA would have had to play the Braves. And the whole home field advantage for every series might have been lost. At worst, they would have had to play 3 of the LDS games at Petco.

                                                                                Since for me it is impossible to just pick one, I will choose a few that really made me smile. The first one was Yamamoto’s game against the Yankees on June 7th at Yankee Stadium. LA was 39-25 going into the game, 8 games up in the West. The Yankees were 44-20 going into the game. They were 4.5 games up in the AL East. Yoshi faced off against Cody Poteet. 

                                                                                It was Poteet’s third MLB start. Yamamoto pitched 7 shutout innings allowing just 2 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 7. The Dodgers did not fare much better against Poteet in his 4.2 innings. They had 2 hits and 3 walks and struck out just once. Former Dodger Victor Gonzalez pitched 2.3rds of an inning. He was followed by Michael Tonkin, 1.2, Caleb Ferguson, 1 and Clay Holmes, 1, all of whom kept the Dodgers scoreless.

                                                                                Meanwhile the Dodger bullpen behind Yoshi did the same, Banda gave up 2 hits in his 2/3rds inning stint. Treinen came in and walked a batter but got the last out in the 8th. Hudson and Grove pitched scoreless frames in the 9th and 10th innings. The Yankees Ian Hamilton pitched a scoreless 10th and went back out for the 11th inning. Ohtani was the ghost runner on second. Freeman hit a ball that Torres mishandled for an error. Smith made an out. Then Teo doubled off of Hamilton with Ohtani and Freeman scoring. Yohan Ramirez took over in the 11th. With 1 out, Judge singled in Volpe. Ramirez then got the next two hitters to end the game. With the 2-1 win, LA then won the second game and took the series from the Yankees. 

                                                                                Later I took that as an omen. They beat the Yankees two of three in New York, then did the same thing in the World Series. It was just meant to be! The next one also happened in June, this time in Colorado. It was the second game of a 4-game series in Denver. Buehler got the start for LA against Gomber. Buehler had a really bad game. In four innings he gave up 7 runs on 7 hits and a walk. Two of the hits were homers. 

                                                                               Meanwhile Gomber went 6.2 innings and allowed just 4 runs. Ohtani and Pages took him deep, but both were solo shots. Rockies scored single runs in the sixth and seventh and were up 9-4 going into the top of the ninth. The Rockies sent Tyler Kinley out to start the ninth. The Dodgers managed to load the bases with one out. Jason Heyward was sent up to pinch hit for Taylor. Heyward launched a drive down the right field line that hit the foul pole for a grand slam homer. 9-8 Rockies. Rockies replaced Kinley with Vodnik.

                                                                            Ohtani singled and Smith struck out. Freeman was walked intentionally. Teo came up to the plate. He had two strikes on him when Vodnik fired a high fastball that it looked like he had swung. But the first base ump said no. Rockies went bat nuts crazy. On the very next pitch, Teo launched a ball over the right center field fence into the bullpen for a three-run homer. LA 11, Colo 9. Phillips retired the Rocks in the 9th for his 11th save. Michael Petersen got his first major league win. Dodgers would take 3 of a 4-game series.

                                                                          There was a game on the 29th of June in San Francisco that was both painful and then fun to watch. Glasnow started for the Dodgers against Eric Miller who was the opener for the Giants. Spencer Howard was supposed to be the bulk guy. Giants scored 1 in the bottom of the first. LA scored in the top of the second and on a solo homer by Ohtani in the third. In the bottom of the third, the Giants jumped all over Glasnow scoring 4 runs and effectively knocking him out of the game. Glasnow went three, giving up 5 runs on 7 hits, and 2 walks. 

                                                                         In the top of the fourth, the Dodgers returned the favor and scored 4 off of Howard. The Giants tied the game in the bottom of the fifth off of Yohan Ramirez. The game stayed tied through the 9th inning. The Dodgers scored a run in the top of the 10th off of Hjelle. The Giants got it back by scoring off of Hudson. Hjelle went back out to pitch the eleventh inning for the Giants. This was where the fun began. 

