How a Padres pitcher with a Vin Scully connection can become part of Dodgers lore
Bobby Thomson was a pretty decent outfielder in his day, but we remember him to this day for one reason, and one reason only.
It was 70 years ago Sunday when Thomson hit the home run that blessed him with baseball immortality. The announcer, Russ Hodges, combined joy and disbelief as he kept repeating himself: “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!”
The Dodgers had lost the pennant.
Reiss Knehr, Dodgers Nation turns its hopeful eyes to you.
Thomson’s “Shot Heard ’Round the World” might be the most dramatic moment in the Dodgers-Giants rivalry, but it is far from the only one. The famous and not-so-famous have knocked the other guys out of a championship.
The Dodgers got help when the Padres beat the Giants, then took care of their own business with an 8-3 win over the Brewers as Julio Urías got his 20th victory.
Hall of Famers did it. Juan Marichal did it to the Dodgers on the final day of the 1971 season. Joe Morgan did it to the Dodgers on the final day of the 1982 season.
Not-so-famous guys did it. Steve Finley did it to the Giants on the next-to-last day of the 2004 season. Kevin Gross did it to the Giants on the last day of the 1993 season, in a game that forever marred the career of Salomon Torres.
Gross pitched a complete game, backed by two home runs from Hall of Famer Mike Piazza.
In his eighth major league start, with the National League West championship on the line, Torres walked five and did not survive the fourth inning.
On Sunday, with the NL West championship on the line, Knehr is scheduled to pitch against the Giants, in what would be his fifth major league start.
This is not the perfect script. Knehr plays for the San Diego Padres.
The Giants should be playing the Dodgers this weekend, not the Padres, so one rival could knock out the other on the same field. And, with the Giants leading the NL West by one game, Knehr cannot knock them out. He could, however, force them into a one-game tiebreaker with the Dodgers on Monday.
If Knehr knocks down the Giants on Sunday in San Francisco, and if the Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Brewers at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers faithful will toast him as if he were one of their own. He might never have to pay for a drink in L.A. again.
The Giants beat the Padres on Friday, and a Dodgers defeat would have clinched the division for the Giants. The Giants invited fans to stick around and watch the end of the Dodgers game on the big screen at Oracle Park. The Dodgers won.
There would be no clinch on Friday.
The fans packed the ballpark on a postcard-perfect afternoon Saturday, the first sellout here against a team not named Dodgers since California stadiums returned to full capacity in June.
The fans were primed for a celebration, serenading shortstop Brandon Crawford with chants of “M-V-P!” and standing in clutch moments as if they could will the likes of Zack Littell and Darin Ruf to clinching heroics. The Giants had the lead with five outs to go. They lost.
There would be no clinch on Saturday.
Even before the Giants left Oracle Park Saturday afternoon, before the Dodgers had played their game in L.A., the Giants appeared resigned to the likelihood that the Dodgers would win Saturday night, and that Sunday would matter.
“We’re expecting to play a meaningful game tomorrow,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said.
“Obviously, we wanted to win the game and not have to rely on somebody else,” Giants infielder Evan Longoria said. “It’s kind of the story of the season. I think, overall, the group was disappointed after the game today, feeling like we had some opportunities to win the game.
“But, ultimately, the Dodgers are a good team too. We have 106 wins, and we’re going to go into Game 162 to try and decide the division.”
There might be no clinch on Sunday.
If Friday night’s disappointing start against Milwaukee really was Clayton Kershaw’s Dodgers farewell, it was as unfair as it was ugly.
If there is not, future generations of Dodgers fans could ask this question as treasured trivia: Who was that kid who cut the Giants down to size on that last Sunday of the 2021 season, the one who saved the season for the Dodgers?
David Reiss Knehr is 24, and he is the one and only major league product of St. Dominic High in Oyster Bay, N.Y.
His high school is not that relevant. But, if you are a Dodgers fan in search of a sign that Knehr could etch his name in the lore of the Dodgers-Giants rivalry on Sunday, consider where Knehr went to college: Fordham University. It’s Vin Scully’s alma mater.
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