Game 5.
It all comes down to this.
The Dodgers and Giants, the two historic rivals of the NL West, will go at it tonight in a winner-take-all Game 5 of the NLDS at Oracle Park in San Francisco. The game will start at 9 p.m. Eastern Time and will air on TBS.
Logan Webb, who dominated in Game 1, will go for the Giants. Julio Urias will take the mound for Los Angeles.
Who will advance to the NLCS?
It’s been a back and forth series so far. The Giants took Game 1, 4-0, while the Dodgers battled back for a 9-2 win in Game 2, sending the series to L.A. for Games 3 and 4. There, the Giants took Game 3, as they found a crack in the armor with Max Scherzer, and their pitching held the Dodgers at bay for a 1-0 win. Game 4 was pretty much all Dodgers. Walker Buehler delivered a strong outing on short rest and the bats woke up for Los Angeles in a 5-1 win, which sent the series back to the bay.
This series has been full of good pitching and timely hits from both sides. It’s been dead even for the first four games. With Urias and Webb delivering strong performances in their respective outings this series, we can probably expect a pitcher’s duel.
But to determine who will win, we need to look at the factors playing into tonight’s game. And of course, the game has to be played for us to know for sure. All we can do is predict.
On the Dodgers side, they’re in good hands with Urias. He’s had a breakout season that thrust him into the Cy Young conversation and was solid in Game 2. They’ll also probably have Max Scherzer available out of the bullpen on two days rest. The one problem the Dodgers have is that they were forced to go with Buehler in Game 4 just to get here. If they had been ahead 2-1 and lost Game 4, they’d most likely have Buehler on the mound for Game 5, with Urias available out of the bullpen on full rest and Scherzer as a backup option, so that’s less than ideal, but I digress.
The Giants are probably in a better position pitching-wise. They obviously have Webb starting. But they also have Kevin Gausman available if anything were to go wrong. He’d also be available on full rest after pitching into the sixth inning in Game 2. The Giants are also at home, and you can bet their fans are going to be charged up for this game.
Prediction
So now, it’s prediction time.
It’s probably going to be another pitcher’s duel. Both bullpens are rested after a travel day. Both teams have fail-safe options should something go wrong.
But in the end, only one team can advance.
The Giants are at home. They won the season series with L.A. and still have plenty of momentum on their side, and they have Kevin Gausman ready should Webb struggle. It’ll be a great game, but San Francisco will come out on top, 2-1.
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