Now comes the hard part.
The Cincinnati Reds are shreds of what’s next.
The wild-card series is a joker compared to the waiting full house.
The Dodgers easily swept the best-of-three duel with the overmatched Reds Wednesday at Dodger Stadium with a frolicking softball 8-4 victory … just in time to uneasily hike into the home of heated hardball.
Philadelphia Phillies, here they come.
The National League’s most dangerous and determined team, here they are.
Bryce Harper, good heavens.
Kyle Schwarber, dear Lord.
That deep rotation. That fiery closer. That nutty crowd! And, oh, that damn history.
Barely two weeks ago, the Dodgers hosted the Phillies with a chance to sweep them and steal a first-round bye. They were, instead, battered like an old broom, the bullpen blowing two games and the Phillies eventually finishing with the National League’s second-best record and that first-round vacation.
The Dodgers were penalized by having to play these two games against the Reds. And as a reward for their sweeping success, they have been sentenced to travel to Philadelphia for a best-of-five division series beginning Saturday at Citizens Bank Park.
A place that attracted 27,000 this week just for a workout, incidentally .
It says here, if the Dodgers can defeat the favored Phillies, that clears their path to a second consecutive World Series championship, as no other remaining team has the matching juice.
But, in a short series, with Philadelphia’s pitching fully rested and its injuries mostly healed, can the Dodgers really pull it off? They lost four of six to them during the regular season in which the Phillies, unlike many other teams, seemed completely unintimidated and fully up to the challenge.
Yes, first, if Wednesday’s wipe-out win at rollicking Dodger Stadium was any indication, the Dodgers seemed prime for this upcoming brawl, their strongest October fists bared and ready.
Ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto was not only good, he was resilient, working out of a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the sixth inning with a grounder and two strikeouts. He allowed only two unearned runs in 6 ⅔ innings with nine strikeouts, and he’s clearly ready for the next step.
Other past autumn heroes are also heating up, namely Senor October Kiké Hernández, who had a running over-the-shoulder catch in left field and added two hits, two runs and an RBI. Is any Dodger more fun to watch in the postseason? Does any Dodger have more fun?
“At times it felt like we were kind of checked out during the regular season,” said Hernández. “Here we are now and these are the games that really matter…I think it was experience and age has a lot to do with it. We have a lot of young guys, but I think we have a very salty team.”
Salty, and streaking, 11 wins in 13 games, impact plays Wednesday night from everywhere. Mookie Betts had three doubles and four RBIs, Teoscar Hernández had a two-run double to offset a dropped fly ball, and of course Shohei Ohtani singled and drove in a run.
Oh, yeah, this is the same Ohtani who is lined up to start Game One Saturday in the NLDS in Philadelphia.
Let’s get back to those Phillies, one of baseball’s best teams in recent years but yet to win a ring after three consecutive postseason failures.
Last season they lost to the New York Mets in the division series, the previous season they lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the championship series, and three years ago they lost to the Houston Astros in the World Series.
They’re like the Dodgers before the Dodgers finally broke through. They’re sick of the second guessing. They’re fed up with the October failures. They’re on a mission. And they’re even more dangerous because they’re on a mission for their two leaders.
Harper has a 1.016 OPS in 12 postseason series, but he has yet to win a ring.
Schwarber led the National League with 56 homers and 132 RBIs, but he’ll never win an MVP as long as Ohtani is still working.
Their short-series rotation — Christopher Sanchez, Ranger Suárez and Jesus Luzardo — can at least compete with the Dodgers’ top three. And then they have the secret October weapon that the Dodgers know so well — anybody remember Walker Buehler?
The Phillies also did the one thing that past Dodger champions have done, but didn’t do this summer. At the trade deadline, the Phillies went for it, acquiring Dodger targets outfielder Harrison Bader and closer Jhoan Duran. Two months later, the Dodgers indeed could have used both.
Duran is their swing and miss. He’s the closer they desperately need.
They were still searching for one late Wednesday. They tried starter Emmet Sheehan in the eighth in a six-run lead and he was awful, walking two and allowing two hits while getting just one out. He was so awful, he was pulled in the middle of facing Will Benson even though the count was one-and-two. Alex Vesia struck out Benson and survived the inning, but the boos rained steady.
Fan favorite Roki Sasaki, throwing the best heat of the night, finished up in the ninth with two strikeouts amid chants of, “Ro-ki, Ro-ki!”
Maybe he’s the answer. The Dodgers won’t have to wait long to find out. Their season is on the line. The Phillies are coming.