Justin Turner’s three-run homer gives Dodgers a 4-1 win
Brian Duensing is still pitching for Cubs.
Yasiel Puig walked on four pitches.
The crowd is really making a lot of noise.
Charlie Culberson sacrificed Puig to second.
Pinch-hitter Kyle Farmer struck out swinging.
John Lackey is now coming in to face Chris Taylor. Where’s Wade Davis?
Taylor walked, bringing up Justin Turner. First and second, two out.
Turner homered to center, and the Dodgers win 4-1.
Kenley Jansen shuts down Cubs in top of ninth
Kenley Jansen is now pitching for the Dodgers.
Kris Bryant struck out swinging.
Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch.
Willson Contreras struck out swinging.
Albert Almora grounded to short.
Jansen has faced eight batters in this series — he hit one, got one on a grounder and struck out the other six.
Dodgers waste scoring opportunity in bottom of eighth
Left-hander Brian Duensing is pitching for the Cubs.
Cody Bellinger grounded slowly to first. Rizzo tossed to Duensing covering, but he dropped the ball. Bellinger turned left and they could have tagged him out, but no one noticed. They gave Bellinger a hit on the play.
Joc Pederson sacrificed Bellinger to second.
Logan Forsythe was walked intentionally.
Austin Barnes grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.
Their love for Yasiel Puig is gold-plated
Gary Olavarria loves Yasiel Puig so much that he drives around with a license plate that says MVPUIG on his Chevy Silverado.
He gets honks and thumbs up all the time.
The 40-year-old from El Monte has never doubted Puig’s potential. He came in like a rocket in 2013 and was basically “given the keys to Dodger Stadium,” Olavarria said. Even when the fans turned on the Wild Horse, even when he was shipped to the minor leagues, Olavarria never wavered.
This postseason, he’s having a ball watching Puig have a ball and gets excited every time the crowd explodes with cries of “PUIIIIIG!”
“It’s the excitement, the fire he brings to the stadium,” Olavarria said. “Me and my family, we consider ourselves not just fans, we’re supporters of him.”
“His energy, his enthusiasm for the game, his hustle,” said Olavarria’s lifelong friend Thomas Sanchez of El Monte. Sanchez wore a chain around his neck with Olavarria’s license plate on it.
Olavarria and his 15-year-old son, Julian, wore Puig jerseys, and Olavarria wore a patch depicting Puig flipping a double bird of middle fingers — which he did after hitting a two-run homer in Cleveland in June. He also wore a hat autographed by Puig, with an interlocking Y and P.
Olavarria and Sanchez have gotten a huge kick out of Puig’s tongue-wagging during the postseason.
“He’s just expressing his love for the game,” Sanchez said, beaming. He’s been coming to Dodger Stadium since he was a kid in Little League.
“This is our year,” said Olavarria, who has loved this team his entire life.
This is Puig’s year, too, he said. “2017 is his year to prove himself.”
Cubs don’t score in top of the eighth
Josh Fields is now pitching for the Dodgers. Joc Pederson is in left field, replacing Curtis Granderson.
Javier Baez flied to center. That’s it for Fields, as Tony Watson is coming in to face Ben Zobrist.
Zobrist flied to right.
Jon Jay grounded to second.
Dodgers, Cubs tied 1-1 after seven innings
Pedro Strop is now pitching for the Cubs, and Ben Zobrist is in right field for Jason Heyward.
Charlie Culberson grounded to second.
Curtis Granderson grounded to first.
Chris Taylor walked on four pitches.
Justin Turner flied to center.
It’s time for the seventh-inning stretch
Brandon Morrow shuts down Cubs in top of seventh
Brandon Morrow is still pitching for the Dodgers.
Albert Almora grounded to short.
Addison Russell struck out swinging.
Jason Heyward flied to shallow center, with Chris Taylor making a nice running catch.
It’s seventh-inning stretch time.
Dodgers are retired in order in bottom of sixth
Carl Edwards is still pitching.
Logan Forsythe struck out swinging.
Austin Barnes flied to right.
Yasiel Puig struck out swinging.
