NLDS Game Five, 2021

Dodgers at Giants, 6:07 PM PDT, TV: TBS

Okay, this is a shocker. The Dodgers have said for two days that Julio Urías would start this game; this morning they announced that RHP Corey Knebel (4-0, 2.45 ERA) will start and Urías will come in after an inning or two. The idea is “to alter the Giants’ lineup construction. San Francisco started seven righties against Urías in Game 2…”

I dunno. This may be a move that’s too clever by half. We’ll see.

The Giants are doing nothing so quirky. They’re handing the ball to their ace RHP Logan Webb (13-3, 3.03 ERA; postseason 1-0, 0.00 ERA).

On this date in postseason history Tommie Agee made two great catches in 1969, Gene Tenace hit two home runs in 1972, Reggie Jackson threw out his hip, Jack Buck told St. Louis fans to “go crazy, folks, go crazy” as Ozzie Smith homered to win Game Five of the 1985 NLCS, and the Dodgers scored eleven runs in the first inning of Game Three of the 2020 NLCS. Much more at the link.

Lineups when available.

Dodgers:

Giants:

519 thoughts on “NLDS Game Five, 2021

    • May not be ready right away, so will need to carry him on the roster in any event as he hopefully heals, or else hope that someone gets injured (phantom?).

  1. I’m wondering why Mookie didn’t run to third on Seager’s hit. Webb didn’t even look his way.

  2. One way to ensure Urias pitches the second is to have the Dodgers bat through to the 9 spot this inning. Urias can pitch hit in the top of the 2nd and then take the mound in the bottom of the 2nd.

  3. We held the Giants to 10 runs in this series. That’s saying a lot about our pitching. We scored 18.

    • One of SI’s baseball writers already saying such. What a disaster that would be for baseball. Really not defined, other than the batter’s intent.

  4. We sure had our chances with Seager and Trea. The 2-1 pitch on the former that was called a strike was questionable.

  5. Posted this below but not sure you would see it WBB in regards to all the claims you make about the Giants taking PEDs:

    So are you saying two very prominent former Dodgers – Gabe as SF manager and Farhan as SF GM are allowing and encouraging that illegal behaviour.

    Wouldn’t that be damning for the Dodgers previous success?

  6. I’m returning to the TV, now that my blood pressure has presumably decreased and with Webb out of the game.

  7. Pulling Urias after only 59 pitches? What was the point of the Openers? I know Julio had a rough 6th inning, but still.

  8. Longest game by innings in MLB history occurred 101 years ago, and it involved the Dodgers. Excuse the blank spaces:

    May 1, 1920: Brooklyn Robins 1, Boston Braves 1
    Length: 26 innings
    The
    longest game by innings in Major League history could have gone even
    longer — after 26 innings, the game was called due to darkness. The
    Robins (the predecessors to the Dodgers) and Braves were tied at 1, and
    that’s how the game ended. The entire episode took just three hours and
    50 minutes.

    Brooklyn’s
    run came courtesy of leadoff man Ivy Olson, who lined an RBI single
    over Hall of Fame shortstop Rabbit Maranville’s head in the fifth.
    Boston’s Tony Boeckel drove in the tying run with a single to center in
    the bottom of the sixth. The teams traded zeros for 20 innings until
    night fell at Braves Field.

    The
    next day’s New York Times story joked that umpire Barry McCormick
    “remembered that he had an appointment pretty soon with a succulent
    beefsteak. He wondered if it wasn’t getting dark. He held out one hand
    as a test and decided that in the gloaming it resembled a Virginia ham.
    He knew it wasn’t a Virginia ham and became convinced that it was too
    dark to play ball. Thereupon, he called the game, to the satisfaction of
    himself and (fellow umpire Bob Hart) and the chagrin of everybody else
    concerned.”

    This
    game is unbelievable by today’s standards. Not just for its sheer
    length, but because of the pitchers’ duel that it contained. Both
    starting pitchers, Brooklyn’s Leon Cadore and Boston’s Joe Oeschger, pitched the entire 26 innings of the game. Somehow, they only allowed one run apiece.

    “If
    a pitcher couldn’t go the distance,” Oeschger would tell the Sarasota
    Herald-Tribune decades later, “he soon found himself some other form of
    occupation.

  9. Better now than later. Better solo than with runners on.
    Dodgers not sweating it I’m guessing.

  10. Why do I sense that this will come down to Gonsolin pitching in the 12th, 13th, and 14th innings?

  11. Draaaat. But CT3 had the length with that foul ball and that must have shaken Webb up a tiny bit.

  12. Guessing that my feed down here in Mexico is a good two minutes delayed. Yawl are all future people to me.

  13. The Opener strategy worked, much to my surprise. Two Openers was rolling the dice, but that worked as well.

  14. Given the nature of this series – I will feel slightly more comfortable once the Dodgers score a run.

  15. I wonder if Trienen gets the 3rd inning, Jansen gets the 4th inning and then Urias gets 5-9? Only kinda joking.

  16. Trea looked like he was going up the middle but with that sinker, I would rather he had gone to right if for no other reason than he was working the game plan

    • I’m ambivalent. I trust Julito but he sometimes takes a while to settle in, while Knebel knows how to shut down another team quickly.

  17. If the Giants had announced today that they were starting an Opener instead of Webb, how would we feel? I think we’d be happy.

  18. May the better team win – and may the Gnats spend the rest of the post-season as spectators cuddling on their couches.

  19. Who starts is immaterial if the Dodger bats chase all those sliders out of the zone again.

    • Knebel has had two plate appearances in his MLB career, both this year with the Dodgers. Grounded out both times.

  20. https://www.mlb.com/dodgers/news/corey-knebel-gets-nlds-game-5-start

    If this backfires, Roberts should be fired, unless this has been ordered by Friedman, in which case he should be fired.
    What does this do to Urias’s confidence and his pre-game preparations?
    This is a great emotional boost for the Giants.
    It speaks of the Dodgers running scared.
    We are wasting one of our three best relievers. Ideally, Urias goes 6 or 7, followed by Knebel, Treinen and Jansen, as needed.
    Perhaps we should have started Larry Sherry instead of Sandy Koufax in Game 1 of the 1963 World Series.
    I am dumbfounded, flabbergasted and nonplussed.
    This is absurd.
    And I hope that I am 100 percent wrong.

    • I dunno, Scoop. I actually like this move. If any pitcher can start at any point in a game, it’s Julio. And I haven’t always loved Knebel late in games. We need to get runs in the top of the first either way, so let’s do that and then see how things go.

        • Knebel has pitched in 266 games in career. He has started 4 of them, all this year as the opener for the Dodgers in August and September. He went a total of 5 2/3 innings, allowed one earned run, gave up six hits, struck out four and walked none…To me, I don’t think the potential reward is worth the potential risk.