"Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman often refers to the playoffs as the "theater of October." On the first day of the month Wednesday night, Game 2 of the National League wild-card series was only four batters old when the Dodgers had some dramatic adversity strike. With two outs in the top of the first, Yoshinobu Yamamoto induced a routine fly ball down the right-field line. Outfielder Teoscar Hernández positioned himself under it. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the inning would have ended there."
"This time, however, Hernández committed a horrifying mistake. The ball hit off the heel of his mitt. The Cincinnati Reds suddenly had runners at second and third base. And what should have been a clean opening frame instead turned into a two-run disaster, with Sal Stewart slapping a single through the infield in the next at-bat. For the Dodgers, it was an immediate test."
"Of their mental resolve after a self-inflicted miscue. Of their veteran composure in the face of an early deficit. Of the kind of resiliency that was so key in their World Series run last year, and will need to be again for them to repeat as champions. In an eventual 8-4 comeback victory, they successfully, triumphantly and assuredly passed."
An early Teoscar Hernández error in the first inning allowed the Reds to take a 2-0 lead after Sal Stewart's RBI single. Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivered 6⅔ innings of strong pitching to stabilize the Dodgers. A go-ahead two-run rally in the fourth keyed by a Kiké Hernández double shifted momentum. The Dodgers produced a four-run sixth after Yamamoto escaped a bases-loaded jam, producing an 8-4 final. Mookie Betts supplied key hits during the comeback. The Dodgers eliminated Cincinnati in the best-of-three wild-card series and will face the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 of the NLDS on Saturday.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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