Cubs retired in order in top of the sixth
Brandon Morrow is now pitching for the Dodgers. Curtis Granderson is in left field.
Kris Bryant flied to right.
Anthony Rizzo flied to center.
Willson Contreras struck out swining. Morrow was throwing some serious heat.
Is there a line at Dodger Stadium to complain about the long lines?
Pedro Sanchez got in the line and hoped for the best.
It was the top of the third inning, the Dodgers and Cubs were scoreless, and the line for the men’s restroom on the left field loge level stretched far out the door. More then two dozen men waited outside. More waited inside.
“I hope it’s a fast line,” said Sanchez, 25, of Long Beach.
Dodger Stadium, 55 years old and packed for the postseason, is a place where you’re going to, most likely, wait to use the restroom, wait to grab a beer, wait for a hot dog, wait for the escalator, wait even longer for one of the ballpark’s few elevators. For Sunday’s sellout crowd of 54,479, experience held true.
As Sanchez waited in line, the man in front of him had a word for the line. It can’t be printed by a family newspaper.
Another man walked past, saw the queue, uttered a four-letter word and angrily walked on by.
Upstairs, on the reserve level, a couple from East Los Angeles stood in a line of more than 20 people outside the L.A. Taqueria concession stand. They shrugged about the wait. They’ve been coming here for what seems like forever, and the wait is now just part of the game.
Nearby, Iliana Hernandez and her best friend Lilly Montes waited in a line outside a beer stand that had 23 people in it.
“It’s moving pretty quickly, so we don’t mind,” said Montes, of Covina.
“It’s a little annoying, but it’s part of the experience. You anticipate it,” said Hernandez, of San Fernando.
The women are die-hard Dodger fans and have loved the team all their lives. Hernandez said it’s hard to put into words what Dodger Stadium means to her, lines and all.
“It’s part of who we are as people,” she said. “It’s our heritage. It just means a lot to our families.”
Just across the walkway, 22 people stood in line outside a Dodger Dog stand. Someone else walked by, saw the crowd and swore.
Dodgers tie score on Justin Turner’s single
Charlie Culberson doubled to left-center.
Curtis Granderson, batting for Rich Hill, fouled to third.
Chris Taylor grounded to short, Culberson taking third.
Justin Turner singled to right, scoring Culberson. Score tied, 1-1.
Cody Bellinger walked. First and second, two out.
That’s it for Jon Lester. Carl Edwards Jr. will replace him.
Chase Utley, hitting for Enrique Hernandez, struck out swinging.
Cubs take 1-0 lead on Addison Russell’s homer
Addison Russell leads off the fifth with a home run to left. 1-0 Cubs.
Jason Heyward grounded to first. Rich Hill was slow covering so Bellinger had to make a diving tag of the base, just ahead of Heyward.
Javier Baez struck out swinging.
Jon Lester singled to left.
Jon Jay grounded to first.
Rich Hill is scheduled to hit in the bottom of the fifth. Will the Dodgers hit for him?
Dodgers don’t score in fourth
Logan Forsythe flied to center.
Austin Barnes popped it down the right-field line. Javier Baez overran the ball and had to reach back for the ball, making a nice play.
After falling behind 1-and-2, Yasiel Puig walked. Jon Lester has walked four so far tonight.
With Charlie Culberson batting, Puig was thrown out trying to steal.
Rich Hill cruises through the top of the fourth
Anthony Rizzo strikes out swinging. He has been a strikeout machine this series. Now I’ve jinxed it.
More in-game interviews.
Willson Contreras grounded to short.
Albert Almora struck out swinging.
Hill has struck out seven so far. Of his 61 pitches, 42 have been for strikes.
Dodgers can’t cash in on scoring opportunity in third inning
Rich Hill, who has one of the worst swings in history, strikes out.
Chris Taylor flied to right.
Can we stop the whole “interview someone during the middle of the game” thing?
Justin Turner walked on four pitches.
Cody Bellinger doubled to left-center, Turner stopping at third. Coach Chris Woodward had to put up a late stop sign and Turner fell, always scary for a guy who has had knee surgery.
Enrique Hernandez flied to right.
