Dodgers Dugout: Breaking down the Game 3 victory

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell, and to all the angry Dodgers fans who emailed me giving up after the Dodgers fell behind 2-0: There’s a reason they play nine innings.

Breaking down Game 3

— It was looking grim there for a while; Anibal Sanchez looked like Pedro Martinez out there. But you can see that Nationals manager Dave Martinez has no faith in his bullpen, as he turned to Game 1 starter Patrick Corbin to relieve Sanchez.

— One moment Cody Bellinger looks like the Cody Bellinger who can’t hit in the postseason. Then, with two strikes on him in the sixth inning, you could almost visibly see something click. A single and a double later (in the same inning) and it looked like the regular-season Bellinger was here. Hopefully to stay.

— Will Smith and Gavin Lux may be the future of this team, but veterans David Freese, Russell Martin, Justin Turner and Kiké Hernandez showed the old men still had some life left in them.

— Martin has more than earned his season’s pay with his performance in Game 3.

— So has Adam Kolarek with his performance this series.

— Kenta Maeda, seriously, redo your contract and become a reliever.

— A.J. Pollock is 0 for 11 with nine strikeouts in this series. I am very comfortable with him not starting Game 4.

— I’m also very comfortable with David Freese starting every game, even against right-handers, but I don’t expect that will happen.

— I’m amazed by the number of veteran baseball announcers who can’t tell the difference between a home run and a routine fly ball.

— Here’s something I don’t understand: It was obvious Joe Kelly didn’t have it Sunday, so why wait so long to get someone up in the bullpen?

— The Dodgers needed to give Kenley Jansen some work, so I understand why he pitched, but what if they need him today? He’s usually not too good on consecutive days.

— Nationals fans sure do give up quickly. I don’t want to hear the national media talk about Dodgers fans leaving early ever again.

— Hyun-Jin Ryu didn’t have his best stuff but battled and kept the Dodgers in the game.

— Is there some law that says TBS has to run the same seven commercials over and over again? And no, that Pizza Hut Stuffed Cheez-It pizza does not look good at all. And I understand that Arby’s “has the meats.” But when you say “meats” instead of “meat,” it makes me think of places that have “Krab” instead of “Crab.” That means you aren’t really eating crab. So, what am I eating at Arby’s?

— And the TBS announcers should be brought to you by Nyquil because they seem half asleep during the game.

— The Dodgers face Max Scherzer in Game 4 and Stephen Strasburg in Game 5. That seems scary, but if they can get into the Nationals bullpen and remain patient on offense, they should win this series.

— The Dodgers hand the ball to Rich Hill and hope they can get four innings out of him. Depending on how the game is going, I would imagine Ross Stripling and Dustin May could pitch a couple of innings too.

— The two guys I was worried about heading into this series, Justin Turner and Max Muncy, are a combined nine for 24 with a double, three homers and nine RBIs. I guess they have healed from those injuries.

The Cody Bellinger postseason tracker

Game 3: 2 for 5, 1 run scored, 1 double, 1 strikeout

NLDS: 2 for 11, 1 double, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts, 2 runs scored

Career postseason: .173 (22 for 127), 6 doubles, 4 homers, 13 RBIs, 10 walks, 50 strikeouts

Bullpen postseason tracker

Game 3: 4 IP, 2 hits, 2 ER, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts

NLDS: 2.70 ERA, 10 IP, 7 hits, 3 ER, 4 walks, 9 strikeouts

NLDS schedule

All times Pacific

Game 1: at Dodgers 6, Washington 0

Game 2: Washington 4, at Dodgers 2

Game 3: Dodgers 10, at Washington 4

Game 4: Monday at Washington, 3:30 p.m., TBS, AM 570

Game 5 (if necessary): Wednesday at Dodgers, 5:30 p.m., TBS, AM 570

In case you missed it

Read all our coverage and sign up for our Dodgers newsletter for even more analysis:

Dylan Hernandez: Russell Martin the unlikely hero as he saves Dodgers from the brink of disaster

Dodgers use seven-run outburst to bury the Nationals and take control of the NLDS

Dodgers turn to Rich Hill as Game 4 starter, and ‘anything is possible’ beyond that

Patrick Corbin’s Game 3 performance could have marked turning point in NLDS

And finally

Highlights from Game 3. Watch it here.

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