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Clayton Kershaw’s dream start becomes another playoff nightmare
He stalked to the mound with a busted wing and a silent prayer, Clayton Kershaw desperately hoping his revival tour would continue rolling into a glorious Dodgers’ October.
After two batters, fans were booing.
After five batters Kershaw was crumbling, standing off the mound with his hands on his knees and his stare fixed on the grass.
After eight batters Kershaw was gone, trudging to the dugout where he sat alone on the bench with the same stance surely adopted by Dodgers fans everywhere.
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Clayton Kershaw and Dodgers shown no mercy in Game 1 blowout loss to Arizona
The Dodgers had confidence, spending the last week extolling their clubhouse culture, roster chemistry and ability to overcome obstacles and adversity in a 100-win regular season.
They had an atmosphere, a sold-out Chavez Ravine revved up after an electric pregame anthem performance and fighter jet flyover.
Most of all, they had a plan: Give the ball to Clayton Kershaw, back him up with a deep bullpen and try to strike for a quick win in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.
The only problem: The Arizona Diamondbacks swiftly, ruthlessly and stunningly socked them in the mouth.
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Dodgers lose to Diamondbacks 11-2 in Game 1 of the NLDS
? Diamondbacks 11, Dodgers 2 — FINAL
Top of the ninth: Dodgers reliever Caleb Ferguson retired the Diamondbacks in order.
Bottom of the ninth: Diamondbacks reliever Luis Frias struck out Jason Heyward (his third strikeout of the game). Chris Taylor and Kiké Hernández each grounded out to end the game.
Clayton Kershaw didn’t even make it out of the first inning, giving up six runs on six hits in what might have been his final start at Dodger Stadium.
A dejected Kershaw could only watch from the bench as Arizona starter Merrill Kelly shut down the Dodgers, giving up just three hits over 6? innings.
Gabriel Moreno, Corbin Carroll, Alek Thomas and Tommy Pham hit home runs. Will Smith drove in the Dodgers’ runs on a triple in the eighth inning.
The Dodgers will look to even the series when rookie Bobby Miller takes the mound opposite Arizona ace Zac Gallen in Game 2 on Monday at Dodgers Stadium (6:07 p.m. PDT start, TBS).
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Will Smith drives in Dodgers’ first runs on triple
? Diamondbacks 11, Dodgers 2 — End of the eighth inning
Will Smith hit a two-run triple off Arizona reliever Miguel Castro to get the Dodgers on the scoreboard.
Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman drew walks before Smith’s hit into the right-field corner. Castro struck out Max Muncy and J.D. Martinez grounded out sharply to end the inning.
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Tommy Pham home run makes it 11-0 Diamondbacks in the eighth
? Diamondbacks 11, Dodgers 0 — Bottom of the eighth inning
Top of the eighth: Tommy Pham hit a solo home run inside the right-field foul pole and just out of the reach of Jason Heyward, triggering a mass exodus toward the Dodger Stadium exits.
Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia got Corbin Carroll to line out to center before giving up the home run. Pham has four hits and three RBIs.
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Alek Thomas homers on 14th pitch of his at-bat to extend Arizona’s lead
? Diamondbacks 10, Dodgers 0 — End of the seventh inning
Top of the seventh: On the 14th pitch he faced from Dodgers reliever Michael Grove, Alek Thomas hammered a home run well into the pavilion in right-center field to extend Arizona’s lead.
Thomas fouled off 11 pitches from Grove before taking a ball and then jumping all over an 86-mph slider from Grove.
After Thomas’ solo blast, Grove retired the next three batters in order.
Bottom of the seventh: J.D. Martinez drew a walk before Merrill Kelly struck out Jason Heyward. That ended Kelly’s night on the mound. The right-hander allowed three hits, walked two and struck out five over 6 1/3 shutout innings — a very strong performance considering he entered 0-11 with a 5.49 ERA lifetime against the Dodgers.
Arizona reliever Joe Mantiply struck out Chris Taylor and got Kiké Hernández to fly out to left.
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Merrill Kelly continues to stymie Dodgers at the plate
? Diamondbacks 9, Dodgers 0 — End of the sixth inning
Top of the sixth: Other than a single to third by Gabriel Moreno it was another quick inning for Dodgers reliever Shelby Miller.
Bottom of the sixth: Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and Max Muncy were retired in order by Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly, who has held the Dodgers to three hits.
