November 2, 2024 • 33 mins
Job's finished! The 2024 Los Angeles Dodgers are World Champions.
The Dodgers beat the Yankees in a decisive game 5 on Wednesday night in the Bronx, taking the series 4-1.
The following day, Richard goes out to breakfast with his friend, chef Wes Avila, to celebrate.
And the day after that, Richard attends the first World Series victory parade in the streets of Los Angeles since 1988, on what would have been Dodger legend Fernando Valenzuela's 64th birthday.
On this episode, we invite you to bask in the afterglow of an amazing game 5 (and particularly that epic, momentum-shifting top of the 5th) and an unforgettable World Series victory for the Dodgers, with Richard and Wes.
What a season. What an ending. Thanks for listening.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The concept of this show is a documentary made in
real time as the baseball season unfolds, to relive all
the ups and downs of the twenty twenty four Los
Angeles Dodgers World Series Championship winning season. Check out our
back catalog. Thanks for listening onto this one.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Bitch time for Dodger.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
All right here we are see see see get in Hrook,
get ink Rooke.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Welcome to Dodger Blue Dream. I'm Richard Parks.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
The third, Thursday, October thirty, first Halloween.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Happy Halloween, Happy Halloween.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
How are you feeling good? Good?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
To celebrate the Dodgers World Series victory. I went out
to breakfast with my co conspirator on this show. You
know him, you love him? Chef Wesley Avula.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
What's on your mind doing? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
We win?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Job finished, Chunky Zoo. You know, we wait all season
long to get to the postseason. And then even if
you take it all the way like the Dodgers did
this year, these games just fly by. But this Game
five that we just played, the deciding game in the Bronx,
(01:23):
was kind of amazing. A fitting bookend to an incredible game,
one that we already covered on our episode. Let Freeman
ring and particularly the fifth inning can tell you so
much about why the Dodgers won this series and how
they won all year long. So this episode is just
going to be us enjoying our time talking through that
(01:46):
Game five, swapping feelings about a season we will never forget,
and just living in the moment. Man. So if that's
your kind of thing, stick around and bask in the
afterglow of a Los Angeles Dodgers World Series victory against
the New York Yankees.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
The Yankees glue.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Today's episode Blue Dream come True.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
It's great, I mean, of all the teams to win
against in their home in the Bronx.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Let's start with how Game five ended, the last out
of the Dodgers World Series Championship winning twenty twenty four season.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Dougie striking out at the end with.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
Walker Walker Bueller in to pitch the bottom of the
ninth Game five, bottom of the ninth two outs, and
it's Alex Verdugo, his former teammates, who represents the final
outs with.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Last night.
Not only did Walker Buehler, a starter who's had a
very up and down season coming back from his second
Tommy John Surgery make a surprise appearance out of the
bullpen to close out the World Series. He did it
against a former teammate in Alex Verdugo, who also represents
(03:16):
those who criticize the Dodgers twenty twenty World Series title
because it happened within a sixty game season. Verdugo had
left the team after a season there in twenty nineteen. Yeah,
they got a ring, Verdugo was quoted as saying, but
they didn't play any games at their home field. They didn't.
There weren't any fans there. It was sixty games. Anyone
could ball out for sixty games. Mister strikes, let's come,
(03:40):
great guy, and Butane struck him out. And after throwing
the third strike, Bueller just opens his arms and turns
toward the dugout like who's f talking now? Ice cold
(04:02):
and his teammates mob him. And it's a good day,
which is the name of a West Coast hip hop
anthem for those who don't know. I'm looking at you,
Alex Ferdugo. Anyway, it's always a good day when the
Yankees lose.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I love it, I love it, I love it, I
love it.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I love it. That was just so so good, so cathartic.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
You got the TV here playing La Wil Series Champions,
the highlights.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Honestly, I think I'm still stunned by the whole thing. Definitely,
we were by far the better team in this series.
That was such a great fifth inning, and the Yankees
made so many mistakes and gave us everything we.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Got last night.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, they gave us opportunity. We took it.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
We were on the ropes like we were coming back
to La like until when you turned it off?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah, I turned it on.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
When does you turn it off?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
All right? We're looping back to the early part of
the game here because it was a great game. And
if you've listened to this show, you know that Wes
doesn't like to watch great games. He doesn't like the stress,
and early on this game was stressful, fastball driven.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
The other way, Sleeping Shine has a.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Little kat, it is a judge, and blast.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
I turned it off after the second home month after Jazz.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Jazz bothers me so much.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Jazz Chisholm, it's chis.
