‘The Dodgers showed up’: LA comes alive with relentless rally in Game 3 vs. Nationals

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WASHINGTON – Ambush, meet annihilation.

The Los Angeles Dodgers knew winning 106 regular season games guaranteed them nothing come October, when balls take funny hops and six-month track records are reduced to tiny samples and $355 million worth of ace starting pitchers can emerge, nightmarishly and with little warning, from the bullpen.

So, two nights after the Washington Nationals evened their National League Division Series by unleashing Max Scherzer’s 99-mph heat in the eighth inning, David Freese peered across the field at Nationals Park and into the home team’s bullpen, where Game 1 starter Patrick Corbin was doing a terrible job at making himself inconspicuous.

“We knew tonight could be different,” said Freese, the 36-year-old veteran of 14 playoff series. “We saw he was sitting down there.”

NATIONALS: Anti-bullpen strategy backfires in Game 3 loss

GAME 4: Washington ‘weirdly comfortable’ with Scherzer starting Game 4

Yet while Corbin was hiding in plain sight, he and the Nationals could not see what hit them when he was summoned to protect a one-run lead in the sixth inning of Game 3 Sunday night

“The Dodgers,” utilityman Enrique Hernandez said, “showed up in the sixth inning.”

More specifically, the two-time defending National League champions, deeper than anyone and somehow blessed with both youthful potency and veteran calm, seized control of this NLDS and possibly saved a season of significantly high stakes.

They staged a rally for the ages, with seven consecutive men reaching with two outs, four hits coming after batters fell into a two-strike hole, and seven runs ultimately crossing home plate.

The uprising produced a 10-4 victory that flipped the fortunes of two franchises battling autumn demons of varying proportions.

The Nationals have never won a postseason series in their franchise’s history, yet when starter Anibal Sanchez carried a 2-1 lead into the sixth, they knew that with Scherzer looming in Monday night’s Game 4, this best-of-five series could be in their sights with 12 more outs.

The Dodgers, still seeking their first World Series title since 1988, knew a season of overwhelming expectation was just a few innings from life support.

Instead, they stared down the last strike of that inning four times and summoned the skill and will to keep it going, until No. 2 catcher Russell Martin ripped a Corbin offering into the gap in left center field, chasing home the tying and go-ahead runs.

Hernandez – like Martin down 0-2 in the count – clubbed a two-run double.

Justin Turner – down 0-2 in the count – destroyed a pitch from reliever Wander Suero for a three-run homer.

Suddenly, 2-1 Nationals became 8-2 Dodgers. Martin, the 36-year-old veteran of 10 postseasons, provided the coda with a towering two-run homer in the ninth, followed by some sage wisdom.

“Who likes being down 0-2? Nobody,” Martin said probably breaking down his at-bat but maybe also life itself.

So Martin tapped into the information he and his peers acquired earlier. Corbin struck them out nine times and gave up just one earned run in Game 1, when the Dodgers torched Washington’s 29th-ranked bullpen to ensure victory.

Two days later, down to his last strike, he went to school.

“In the back of my mind, we had a meeting and we went over Corbin,” says Martin. “And with two strikes and guys in scoring positions he doesn’t really throw many strikes, he’s going to try and make you chase a little bit.

“And the more pitches I saw, the more I felt comfortable.”

It wasn’t an inning as much as it was a catharsis. NL MVP favorite Cody Bellinger, hitless in eight NLDS at-bats coming in, started the barrage with a single and ended it with a double.

Freese, the 2011 World Series MVP, re-started the rally with a pinch-hit single off Corbin that followed strikeouts by Corey Seager and A.J. Pollock.

Hernandez, his role reduced from a 2018 postseason that saw him rack up 41 at-bats, popped off the bench to stretch the lead out with his double.

When the playoffs come, the Dodgers more resemble a hockey team, with wholesale line changes coming mid-game once the opposition changes pitchers and they can unleash an unmatched platoon advantage.

Figuring that Corbin might be in the game early, right-handed hitters Freese, Hernandez and Chris Taylor – who drew a pinch-hit walk after Martin’s double – stayed busy in the catacombs of Nationals Park.

As the game began, the action in the batting cage was perhaps livelier than what happened on the field.

The pitching machine whirred to life. Coaching assistant Jose Vizcaino began tossing batting practice.

And as Sanchez held the Dodgers to just Max Muncy’s fifth-inning home run, the right-handed bench mob ambled into the dugout, an eye on the Nationals’ bullpen and an ear toward manager Dave Roberts.

Once Corbin began lightly tossing in the bullpen, Freese was told to get ready.

A few minutes later, the reinforcements went to work on Corbin. And a club that watched World Series celebrations for the Astros and Red Sox unfold on the Dodger Stadium turf only gained conviction that this year may be different.

“There’s a lot of guys in here who say this is the best team they’ve had the last handful of years,” says Freese, picked up on Aug. 31, 2018 and re-signed before this season.

“I haven’t been around them all, but this is a damn good team.”

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