The Dodgers’ reign atop Major League Baseball officially ended at 8:08 p.m. Thursday night.
Kiké Hernández hit a line drive to left. Jackson Chourio caught it on the run. And instead of a World Series three-peat, the Dodgers saw their dynasty end in the most futile fashion.
With a 5-4 loss in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, the two-time defending champions were swept by the Milwaukee Brewers.
No World Series three-peat. No historic march to baseball immortality. Just a fourth-straight loss and an embarrassing elimination that will send the Dodgers into a long, regretful winter full of future uncertainty.
This team’s season was not supposed to end like this.
Not after they entered the year coming off back-to-back championships. Not after they amassed the league’s most talented –– and expensive –– roster with a record-setting $432 million payroll. And certainly not after the way Game 4 started, when the Dodgers jumped to a 4-0 lead in the second inning thanks to a cathartic three-run blast from the previously slumping Shohei Ohtani.
At that point, it felt like the tide just might be starting to turn.
All month, the Dodgers had waited for an injury-hampered Ohtani to look like himself at the plate. All week, they had waited for their offense to show any genuine sign of life against a dominant Brewers pitching staff.
Finally, after returning to his customary leadoff spot of the lineup for the first time this postseason, Ohtani took care of both, belting a 428-foot bomb for his first home run since Aug. 18.
As had been the case throughout this one-sided series, however, the Brewers regrouped, then came roaring back.
It started in the top of the fourth, when Tyler Glasnow –– having retired his first 10 batters, six via strikeout –– gave up a walk, then back-to-back ground-rule doubles, the latter coming from NLCS MVP Jake Bauers to score two runs and cut the Dodgers’ lead in half.
An inning later, the cushion would be gone, with Milwaukee going full BrewerBall to stun the Dodger Stadium crowd.
Though left-hander Alex Vesia was warm, manager Dave Roberts tried to sneak Glasnow through the left-handed-heavy bottom of the Brewers’ order. It didn’t work. Sal Frelick walked, stole second, then scored on a David Hamilton single. At that point, Roberts summoned right-hander Evan Phillips, but watched him issue two more free passes to load the bases.
That finally brought Vesia into the game. But he couldn’t find the strike zone.
With Bauers at the plate again, the southpaw missed on four-straight pitches to walk in the tying run.
Just like that, Milwaukee had snatched the momentum right back, erasing the sixth different Dodgers’ lead of this series.
In the top of the sixth, they’d go in front for good on Garrett Mitchell’s solo home run against Tanner Scott.
That was this NLCS in a nutshell. The Brewers responded to every moment of adversity. The Dodgers withered in the face of every setback of their own.
The magic from the last two Octobers? Nowhere to be found.
The energy that had pulsed through this franchise over the last two years? Long gone, as another less-than-capacity crowd –– Thursday’s attendance was just 49,104 –– once again showed.
Where the Dodgers go from here is just as much of a mystery.
Their aging roster will be another year older. Important veteran role players like Miguel Rojas (who is likely to retire) and Kiké Hernández (who will be a free agent) could be gone.
Add in the uncertainty of a looming labor battle, and a new collective-bargaining agreement that could bring profound changes to the sport’s financial structure, and it’s possible an ever larger-scale retooling could be in order.
That’s why this year’s run was so precious; with the Dodgers not only chasing history, but trying to prolong what felt like a potential last dance with this veteran core.
They won 100 games in the regular season. They captured a 13th NL West crown in the last 14 years.
But all that really mattered was completing their World Series three-peat.
In the end, they came up frustratingly short.
