After two chilled losses at Fenway Park, the Los Angeles Dodgers returned home on Thursday feeling the heat trailing the best-of-seven World Series 2-0 to the Boston Red Sox and in need of a spark.
While the Los Angeles weather for Game Three on Friday will be more to the Dodgers liking, the back-to-back losses in Boston will have sent a shiver through fans who will be well aware of the uphill climb now facing their team.
Only 13 times have teams lost the opening two games of any best-of-seven Major League Baseball postseason series and rallied to erase the deficit.
"We've got to find a way to win a baseball game," said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. "Obviously we come out of here (Boston) going home down 2-0.
"We're not swinging the bats well right now. That's obvious. But I think getting home ... I think we'll be ready for Game Three."
Boston with its mid-7 Celsius game time temperatures and Fenway Park with its quirky dimensions and features proved an inhospitable place for the Dodgers.
But with the next three games at the spacious Chavez Ravine where temperatures will hover around 27C, the Dodgers are focused at the task in front of them -- winning Game Three and taking the first step towards sending the series back to Boston.
"I think the big takeaway is you can't win four games in one night," said Roberts. "So just the focus-on-one-game-at-a-time mentality.
"I know it's easier said than done. But that's as simply as you can put it, and that's the best way to go about it."
The odds and history may be against the Dodgers but they are not without hope.
Dodgers teams have dug themselves out of 0-2 holes three times, including in the 1955 World Series when the then Brooklyn Dodgers became the first team to overturn an 0-2 deficit to beat their bitter rivals the New York Yankees.
The Dodgers also accomplished the feat in the 1965 and 1981 World Series coming back after losing the opening two games on the road.
Pressure is not an unknown quantity for the Dodgers, who took the World Series to a Game Seven last year before losing to the Houston Astros and while the situation is critical, it is not yet do-or-die, as Roberts pointed out.
"Understanding and appreciating that it's the World Series, it's still not a do-or-die like Game Seven, it was a do-or-die situation," said Roberts.
"So I know that even just getting back home feels different.
"It's going to be exciting tomorrow. The key is we've still got to go out there and play a good baseball game." (Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto. Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
CHICAGO - Enrique Hernandez smashed three home runs, including a grand slam, and the Los Angeles Dodgers advanced to their first World Series since 1988 by defeating the Chicago Cubs 11-1 on Thursday.
Dodgers 26-year-old left-fielder Hernandez, who has helped hurricane relief efforts in his native Puerto Rico, smacked a solo blast in the second inning, a four-run round-tripper in the third and a two-run shot in the ninth to provide all the scoring Los Angeles would need.
The Dodgers dethroned Major League Baseball's defending champions by capturing the best-of-seven National League Championship Series 4-1 and will play for their first World Series crown in 29 years starting Tuesday in Los Angeles.
"It feels good to hear World Series," said Dodgers winning pitcher Clayton Kershaw. "It has been a long time coming for this team. I never thought I would play in a World Series. It's tough to sink in right now."
They will face the American League winner, either the New York Yankees or Houston Astros, in the best-of-seven final. The Yankees lead that series 3-2 entering game six Friday in Houston. No home team has yet lost.
Hernandez set a one-game league championship series record by driving in seven runs and matched another with three homers.
"Kike' (Hernandez), he told me he had my back today," Kershaw said. "He came through. It's a different guy every night. I'm having a lot of fun with them. It's unbelievable. It's a very special team to be a part of."
The Cubs had won five consecutive playoff games when facing elimination, three in last year's World Series and two in this year's playoffs, but again struggled to solve Dodgers pitching, having managed only one playoff hit with runners in scoring position.
Dodgers relief pitchers will enter the World Series having hurled 23 consecutive scoreless playoff innings.
Dodgers ace left-hander Kershaw, a three-time Cy Young Award winner as best pitcher, allowed only one run on three hits with five strikeouts over six innings for his sixth playoff win, tying a Dodgers' career record, while Cubs lefty Jose Quintana struggled before exiting in the third inning.
Los Angeles opened the scoring in the first inning when Chris Taylor walked and scored on Cody Bellinger's double to right field.
Hernandez swatted his first homer of the playoffs on the opening pitch of the second inning to give the Dodgers a 2-0 edge.
Taylor opened the crucial third inning with a ground rule double, bouncing a ball into the stands down the left-field line, and scored on Justin Turner's single to right field, boosting the Dodgers' lead to 3-0.
Bellinger and Yasiel Puig followed with singles to load the bases, prompting the Cubs to replace Quintana with right-handed reliever Hector Rondon.