Speaker 7 (05:32):
Him hard drive right field, good god, Jazz Chisholm almost
a deep right field.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
And the next thing you think, chen Carlo San got on.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Good at That's Last Night Back.
Speaker 7 (05:46):
There's another Jack, Carlos Stanton who eats me the round boat.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
At the call.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
So in the first part of the game, the Yankees
were looking really, really good, and that was stressful. And
if you listen to our episode Save the Doves, you
know that we had our game one starter on the mound,
Jack Flaherty, and that we were ready to go with
our doves, our high leverage bullpen guys who were fresh
and ready to handle as much as six innings of work.
(06:18):
But j Flair just didn't have it. He got lit
up by Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Junior, Alex da
drive Zon, we didix fourty, even Alex Verdugo touched him
for an RBI knock.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Run, batted for Alex for Google and here bums.
Speaker 7 (06:36):
Dave Roberts signals to the pen for Anthony Bonda. Wow
de clarity after thirty five pitches in Game five, was
gonna get the hook.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
He just didn't have it. And Dave Roberts can not
stay on this train any longer. He's gonna happen to change.
Jay Flair only went an inning in a third and
after Ryan Brazier gave up a home run to gen
Carlos Stanton. It was five to nothing in just the
bottom of the third, and we did didn't have enough
dogs to cover all the innings we needed to the
idea of saving the dogs was backfiring because the guys
(07:08):
who saved the dogs the day before, typically the guys
who eat up innings when a starter doesn't have it,
weren't available because they'd just been used. This felt like
a game that we were definitely going to lose because
the boys in pinstripes, particularly the one on the mound,
(07:28):
were looking really sharp, so the larity really didn't have
it and Cole was super locked in bass out like
everything was perfect, no mistakes. I mean just at that
first inning, top of the first, the one, two, three.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
Oh, there was like four pitches or five pitches to
get three guys out three.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
He made the MV three look like minor leaguers.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yes, Garrett Cole.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Grett Cole's excited.
Speaker 7 (07:52):
The first five he just delivered strike one to all
five hitters so far. He was Keith Hernandez, Trnandez flies
it to Wright, sier furo Sodo to carl and the
true success sixteen.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I've got a day off tomorrow. I don't want to
start thinking about that. Cole looks so scary, locked in
taking my desire for the Dodgers to win out of it.
It's fun to watch a pitcher that is this good,
very at ease, but also there's this sort of like
brooding power. He's huge, six four two twenty, like a
(08:28):
normcore Bruce Wayne. Cole was in control of this game.
Every pitch, perfectly placed, fastball exploding with late life, a
knuckle curve, Bobin and Weavin, sliders and cutters and sinkers.
Oh my, it was five nothing Yanks and Cole had
a no no going as we reached the fifth inning
(08:49):
in Gotham City. This is has not been fun so far.
My spidy sense told me that Wes had already shut
the game off, and I texted him to con all right,
text from Wes can't watch the Lambs to slaughter Cole
is gonna get a historic no hit or well so
(09:10):
Wes is putting out the vibes. Unlike Wes when the
going gets tough, I keep watching. I've been with this
team every moment all season long. I wasn't gonna stop now.
This has been stressful. I mean, I was making my
plans to go to the game six back in Los
Angeles on Friday night, on what would be Fernando Vilensuela's
(09:31):
sixty fourth birthday. Going into the top of the fifth,
we haven't gotten a hit yet. I mean, it'd be
nice to just like get some runs and be in
this game. Little did I know I was about to
witness an incredible pressure cooker turn around half inning of
baseball that I will never ever forget. That encapsulated everything
that is wrong with the New York Yankees and everything
(09:53):
that is right about the Los Angeles Dodgers. You talk
about a momentum shift. The top of the fifth thinning
of this game is the quintessential example. Let's dig in.
Come on, Key K, if anyone can get to this guys,
Key K to lead off the top of the fifth,
(10:14):
Key K Hernandez.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
What did I say? What did I just say?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Key K smacks a single to right No, no, no mo.
And now it was Tommy Edmund's turn. Routine fly ball
to Yankees center fielder and captain Aaron Judge.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
The meltdown on TV right now, Oh that's Aaron Judge's error.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yes, that's Kek getting the second on Aaron Judge's error.
