Well, that was easy.
Dodgers absolutely shellack Cubs in NLCS Game 5 to clinch World Series berth
It’s their first World Series appearance since 1988.
Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
After going up 3-0, the Dodgers weren’t ever not going to the World Series. It was just a matter of when and how.
The answer to those questions turned out to be “at Wrigley in Game 5” and “by suffocating the Cubs with a massive pile of runs.”
It started early, with Chris Taylor getting on base and then Cody Bellinger doubling him home in the first to make the game 1-0. Allowing only one run through the first inning probably seemed great to the Cubs at the time, but the Dodgers’ damage was far from being over.
In the second, Kiké Hernandez hit the first postseason home run of his career to make it 2-0. Taylor got on base again in the third, and this time, Justin Turner brought him around to score with a single to right field.
With the bases loaded, the Cubs pulled starter Jose Quintana.
It didn’t much matter though. After a Logan Forsythe strikeout, Hernandez would hit his second of three home runs on the night -- and this one was a grand slam off Hector Rondon that would put the Dodgers up 7-0.
Quintana was charged with six runs on six hits in two-plus innings.
In the fourth, LA kept piling on with a Forsythe double that would bring both Bellinger and Yasiel Puig home for a 9-0 lead. The Dodgers would give Cubs pitching a small reprieve, not scoring again until the top of the ninth ... when Hernandez hit ANOTHER home run to make it 11-1. Hernandez tied the record for most home runs in a Championship Series game and broke the record for RBI in the same category.
The only run the Cubs scored was a home run by Kris Bryant in the bottom of the fourth inning to make it a 9-1 game. Clayton Kershaw pitched a game that would have been just as great if he didn’t have so much run support (and the lack of stress to go with it). His final line was six innings, one run off of three hits, with a walk and five strikeouts.
But the important part is that the Dodgers are going to the World Series for the first time since 1988. Congrats, Dodgers fans.
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