Ex-Phils help Dodgers beat Nationals in NLDS classic
WASHINGTON - A graying Chase Utley looked behind and saw Carlos Ruiz walk toward the on-deck circle. They are two men in the twilight of their careers who have shared so many bonds in red pinstripes that will never be broken, but this was a first.
WASHINGTON — His eyes red from the champagne or the tears or both, Carlos Ruiz clutched a Budweiser in his right hand. The hand that fielded the final out in one of the greatest postseason games ever. The game when he, the 37-year-old Dodgers backup catcher, pushed his team ahead with a pinch-hit single. The lead that Clayton Kershaw, who started Game 4 on short rest with a bad back, saved in Game 5 with a curveball in the dirt.
Ruiz snatched the ball. Kershaw, who had never thrown to the veteran catcher, raised both arms. Ruiz fired to first for the 27th out of a 4-3 win Thursday night to defeat the Nationals. He jumped into Kershaw.
"I was running," Ruiz said. "I felt like I was in the air. I didn't feel my legs."
And, somehow, three 2008 Phillies lived to see another October day.
This Game 5 was so memorable, a game that defied baseball logic and drove both managers to empty their benches and bullpens. It was the longest nine-inning postseason game ever. The epic seventh inning lasted 1 hour, 6 minutes. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts used his setup man in the third inning, his closer in the seventh, and his ace in the ninth.
"Absolutely not," Roberts had said before the game, when asked if Kershaw could relieve. And he meant it, until he needed Kenley Jansen in the seventh inning for 20 pitches. Kershaw approached his manager with a proposition.
"I was just kind of doing the math," Kershaw said, and an October legend was born with a two-out save. After he engineered a managerial miracle, Roberts held a smartphone to his ear as he breezed through a hallway underneath Nationals Park.
"How 'bout that game, buddy?" Roberts said.
Los Angeles' win aligns what should be two compelling league championship series. Of the four remaining teams, the last to win it all was Toronto in 1993. The Dodgers captured a championship in 1988. Cleveland is without a World Series ring since 1948. And, of course, 1908 defines every single day for the Cubs.
The National League Championship Series starts Saturday at Wrigley Field.
The disappointment is incalculable for Washington. This, arguably, was the Nationals' most important game since they returned to D.C. and the towel-waving crowd tasted bitterness yet again. No Washington baseball team has won a playoff series since 1924.
"Every at-bat, every pitch, it seemed like it was important," Kershaw said. "The at-bats that the Nationals had the entire series, it just felt like it was a constant 2-2, foul off three pitches, seven-pitch at-bats."
"It's tough to take," Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. "A tough loss."
Carlos Ruiz, Chase Utley and Joe Blanton, they were heroes in red pinstripes so long ago. In Dodger blue, they are just small pieces of a team that has endured more injuries than a team among the final four standing ever should.
But, in Game 4, Utley delivered the winning hit. And, in Game 5, the others mattered. Blanton, who has adopted the Larry Andersen all-slider strategy to become a shutdown bullpen arm, relieved Dodgers starter Rich Hill to record four calming outs.
In the seventh inning, after Los Angeles chased Washington's $210 million ace Max Scherzer, Utley was due to hit with the tying run on second base. Roberts had told Ruiz to be ready to face Nationals lefthander Sammy Solis, and now Baker signaled to the bullpen with his left arm.
Ruiz, in a first, pinch-hit for Utley. He slashed the fifth pitch he saw, a change-up, to left field for a run-scoring single. The Dodgers never trailed again.
"It's hard to explain," Ruiz said, "how big it is for myself and how big it is for my teammates."
The Panamanian catcher asked the Phillies to trade him in August because he wanted another October. "This moment, right now, it reminds me of Philly," he said in the corner of the raucous Dodgers clubhouse. Julio Urias, the 20-year-old lefthander who became the youngest pitcher in a postseason game since Don Gullett in 1970, hugged Ruiz. The catcher could be his father.
Increíble, Urias said to Ruiz.
Utley, 37 and graying, grabbed two beer bottles from a bucket. He was soaking wet. The second baseman flicked a beer at a teammate. Utley smiled.
He had just witnessed greatness. "It showed the true character of our team," Utley said. Now he needed another beer.
Utley will continue this journey with Ruiz, two men in the twilight of their careers who have shared so many celebrations that cannot fade. He had seen Ruiz embrace Brad Lidge and Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels, yet there it was again: After midnight, a giddy Ruiz hopping into a star pitcher's arms. Utley was one of the first to join in the delirious pile. He could not have imagined this, not now.
"No," Utley said, "but it's awesome."
@MattGelb