Totally by coincidence. They were playing the highlights from this
fifth inning on a TV screen at the diner Wes
and I were eating breakfast at.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Guess how many errors Aaron Judge had all season?
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Zero zero zero.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
I mean, that's why he's number ninety nine. Ninety nine
times he gets perfect except for that just one that
matters the moose and that.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Ball just popped out of his It was like a
hard metal surface, like boom, yeah, boom boom, And that's
all it takes for a game to totally turn on
its head. It was first and second on the Judge
error with nobody out. This is when I texted Wes
ay Siri, text wes Ovula, turn it on.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
We've got a chance right now, Come on, baby.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Will Smith hits a routine grounded a short.
Speaker 7 (11:29):
Yeah, there we go.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
That's a pretty bad error. The bad throw er Volpylpy Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Anthony Volpi, a young Yankee shortstop who hit a grand
slam the day before in Game four, who the New
York media portrays as a kind of Derek Jeter two
point zero, made a bad throw to third base, an
error that loaded the bases.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Throwing to third and try to get the lead runner.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
He could have gotten a double play. He could have
gone six, four to three when he could have gone
to second or at least to first to throw out
our catcher Will Smith running slowly up the line. Instead,
it was bases loaded. Boltby can't even get Oh yeah,
I know it's sad because you're not good, he sirie
tex wes Avula bases loaded, nobody out two consecutive defensive
(12:16):
blunders at two premier defensive positions. And here I thought
that they were supposed to drop the ball on New
Year's Eve in New York City and the bases are loaded.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Two defensive mishaps for New York.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
No runs had yet scored, but it felt like a
whole new ballgame. When you look at the replay of
the first air, Aaron Judge literally takes his eyes off
of the ball as it is sailing through the air
towards him. He's looking at Keik Hernandez because he's trying
to keep him from tagging up and advancing to second.
(12:52):
Maybe he even thought he could double him up. Whatever
the case, he wanted more than just catching the ball
and so instead he and Kik runs super hard because
he was staying close to first, not wanting to be
doubled up, but he hustles all the way to second.
Good base running FUNDAMENTALSKK.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Did a really good job there, and if.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
You look at the Vultpi error, it kind of feels
analogous a grounder to short off of the bat of
Will Smith, our catcher. He's not going to get to
first very fast. But instead of getting the easy out,
Voltpi tried to get the lead runner at third and
he yanked the ball overthrowing it, bouncing it in the dirt.
Maybe he was trying to get too or maybe it
(13:36):
was Ki k crushing the fundamentals, getting a good jump,
hustling it out, and taking a running path that made
the throat difficult. Either way, everybody is safe. The Yankees
team is built around power hitting and power pitching, which
was very much on display during this Game five, but
it comes at the cost of defense, good base running,
(13:58):
and the type of solid fundamentals you learn in Little League.
This Yankees team has clear deficits in those areas, and
yet they were able to finish the season with the
best record in the American League. And Cruz passed the
Royals and the Guardians to this world series. Now let's
get back to this game and the top of the
fifth inning, nobody out with Gavin Lux coming to the plate,
(14:22):
followed by Shohei Otani.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
We got Lucks here. He worked at walk last time.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
None of this was owed to Garrett Cole, and he
was still looking very locked in.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Voted for Gavin Lucks.
Speaker 7 (14:38):
For the first sat the fifth not who has changed
demeanor wise for Garrett Cole.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
But then Cole struck out Lux.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
It's O'tani with the bass, jew still in the.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Hip and poor show Hay wincing in pain with every
swing using that dislocated shoulder. He strikes out too.
Speaker 7 (14:58):
Superstar against Superstar on the biggest stage, and Garrett Cole wins.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It had to have.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
This is where it gets home. His teammates were making
fundamental defensive errors, but Cole was superb. He was gonna
get himself out of a bases loaded no out jam
all on his own with two odds.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
It's another MVP coming up, Ki spaw Wan.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
The first pitch to Muki is low and out of
the zone.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Might even see some emotion from Garrett Cole.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
On the second pitch, Come on, Mooki hits a number
right off the end of the bat that slowly rolls
up the first baseline straight towards Yankees' first baseman Anthony Rizzo,
who has won the Gold Glove Award for Outstanding Defense
four times in his career. It looked like a no
(15:52):
doubt out three rally opportunity squandered. Come on, damn it,
and I'll let myself recorded real time reaction tell it
from here. Damn it.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Oh oh oh.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Ah, A little dribbler up the first base line and
nobody covers. First watch this look such an easy play.