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Dodgers still searching for offense heading into sixth inning
? Diamondbacks 9, Dodgers 0 — End of the fifth inning
Top of the fifth: Dodgers reliever Shelby Miller took over for Emmet Sheehan and retired the Diamondbacks in order, striking out Geraldo Perdomo and Corbin Carroll.
Bottom of the fifth: The Dodgers go down in order: James Outman grounds out, Miguel Rojas lines out and Mookie Betts flies out.
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Dodgers trail Arizona 9-0 heading into the fifth inning
? Diamondbacks 9, Dodgers 0 — End of the fourth inning
Top of the fourth: Dodgers reliever Emmet Sheehan retired the Diamondbacks in order. Sheehan has given up three runs on four hits, walked two and struck out four since taking over for Clayton Kershaw with one out in the first.
Bottom of the fourth: J.D. Martinez grounded out and Jason Heyward and David Peralta struck out.
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Merrill Kelly continues to frustrate Dodgers hitters
? Diamondbacks 9, Dodgers 0 — End of the third inning
Top of the third: Emmet Sheehan struck out Ketel Marte before Corbin Carroll popped out to Miguel Rojas at shortstop. After Tommy Pham singled and Christian Walker walked, Sheehan struck out Gabriel Moreno.
Bottom of the third: Miguel Rojas singled off Arizona starter Merrill Kelly. Mookie Betts flied out to short before Freddie Freeman walked. Will Smith flied out to the warning track in right field. Max Muncy grounded out to first to leave runners on the corrners.
Kelly has given up three hits and has walked one and struck out two.
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Diamondbacks take a 9-0 lead over Dodgers in second inning
? Diamondbacks 9, Dodgers 0 — End of the second inning
Corbin Carroll led off with a home run deep into the right-field pavilion off Dodgers reliever Emmet Sheehan. Christian Walker was hit by a pitch and Sheehan got Gabriel Moreno to flight out to right. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. drove in Arizona’s eighth run on a liner to left, bringing in Walker.
Sheehan walked Alek Thomas to load the bases and Evan Longoria drove in his second run of the game on a sacrifice fly to deep right field. Sheehan struck out Geraldo Perdomo to cap the frame.
No team has ever come back from a nine-run deficit in MLB postseason history.
Bottom of the second: David Peralta hit a two-out double off the center-field wall against his former team before James Outman popped out to third.
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Diamondbacks take commanding 6-0 lead, chase Clayton Kershaw
? Diamondbacks 6, Dodgers 0 — End of the first inning
The Diamondbacks are showing Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers no mercy, jumping out to a commanding lead thanks, in part, to a three-run home run by Gabriel Moreno.
Ketel Marte led off with a double to center field that bobbled out of the hands of James Outman before he scored on a single from Corbin Carroll. Tommy Pham followed with a single to left. Christian Walker then doubled off the wall in front of the Dodgers’ bullpen to plate Carroll.
Moreno followed with a home run into the left-field pavilion, casting a pall of stunned bewilderment throughout Dodger Stadium.
Kershaw’s night ended three batters later when Evan Longoria hit a double past a diving Outman to bring in Alek Thomas (who reached on a walk). Emmet Sheehan took over on the mound, striking out Geraldo Perdomo and forcing Marte into a ground out at first to close out the disastrous inning.
Kershaw allowed six runs on six hits over 35 pitches in what might have been his final start at Dodger Stadium.
Bottom of the first: Arizona starter Merrill Kelly struck out Mookie Betts and got Freddie Freeman to ground out to first. Will Smith singled on a sharp grounder to center field before Max Muncy lined out to first.
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On the outs? Dodgers have shown they’re never out of an inning
The World Series ring that he won with the Atlanta Braves in 2021 eased his pain, but Freddie Freeman still feels the sting of the three-run home run Will Smith hit to swing the 2020 National League Championship Series toward the Dodgers and the solo shot Cody Bellinger hit to win it.
Freeman’s Braves had a three-games-to-one advantage in the best-of-seven series and a 2-1 lead in Game 5 when Smith, the Dodgers catcher, stepped to the plate against Will Smith, the Atlanta reliever, with two on and two outs in the sixth inning.
The batter won the rare battle of namesakes, Smith driving a full-count fastball into the left-field seats at neutral-site Globe Life Field in Texas to give the Dodgers a 4-2 lead in an eventual 7-3 win.
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Quirky NLDS schedule could be a benefit for Dodgers bullpen
Three days off during a five-game series seems a bit excessive in a sport where teams play six and often seven days a week over the course of a grueling six-month regular season.