                                                                         The Dodgers would get to Hjelle for 7 runs. The final blow was a triple by Heyward that scored the last 2 runs. Smith also had a double off of Hjelle. What I loved about the game, despite the 14 runs, was the fact that of their 16 hits, LA had only 6 extra base hits. All five of the Giants extra base hits were doubles. Miggy drove in 4 runs with 3 singles. Yarbrough closed it out and Hudson, who blew the save got his 5th win.

                                                                           Sweeping three from Boston coming out of the All-Star break was nice. Especially the 11-inning walk off win on Saturday. Kike tied the game twice with a homer in the ninth off of Jansen and a single in the 10th. Pages drove in the winning run in the 11th off of Weissert with a double off of the wall. My next favorite came at the end of August in Arizona when Ohtani, Betts and Freeman homered in the first inning off of Merrill Kelly in a game LA eventually won 8-6. First time in Dodger history that the first three hitters hit home runs consecutively.

                                                                         The next regular season game on my list was September 19th in Miami. Shohei Ohtani had the best single game performance in Dodger history. 6-6 with 3 homers, 2 doubles, 2 stolen bases and 10 runs driven in. But the reason the game was so memorable was Ohtani reaching 50 steals and 50 homers. His second one, a 2-run shot to right off of George Soriano was his 50th. The third, a mammoth blast to deep left off of Mike Baumann was #51. His second stolen base was his 51st also. He just missed the cycle getting thrown out at third on his second double. Dodgers won 20-4. 

                                                                           When the Dodgers came home to face the Rockies, they were up by four games over the Padres. They beat Colorado 2 of 3 and then San Diego came to town. They had a 3-game lead and their magic number was 4. Mike King faced Knack in the opener. The Dodgers scored 1 in the first off of King and that was it. Knack gave up 2 in the second and 2 in the fourth. LA did not score again until the ninth when they scored 1 on 3 hits off of Suarez. The 4-2 loss left the Dodgers with just a 2-game lead with 5 to play. 

                                                                            Game two pitted Cease against Flaherty. LA jumped out 1-0 again, and the Padres scored 2 in the second. Dodgers scored 2 in the fourth to go up 3-2 and a Tatis homer in the fifth tied the game at 3. LA scored 1 in the sixth off of Estrada and Morejon. Phillips, Treinen and Kopech shut the Padres down the rest of the way for the 4-3 win. Lead back to 3 games and magic number to clinch the division at 2. 

                                                                            Game three pitted Buehler against Musgrove. Walker responded with 5 innings of 1 run, 5 hit baseball. He walked 1 and struck out one. Musgrove shut the Dodgers down until the seventh. He would give up 2 runs, 5 hits and a walk. He struck out 6. Tanner Scott came in and the Dodgers hung a 3 spot on Scott. Smith’s 2-run homer was the blemish on Musgrove. But the Dodgers now led, 5-2, the second Padres run had been charged to Phillips. LA would score 2 more in the eighth on a Pages homer off of Hoenig. Treinen and Kopech shut down SD in the eighth and ninth for the win, and the division title. LA had a 5-game winning streak heading into the post season. 

                                                                        We all know how the playoffs went. LA having to win two elimination games against the Padres and they beat Cease and Darvish with shutouts. The NLCS where they got 2 more shutouts in the first three games. Four shutouts in the playoffs were just unheard of. They lost game five in New York but then won the pennant at home with a 10-5 win. Edman was the series MVP.                                                                            

                                                                                    Then came the amazing finish to game one of the World Series. Freddie entering into Dodger lore with a first pitch walk-off grand slam in extra innings for the 6-3 win. Freddie hitting homers in four straight series games to set a record of six straight counting the last two games of the 21 series with the Braves. And the improbable 5 run rally against the Yankees in game five at Yankee Stadium, where a stunned NY crowd saw their heroes implode. LA finally broke the curse and won a full season championship for the first time since 1988. As fans we all are proud of how this team did not quit when things got tough. They just outplayed their demons.

                                                                                                                                              Buehler final strike to Verdugo

    RIP, Padres, Yankees, Mets