- Hernandez hammers the Cubs -
Hernandez returned to the plate with one out and hammered the first Dodgers' playoff grand slam since 2008 over the Wrigley Field center-field wall, lifting the Dodgers ahead 7-0 and stunning Chicago supporters into silence.
The Cubs had only managed seven runs in the entire series to that point. The Dodgers struck for five runs on six hits in the inning.
Los Angeles added two more runs in the fourth inning as Taylor and Bellinger each singled and advanced on a wild pitch by reliever John Lackey. Taylor was thrown out at home on a ground ball by Puig but Logan Forsythe followed with a two-run double to left field, the onslaught reaching 9-0.
Chicago's Kris Bryant smacked a solo homer in the fourth to finally put the Cubs on the scoreboard.
But Hernandez smacked his third homer in the ninth, a fitting exclamation point on the Dodgers' rout.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK -- Japanese ace Yu Darvish dazzled in his Los Angeles Dodgers debut, throwing seven scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts in a 6-0 victory Friday over the New York Mets.
The 30-year-old righthander from Osaka picked up his seventh win of the year and first since being acquired Monday from the Texas Rangers on Major League Baseball's trading deadline.
"He did everything we hoped he would do," said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
The Dodgers, who improved to 77-32 on the season, gave up three prospects to get Darvish, who allowed just three hits and one walk.
It marked the first win for Darvish since June 12. He was 0-5 with a 5.81 earned-run average in his final eight starts for the Rangers.
Darvish became the first Dodger with 10 strikeouts in his debut since Japanese compatriot Kaz Ishii in 2002.
"It is not just about being a Dodger in my first outing," Darvish said. "I gave up 10 runs in my last outing. I was a little concerned about that. I didn't want to pitch bad in my first outing."
Darvish received the only support he would need when Chris Taylor homered leading off the first against Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom at Citi Field. Yasiel Puig homered in the second and Justin Turner drove in a run in the fifth.
The scorching Dodgers won for the 42nd time in their last 49 games dating to June 7. The Mets lost for the fifth time in six games.
DeGrom allowed three runs on five hits and three walks while striking out eight over five innings. He also singled and stole a base in the third. It was the first stolen base by a Mets pitcher since Oliver Perez swiped second in May 2008.
Chase Utley blasted a two-run home run for the Dodgers. Utley was booed loudly before every at-bat by fans who remember from his years with the Philadelphia Phillies, when he broke the leg of shortstop Ruben Tejada with a hard slide into second base during the 2015 National League playoffs.
The blast was his 39th regular-season homer against the Mets, most of any active player.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LOS ANGELES -- Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish is leaving the slumping Texas Rangers for Major League Baseball's most successful team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, in the biggest of several trade deadline moves on Monday.
The 30-year-old right-hander is a four-time major league all-star since joining the Texas Rangers in 2012 after seven seasons pitching for Japan's Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters from 2005-2011.
The Rangers swapped Darvish to the Dodgers in the last 10 minutes before the deadline, shortly after the Japanese star tweeted a photo of himself standing next to his locker.
Texas, 50-54 and 18 games behind leader Houston in the American League West division, will receive outfielder Willie Calhoun, right-handed pitcher A.J. Alexy and infielder Brendon Davis in the deal.
Darvish joins a club that stands 74-31 and leads the National League West division by 14 games over Arizona.
In other deadline-day deals, the Dodgers acquired two left-handed relief pitchers, Tony Watson from Pittsburgh and Tony Cingrani from Cincinnati.
Arizona, with a firm grip on a wildcard playoff spot at 60-45, added right-handed pitcher David Hernandez in a deal with the Los Angeles Angels for minor league pitcher Luis Madero.
NL East leader Washington, a possible playoff foe for the Dodgers at 62-41, acquired right-handed All-Star closing relief pitcher Brandon Kintzler from the Minnesota Twins, helping ease a woeful bullpen.
The reigning World Series champion Chicago Cubs, atop the NL Central by 2 1/2 games over Milwaukee at 5-48, acquired Detroit Tigers closer Justin Wilson and catcher Alex Avila in exchange for minor leaguers.
Left-hander Wilson, who turns 30 next month, is expected to enter before Cubs right-handed closer Wade Davis.
The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, locked in the tighest fight in baseball with only a half-game separating them atop the American League East division, also made moves.
Former All-Star right-handed pitcher Sonny Gray was traded to the Yankees by Oakland for three minor league players.
The Red Sox obtained right-handed closer Addison Reed from the New York Mets for three minor leaguers. Reed would be a set-up man for Red Sox right-handed closer Craig Kimbrel.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
