LOS ANGELES — Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched five scoreless innings, and both Hernándezes homered, completing the Dodgers National League Division Series comeback with a 2-0 win over the San Diego Padres in Game 5 on Sunday night at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers, who did not allow a run in the final 24 innings of the series, are back in the NLCS for the first time in three years.
Down two games to one earlier in the series is when in the last two Octobers the Dodgers crumbled, with either bad pitching, a dormant offense, or both. But this NLDS was promising early on, from the comeback win in Game 1 to the near-comeback after trailing by five on the road in Game 3.
“I just think that there’s a relentlessness, a refusal to lose,” manager Dave Roberts said prior to Friday’s game. “I think there’s a different level of, you’re just not going to lose, regardless of circumstance. I’ve seen that from our guys this year.
“I believe in this team more than any team I’ve had.”
That belief was buoyed with a Game 4 blowout in which nearly everything went right. Every pitcher put up zeroes, and the offense excelled from top to bottom an an 8-0 equalizer on the road.
Though a bullpen game was discussed as an option for Game 5, the Dodgers didn’t feel they could deploy relievers with the same aggression as in Game 4, when three relievers pitched in multiple innings. So it made more sense to turn to Yamamoto, arguably the Dodgers’ best option for Game 5, and on schedule.
Even if his results against San Diego this season — 13 runs allowed in nine innings in three starts — might have said otherwise.
Enter Roberts, the eternal optimist.
“Yoshinobu is here to be a top-end starter, and this is his time,” Roberts said. “We’re betting on the guy to pitch the game of his life tonight.”
The biggest dragon to slay was the first inning, in which San Diego scored three runs off Yamamoto in Game 1 and scored 10 run in their first three first innings off him this season. But Yamamoto got through the opening frame in order, including a strikeout of Fernando Tatis Jr. that got the Dodger Stadium crowd in a frenzy.
Yamamoto didn’t miss too many bats, and allowed some hard-hit balls that were caught, including two flyouts to Mookie Betts on the right field warning track by Manny Machado. But Yamamoto got the results, including a double play from Tatis with two on that ended the third inning and the only real threat against Yamamoto, who retired his final seven batters.
Roberts isn’t the only disciple of the power of positive thinking.
With Miguel Rojas still out with his torn adductor and Tommy Edman shifting to shortstop, the Dodgers turned to veteran Kiké Hernández in center field on Friday after his two hits in Game 4.
“I was just going to find a way to get him in there,” Roberts explained.
Hernández turned his season around near the All-Star break when he started wearing eyeglasses while playing for the first time. Since then he saw his numbers rise to .274/.307/.458 with a 112 wRC+.
In October is when he’s shined the most throughout his career, hitting .276/.351/.535 with a 134 wRC+ in 74 postseason games entering Friday. Prior to Game 5 he talked about using visualization to help him relax and succeed in pressure spots, and shared his outlook on big challenges, like a winner-take-all Game 5.
“The way I see it is these types of games are the ones we’ve been dreaming of since we were little kids,” Hernández said. “We didn’t come here to within the NL West; we came to win the World Series. To do that, we’ve got to do that or we go home and we think about it all offseason.”
To that end, Hernández jumped on a first-pitch fastball from Yu Darvish in the second inning that allowed the Dodgers to play from ahead early.
KIKÉ KNEW. pic.twitter.com/rFcSbEmdPb
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) October 12, 2024
Former Dodgers teammate Alex Wood chimed in after the home run.
Kike freaking loves the moment. Some dudes just built different in the post season.
— Alex Wood (@Awood45) October 12, 2024
Thanks to Yamamoto and the bullpen, that run held up as the lead until the seventh inning, when Teoscar Hernández hit a solo shot of his own, his second home run of the series to double the Dodgers’ advantage.
TEOOOOOOOOO! pic.twitter.com/3ndW9snTX5
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) October 12, 2024
That home run ended what was another excellent start for Darvish, who held the Dodgers to one run in seven innings in Game 2. This time he allowed only three hits, but two of them were home runs to suffer a tough-luck loss.
After Yamamoto give them five innings, the Dodgers were able to use their bullpen in a more traditional variety. That included Evan Phillips getting all five batters he faced, through a sweeper-fueled strikeout of Machado in the seventh inning.
Alex Vesia struck out the final batter of the seventh and was warming to start the eighth, but exited with trainer Thomas Albert before throwing another pitch. Vesia felt a cramp in his right side and will have an MRI exam on Saturday.
That left Michael Kopech to open the frame, and he pitched a clean eighth. Blake Treinen pitched a scoreless ninth to give him bookend saves in the NLDS.
NLDS Game 5 info
Home runs: Kiké Hernández (1), Teoscar Hernández (2)
WP — Yoshinobu Yamamoto (1-0): 5 IP, 2 hits, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts
LP — Yu Darvish (1-1): 6⅔ IP, 3 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts
Sv — Blake Treinen (2): 1 IP, zeroes
Up next
The Dodgers get to keep playing, and they get to stay at home for a few more days, with Game 1 of the NLCS against the Mets on Sunday night (5:15 p.m., Fox). Jack Flaherty presumably will start for Los Angeles, though nothing has yet been announced in that regard.