Rich Hill escapes jam in third as game remains scoreless
Javier Baez walked, though the umpire missed a called strike three.
Jon Lester strikes out trying to sacrifice.
With Jon Jay at the plate, Baez stole second. He then went to third on a wild pitch.
Jon Jay grounded to first. With the infield in, Baez couldn’t score.
Kris Bryant strikes out swinging.
Proposed new nickname for Charlie Culberson: Baby Cakes
Dodgers, Cubs remain scoreless through two
Enrique Hernandez, batting cleanup again, walked. Will Jon Lester’s throwing-to-first problem come into play?
Logan Forsythe flied to left.
Austin Barnes struck out swinging.
Yasiel Puig walked. Pitchers keep trying to get him to chase the outside pitch, and Puig won’t do it.
Charlie Culberson flied to right.
Cubs won’t work out Monday
The Dodgers will hold a light workout Monday at Dodger Stadium before flying to Chicago. The Cubs will not work out, after a five-day stretch in which the only day off involved a cross-country flight diverted for a medical emergency.
Maddon attracted national attention for the Cubs’ last off-day workout in Chicago, which featured brunch on the field and an NFL game on the big screen. This time, Maddon said, rest for his players would take precedence over a workout.
“I prefer the guys going back watching Monday Night Football in their own confines and not the Friendly Confines,” said Maddon, using the venerable nickname for Wrigley Field.
Too close for comfort
Cubs go down in order in second inning
Albert Almora grounded back to the pitcher.
Addison Russell struck out swinging on a fastball.
Jason Heyward grounded to short.
Two innings, 30 pitches for Dodgers starter Rich Hill.
Joe Maddon expects to be fined for his remarks after Game 1
There is freedom of speech in baseball, but it is not free. Cubs manager Joe Maddon said Sunday he expected to be fined for his remarks after Saturday’s Game 1, when he launched into a passionate attack on the rule designed to eliminate collisions at home plate.
Cubs catcher Willson Contreras had made an artful play to block the plate and tag out the Dodgers’ Charlie Culberson, but the out was nullified and the Dodgers were given the run after replay officials concluded Contreras had not provided Culberson with a proper lane to home plate.
Maddon previously has spoken out against the rule, and he said he has been fined.
“Sometimes I go over the top with my lack of affection [for the rule],” Maddon said. “So it’s appropriate. I expect it.”
Maddon said he did not regret giving an honest answer, rather than couching his disdain in inoffensive generalities.
“For me to be disingenuous, I just couldn’t have slept,” Maddon said. “So I said what I thought, and I’ll accept the consequences.”
Where is Adrian Gonzalez?
Veteran first baseman Adrian Gonzalez has not been with the team during these playoff games. “Adrian is just resting,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s with his family, and he’s preparing for next spring training.” The Dodgers owe Gonzalez $22.4 million for 2018, but the team may not appear to have space for him on the roster, due to the emergence of rookie Cody Bellinger.
Pedro Baez, Luis Avilan and Brandon McCarthy will take part in a simulated game at Dodger Stadium on Monday afternoon, before the team flies to Chicago. All three players are not on the current roster but are being kept ready in case of emergency.
Dodgers go down quietly in first inning
Chris Taylor grounded to second.
Justin Turner flied to deep center. Albert Almora made a great running catch.
Cody Bellinger tried to beat out a bunt, but Kris Bryant made a nice play and threw him out.
Corey Seager says he feels considerably better today
Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts sounded an optimistic note about injured shortstop Corey Seager, who is recovering from a lower back sprain that kept him off the team’s roster for the National League Championship Series.
“Well, Corey, in talking to him, he says he feels considerably better,” Roberts said before Saturday’s NLCS Game 2. “He says he feels ‘normal-ish.’ That’s, I think, a good thing to hear.”
Seager has still not been cleared to run or swing a bat. The Dodgers hope he can resume baseball activities this week.
Seager is not expected to travel with the team to Chicago for the games there this week. Roberts indicated that could change if Seager’s condition improves considerably, but there is little reason to rush him onto a plane.