Baseball is a game of rhythm and repetition and — often in October — momentum, but the winner of Saturday night’s National League Division Series opener between the Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks won’t be able to build a bigger head of steam Sunday because the series is dark.
This marks the first time in manager Dave Roberts’ eight-year tenure that the Dodgers will have an off day after the first game of a playoff series. Game 2 will be Monday night at Chavez Ravine. The teams are off Tuesday. Games 3 and 4, if necessary, will be played in Phoenix on Wednesday and Thursday night.
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How Dave Roberts had his ‘most exciting’ season as manager of the Dodgers
As Clayton Kershaw considered why he was in position to pitch in another postseason, he thought of his manager.
Dave Roberts managed Kershaw’s workload by spacing out his starts and limiting his innings over the last two months of the regular season, but that wasn’t what Kershaw appreciated most. When Kershaw returned from a shoulder injury in August, he was afraid he would be a burden. He had always prided himself on pitching into the late innings and giving relievers a day to recover. Now, he feared the opposite would happen, that by making four- or five-inning starts, he would exhaust the bullpen.
Roberts assured him that wouldn’t be the case.
“It’s not gonna be a burden,” Kershaw recalled Roberts telling him. “We’re gonna have guys.”
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Dodgers roundtable: In a season of surprises, can they pull off the biggest surprise of all?
Make it 11 in a row ... and counting.
When the Dodgers begin play in a National League Division Series on Saturday at Dodger Stadium, it will mark the 11th consecutive time they’ve qualified for the postseason. For the 10th time in that span they will chase a World Series title as champions of the NL West.
Their opponent will be the winner of the wild-card series between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Arizona Diamondbacks. That best-of-three series, with all games set for American Family Field in Milwaukee, starts Tuesday.
In a roundtable discussion moderated by Times baseball editor Hans Tesselaar, Times reporters Jack Harris, Mike DiGiovanna and Jorge Castillo discuss the Dodgers’ chances of winning an eighth championship in franchise history.
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Read it and leap: The Dodgers will win the 2023 World Series championship
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They are fighting their tattered rotation, their untested bullpen, their shallow lineup.
Clayton Kershaw is too old. Bobby Miller is too young. Evan Phillips is too green. Mookie Betts is too soft. Will Smith is too tired. James Outman is too young.
They are fighting their lousy October history, the flameouts, the implosions, the fact that they haven’t won a full-season title in 35 years.
The San Diego Padres punked them, the Atlanta Braves rolled them, the Washington Nationals stunned them, the baseball world laughed at them.
Entering the 2023 postseason, the Dodgers are fighting against the same sorts of perceptions that have saddled them since they began the 1988 postseason as heavy underdogs.
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Julio Urías was a hero and likely Dodgers Game 1 starter. Now, it’s as if he never existed
The mural is impossible to miss going southbound on Figueroa Street in Highland Park: Julio Urías in a white Dodgers uniform pumping his fists in celebration with the Mexican flag behind him.
The image depicts Urías’ reaction to recording the final out of the 2020 World Series. It’s painted on a wall of El Pescador, a Mexican restaurant, on the side facing oncoming traffic. He shares the canvas with Kobe Bryant. He’s there because he brought pride to the community. He was one of them representing on the grandest stage.
That changed last month when Urías was arrested on suspicion of felony domestic violence — four years after being arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic battery — and placed on administrative leave by Major League Baseball. Though Urías has not been charged, his career as a Dodger probably ended that night. His time in the major leagues might have, too. He became a pariah, and El Pescador was left with a glaring piece of artwork.
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Mass transit to Dodger Stadium? Get to Union Station. Why the Hollywood Bowl offers a better way
The bus doors opened, and the happy passengers scampered toward Dodger Stadium. The bus had come directly from their neighborhood.
The Dodgers offered a free team magazine to everyone as they exited. The entrance gate was a few steps away, leading directly to the food, drinks and attractions behind center field.
“We get to come here without worrying about parking,” rider Leslie Mendoza said. “It beats driving.”
The playoffs open Saturday at Dodger Stadium. With them come sellout crowds, and the notorious congestion into and within the stadium parking lots.
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Torey Lovullo appreciates Mookie Betts’ gesture
Dodgers star and NL most valuable player candidate Mookie Betts interrupted Arizona manager Torey Lovullo’s press conference on Friday to give his former bench coach in Boston a quick hug, saying, “He raised me in this game.” As Betts walked out, Lovullo said, “Good luck … not really.”
