NLDS Game 1, Part 2: This Is Going Really, Really Well

So… anything interesting happen so far? THIS COULD NOT BE BETTER.

Because of the increased traffic during playoff games, we’ll likely have at least one in-game thread reset, and that’s this. At the moment, the Dodgers are up 6-1 in the middle of the fifth inning. Randal Grichuk surprisingly took Clayton Kershaw deep in the first inning, and then after the requisite amount of #shadows talk, Yasiel Puig was hit by an Adam Wainwright pitch to lead off the third.

Then things got real dumb, real quick! Puig calmly took his base, but Adrian Gonzalez (the next hitter) and Yadier Molina got into it, and the benches cleared, and all sorts of tough guy junk-measuring ensued. But despite the entreaties of real, actual people that the only revenge would be to throw at people — because, you know, five innings of Carlos Frias sounds like a great idea — the Dodgers figured there was a better way to get back at the Cardinals. With hits!

Several, actually. Though Gonzalez and Matt Kemp each made outs, Ramirez singled in Puig, then stole second and scored on Carl Crawford‘s double. Of course, since Ramirez is Ramirez, he already looked like he was in pain:

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Seriously though, what’s the best thing Kershaw could have done? Three straight strikeouts. Grichuk, down. Matt Holliday, down. Jhonny Peralta, down. Yay! The next inning, A.J. Ellis led off with a single, got to third on two outs, and scored when Puig hit a ball off his shoetops:


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Kemp drove in Puig. The Dodgers are up 6-1. Wainwright had allowed 12 base runners and thrown 102 pitches, with the final one ending up deep in left field on an Ellis homer (!!), his third hit of the night (!!!). Kershaw is rolling. Wainwright is gone, and the Cards needed three pitchers to get through the fifth. We might not need to see the bullpen tonight. THIS IS EVERYTHING.


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About Mike Petriello

Mike writes about lots of baseball in lots of places, and right now that place is MLB.com.