This sets up a winner-take-all Game 5 at Dodger Stadium on Friday, with the victor facing the New York Mets on Sunday in the National League Championship Series.
A not-so-funny thing happened to the San Diego Padres en route to the National League Championship. They ran into a Los Angeles Dodgers team that again flashed its grit.
The Dodgers thumped the Padres, 8-0, on Wednesday in the NL Division Series after dropping two straight games. Instead of their season being kaput, the Dodgers are resurrected.
This sets up a winner-take-all Game 5 at Dodger Stadium on Friday, with the victor facing the visiting New York Mets on Sunday with a trip to the World Series on the line.
The Padres looked like world beaters since dropping the opening game of this series.
While the Dodgers were scrambling for pitching, piecing together a lineup because of injuries and fighting the curse of the past two Octobers when they lost in their opening rounds, San Diego was cruising.
But they hit a rough patch before another a record crowd of 47,773, and all of sudden their clear path into the NLCS shows a speed bump or two.
Mookie Betts spoiled the clinching party early when he went deep for the second consecutive game, a solo homer in the first and, at last, it was one that left fielder Jurickson Profar couldn’t get a glove on.
“I just want to do my part,’’ Betts said. “I’m not trying to win the game for us. We got plenty of guys that can win games for us.