In order to activate Seager during this series, the Dodgers would need to place another player on the disabled list with an injury, one which would be closely inspected by the Cubs and Major League Baseball. Even then, the injured player would not be eligible to play in the World Series, if the Dodgers advance. The team is hopeful Seager would be healthy enough for the next round.
Cubs don’t score in the first inning
Here we go. Game 2.
Jon Jay, leading things off for the Cubs, singles to left.
Looks like a tight strike zone by the plate umpire tonight.
Kris Bryant flied to deep right-center. Taylor and Puig almost ran into each other, as center and right are bathed in sun and it is hard to see. Puig made the catch at the last second.
Anthony Rizzo struck out swinging on a slow curve.
Willson Contreras struck out looking at a slow curve.
Dodgers fan Cesar Melgoza knows how to get the Cubs’ goat
Like any good baseball fan, Cesar Melgoza is properly superstitious.
When your pitcher is throwing a no-hitter, you can’t talk about it because you don’t want to jinx it. When your team is doing really well, you can’t leave your seat.
On Sunday, Melgoza, 41, of Hawthorne brought to Dodger Stadium what he hopes will be an unlucky charm for the Chicago Cubs: a stuffed goat, a la the Curse of the Billy Goat said to have kept the Cubs from winning it all for several decades.
“I’m trying to start a new curse for the Cubs,” Melgoza said.
This year, the Cubs are the defending World Series champions, but Melgoza is undeterred.
Melgoza brought the stuffed goat last year and put infant Dodger clothes on it. He brought the goat to last year’s Game 3 of the NLCS against the Cubs. Rich Hill was pitching that game, too, just as he will be pitching Sunday. The Dodgers won that game 6-0. Pretty good sign, Melgoza thought.
He named the goat Billy Martin. Billy for Billy goat, obviously. Martin because it’s his mother’s maiden name.
The goat held a handmade sign: “I’m baaaack! From the dead. Go Dodgers!!!”
Melgoza is also Catholic. Attending a ballgame on a Sunday, he wore a string of blue rosary beads. It had a silver Dodgers mitt attached.
Times columnist Bill Plaschke and Chicago Tribune columnist David Haugh preview Game 2
Watch Dave Roberts talk about his bullpen ahead of Game 2
Watch Cody Bellinger talk about his approach at the plate and being mentored by Andre Ethier
Here’s the Dodgers’ starting lineup for Game 2
Charlie Culberson learned of grandmother’s death hours before Game 1
The day dawned bright, and mournful.
Charlie Culberson is the kind of player October loves, the guy obscured by the stars for six months before he takes a sudden star turn on the postseason stage.
Culberson is an understudy to Corey Seager. On Friday night, Culberson took the phone call that let him know the star could not take the stage, that he would play shortstop Saturday. On Saturday morning, he took another phone call, one that had been some time coming but one that he dreaded hearing nonetheless.
His grandmother had passed. His wife’s grandmother, actually. But Culberson’s grandparents had died so long ago that he proudly called his wife’s grandmother his own.
Chris Taylor delivers decisive blow in Dodgers’ Game 1 win
The message glared in green ink on a clubhouse whiteboard, a three-sentence mantra for the Dodgers as they seek to end a 28-season World Series drought and extinguish the flames of baseball’s defending champions.
“You get few opportunities in life to be great,” the message read inside the Dodgers clubhouse. “Be [expletive] great today! End the Cubs!”
It will take three more victories. On the first night of the National League Championship Series, the Dodgers overcame a somnolent start and the psychic blow of losing their All-Star shortstop to capture a 5-2 victory and a 1-0 series lead in front of a sold-out crowd of 54,289 at Dodger Stadium. Unbowed by the absence of Corey Seager, the lineup outlasted Cubs starter Jose Quintana and bullied the Cubs bullpen. They turned a foreboding afternoon into a blissful night.
They relied on a cast of characters both familiar and obscure. Yasiel Puig sparked the offense with an RBI double in the fifth and a solo home run in the seventh. Chris Taylor blasted the go-ahead shot in the sixth.
