The Los Angeles Dodgers were being held in check offensively yet again in a postseason game but managed to mount a furious two-out rally against the Washington Nationals to come away with a win and take a 2-1 lead in the 2019 National League Division Series.
Anibal Sanchez got through four shutout innings, and only Justin Turner largely finding success as he was 2-for-2 with a double. The remaining Dodgers in the lineup were combined 1-for-12 with eight strikeouts and two walks.
Max Muncy’s solo home run in the fifth inning cut the Dodgers’ deficit in half. Sanchez gave way to Patrick Corbin in the sixth, which marked the beginning of the end for the Nationals.
Cody Bellinger led off the inning with a single — his first hit of the NLDS — and despite Corbin striking out Corey Seager and A.J. Pollock, the Dodgers proceeded to score seven runs.
After David Freese’s pinch-hit single left runners at the corners, Russell Martin’s two-run double gave the Dodgers their first lead of the game.
“I just remembered in the back of my mind, we had a meeting and we went over Corbin. And with two strikes guys in scoring positions he doesn’t really throw many strikes, he’s going to try and make you chase a little bit,” Martin said during his postgame interview.
“And I got to see kind of where the ball started, like the ball slider started. And the more pitches I saw the more I felt comfortable. And I had some pretty easy takes, got back in the count, and then he just left a breaking ball a little bit up. And didn’t try to do too much and put a nice swing on it and scored some runs.”
Chris Taylor’s walk was followed by a two-run double from Kiké Hernandez that knocked Corbin out of the game. He was the pitcher of record for Muncy’s intentional walk, though Wander Suero promptly allowed a three-run home run to Turner upon entering the game.
The seven runs set a record for most in a postseason inning in Dodgers franchise history. Their previous high was six runs, reached three times, with the last coming in the fourth inning of the 1959 World Series.
Furthermore, all seven runs the Dodgers scored in the sixth inning on Sunday night came on two-strike counts and two outs. No team in MLB postseason history had ever accomplished as much in a single inning of a game.
Turner has hit safely in 10 consecutive NLDS games, batting .390 with two home runs and 10 RBI over that span. Turner additionally has at least one hit in 19 of 20 NLDS games since 2015.