Lovullo, the Red Sox bench coach from 2013-2016, appreciated the gesture.
“That’s what makes you feel good when you’re a teacher and kind of a mentor,” Lovullo said. “You have a young athlete, you know what he’s like in the minor leagues, he gets to the big-league level, and you have hours and hours of conversations about what it will be like when you get to that level or greatness.
“And for me, I watch him perform, and there’s nothing better. I wish he wasn’t in the NL West, but I mean, that’s a beautiful human being there.”
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Eighteen outs: Can the Dodgers’ patchwork pitching staff sustain a deep playoff run?
Eighteen outs.
It’s a magic number, a mathematical dilemma and almost certainly the Dodgers’ biggest obstacle this October.
For a team that is short on pitching, lacking a clear playoff rotation and facing an uncertain road to another World Series bid, no task will be as important this postseason as navigating the first six innings of every game — getting an all-important 18 opening outs.
Usually, it isn’t a difficult equation for postseason teams: Let your starter try to get through six innings. Bail him out with a reliever or two if he comes up short.
These Dodgers, however, aren’t entering these playoffs with a typical starter-laden roster.
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Diamondbacks Game 1 starter Merrill Kelly has struggled against the Dodgers
Merrill Kelly, Arizona’s Game 1 starter, has a superb 48-43 career record and 3.29 ERA in five-big-league seasons, but the right-hander entered Saturday with an 0-11 record and 5.49 ERA in 16 starts against the Dodgers, including an Aug. 30 shellacking in which he gave up seven runs and 12 hits in five innings of a 9-1 loss in Chavez Ravine.
“It’s a bit of a mystery, a bit of a puzzle, for me to solve, which I’m looking forward to trying to solve in this game,” Kelly said Friday. “It would be nice to get my first Dodger win in five years in the playoffs. In my mind, I’m well overdue for one.”
Why have the Dodgers had his number?
“I think they just prepare really well,” Kelly said. “They do a lot of things that other teams don’t. Whatever analytics or preparation department they have over there, I think they do a really good job of game-planning, and they do a good job as a lineup, one through nine, sticking to that game plan.”
Kelly hopes to purge those ugly numbers against the Dodgers and any negative thoughts he has about pitching here before he takes the mound.
“If I start thinking about my previous games and how they’ve gone and how bad my numbers are against these guys, I think I lose before I even step on the mound,” Kelly said. “I’m going in expecting to throw nine innings, no runs. That’s how I go into every game.
“We’re diving into some different stuff and different numbers and some different video to kind of figure out the different pieces of that puzzle. But I’m confident that we can execute a game plan and come out with a win.”
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Dodgers’ starting lineup for Game 1 vs. Diamondbacks
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Here’s the Dodgers’ starting lineup for Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks:
Here’s the Diamondbacks’ starting lineup:
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Dodgers vs. Diamondbacks in NLDS: How to watch, start times and betting lines
The Dodgers embark on what they hope will be a deep playoff run culminating in an eighth World Series championship when they open the National League Division Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks this weekend.
Game 1 of the NLDS will be played at 6:20 p.m. PDT on Saturday at Dodger Stadium. Game 2 will be played at 6:07 p.m. on Monday at Dodger Stadium. Game 3 will be played at Chase Field in Phoenix at 6:07 p.m. on Wednesday. All games will air on TBS.
Fresh off their 10th NL West crown in 11 seasons, the Dodgers might have to follow an unconventional game-management strategy in the series after injuries decimated their starting pitching rotation.
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Dodgers hoping to continue one-sided division rivalry vs. Diamondbacks
The pool awaits.
Ten years after the Dodgers’ memorable division-clinching celebration in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Chase Field pool, and six years after the Diamondbacks enlisted horse-mounted police to prevent an encore in the 2017 playoffs, the two division foes are set for another October meeting in the National League Division Series starting Saturday at Dodger Stadium.
The matchup was confirmed Wednesday night, courtesy of the Diamondbacks’ sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers in the wild-card round.
When the Diamondbacks recorded their final out, a crowd of several hundred Dodgers season-ticket holders at Chavez Ravine — in attendance for the team’s open workout, where the Diamondbacks game was shown on the scoreboards — broke into a “Let’s go, Dodgers” chant, seemingly emboldened by their recent dominance in a one-sided division rivalry.