In the middle of everything was Charlie Culberson, a last-minute replacement for Seager. Culberson tied the score with a sacrifice fly in the fifth. He scored another run in the seventh on a controversial call at the plate, which elicited the ejection of Cubs manager Joe Maddon and the delight of the crowd at Dodger Stadium.
Dodgers fan Emma Tarin is an autograph magnet
She wore a Corey Seager jersey and a Dodgers cap over her long blonde hair. She wore a Dodgers watch, a Dodgers bracelet, Dodgers earrings, a Dodgers necklace. Her socks? Dodger blue.
She’s got a picture of Joc Pederson on her bedroom wall. Vin Scully too. And a whole bunch of bobbleheads.
Emma Tarin, a shy, petite 9-year-old from Rancho Cucamonga, is a giant when it comes to her Dodgers fandom.
On Sunday afternoon, more than two hours before her team took the field in the National League Championship Series Game 2 against the Chicago Cubs, Emma leaned over the home team dugout, calling out to the players by name and holding out a perfectly white baseball.
She caught the eye of shortstop Charlie Culberson, a surprise star of Game 1 who took Corey Seager’s place.
She tossed Culberson the ball, and he tossed it right back, signed. Her face lit up. So did her dad’s.
A few minutes later, she tossed that ball to outfielder Chris Taylor. She got the autograph. And a few high-fives from dad.
“It’s fun,” Emma said softly, between autographs, the smile still on her face.
Emma plays softball, and she plays shortstop, so she was excited to have Culberson’s signature.
Her dad, Jeff Tarin, said Emma had jerseys with the names of Seager and Pederson, her favorite player, stitched on the back.
“Every time she gets a jersey, the player gets hurt,” Jeff said.
“So she asked me if she should get an Anthony Rizzo jersey,” he said, referring to the Cubs’ first baseman.
Jeff, a 36-year-old boat salesman, has been a Dodgers fan since he was 4 and feels good about the Dodgers’ chances in the postseason.
“Dave Roberts is a genius this year with the rotation,” he said. “He’s an amazing, amazing man, and there’s going to be a statue for him here some day.”
As dad talked, Emma kept calling out to players.
“They’re all about the game,” Jeff reassured his daughter. “They’re thinking about the game. If they don’t answer you, it’s no big deal.”
She soon got another autograph. Catcher Kyle Farmer.
Dodgers are feeding off Yasiel Puig’s energy
He ran out of the dugout during introductions with his tongue wagging playfully out of his mouth. He took off his cap to reveal lightning bolts shaved into his haircut.
Then, a couple of hours later, with a bat flip and a chest thump and roars that made Dodger Stadium literally shake, the Yasiel Puig Show officially began.
Fifth inning, line drive to left field, sprint to second base, pounding chest, flailing arms, run-scoring double.
Seventh inning, fly ball over left-field fence, swagger around the bases, curtain call out of the dugout, more tongue wagging, home run.
Now that’s entertainment, with Puig taking the Dodgers and their enchanted fans on a raucous, rollicking trip to a 5-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.
“It’s impacting everyone,’’ said manager Dave Roberts afterward of Puig. “It’s great when you can play with such emotion. … He loves the big stage, and right now he’s playing at a high level and not only the fans, but his teammates are feeding off of it.’’
Game 1 provided a decidedly un-Kershaw-like sight
This will take some getting used to, the sight of Clayton Kershaw replaced in the fifth inning of a game he started.
That was the scene Saturday night in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, and that could be the scene again at Dodger Stadium later this month.
Season after season of falsely claiming they were less dependent on Kershaw, the Dodgers finally have the bullpen necessary to unburden their longtime ace.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, the front office’s vision has become a reality.
Evidence of the makeover was on display in the 5-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs, as Kershaw was removed for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the fifth inning and five relievers covered the remainder of the game by combining for four perfect innings. Even on a day when the Dodgers were forced to drop All-Star shortstop Corey Seager from their roster because of a sprained back, their demands of Kershaw were modest.
“For me, personally, it doesn’t change much,” Kershaw said. “You still want to try and go as deep as you can in the game, but, I guess, handing the ball off to those guys makes it a little easier, for sure.”