Look at Mooki running it out. I love you, Mooki.
Look at that They had Mooki dead to rights. Rizzo
could have ran it to the bag himself, or he
could have tossed Cole for the out. But Cole wasn't covering,
(16:36):
and Rizzo didn't run, and Mooki was hustling because it's
the World Series and because that's what they teach you
to do in Little League. It was his sixth fastest
sprint speed out of the box of the entire season,
and it made all the difference. And so a run
comes in and nobody's out and the bases are still loaded.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Like they couldn't get it. They couldn't get an out.
It's like one of those ones where I just get
a out. I love that.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
The Yankees are playing dumb ball, you know, like they're
giving us everything that we've got. And by this time,
Wes had turned the game back on and it was
turning into his kind of game.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
As soon as I turned it on, Mookie was up.
And then that's when that mistake happened.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
And I was like, oh, that's oh yeah, you got
to see the Garrett that was a little number off
the end of the Batay, this is when it's this
is going down.
Speaker 7 (17:34):
Atrocious defense from the Yankees leading directly to a Dodger
run in the fifth.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
I swear it's a coincidence. At these Yankees defensive airs
in the top of the fifth inning, we're playing on
a screen above us in the diner, almost on loop.
They are the highlight reel of this game.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
And then that's the coal air.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Oh man, it's so the cole not covering first was
the nail in the coffin, because we wouldn't have tied
the game in that ending had that error.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Not happened with you.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
You could have had the air and judge error, and
you could have had the bolbear. The Dodgers' strengths fundamentally,
and their ability to pass the baton and rely on
every person to run hard and play smart, and the Yankees'
remarkable deficits fundamentally are the clear difference between these two
teams and the reason why the Dodgers are World champions
(18:27):
and the Yankees are not. And the Dodgers knew that
they could beat the Yankees this way. I'm going to
quote from an article by Joel Sherman in The New
York Post that was published the day after the World
Series ended. The Dodgers told their players in scouting meetings
that the Yankees were quote talent over fundamentals, that if
(18:49):
you run the bases with purpose and aggression, the Yankees
will self inflict harm, as was exposed by Betts, Tommy Edmund,
Freddie Free, et cetera. They mentioned that the Yankees were
not just the Major's worst base running team by every metric,
but the difference was vast on the field between them
(19:11):
and the Padres, who the Dodgers beat in the National
League Division Series. Anyway, getting back to the game. There
were still two outs and only one run had come in,
but it already felt like the tables had turned. It
felt like it was our game to lose. And this
top of the fifth inning was only about halfway done.
Speaker 7 (19:34):
Well, from no stress to a ton of stress for
Garrett Cole, for Luis Crowd, love house.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
But yeah, because.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
They're playing like not only were they unsound fundamentally in
this inning, the Yankees were failing because of how lopsided
they are. They rely on their superstars to create their offense,
and in this game, their starting pitcher was doing everything
Garrett Cole, and once we put a chink in his armor,
(20:04):
the whole thing started falling apart.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
He didn't even sweat, He didn't break one sweat until
he made the mistake and didn't cover first when he
didn't run full speed of first, and.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
That was after that inning already started falling apart. So
he was stressed. Yeah, you can't take that for a Cole.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Sad.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
He looks sad blue, he looks scared.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Five to one, two outs and guess who's at the
plate and the Dodgers have their first run.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
They're loaded for free.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Freddy Fouls off a sinker that bended out of the
zone away and then spits on the exact same pitch.
The count is one and one.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Freeman clives follows it dread.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
He fouls back a fastball up and out of the zone,
and Cole is one strike away from getting out of
the inning having given up just one run. Cole throws
him that sinker again and Freddy fights it off, ands
dos a lot another foul ball.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
It's got something.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Freddy Freeman on one too. Yeah, Tabo runs his score man.
Speaker 7 (21:02):
The Dodgers take advantage of the bat defense from New York,
and this game has changed in the blank of it all,
and guess who it's Freddy Freeman right in the middle
of it.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
He tried that high fastball again, but it wasn't that high,
and Freddy smacked it into center for a single.
Speaker 7 (21:20):
Tie on a board now too gone in the fifth
for Taskernandez.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Next it was Tao's turn and he was clutch yes.
Speaker 7 (21:29):
In the air left center field judge on the run,
dead screw, that's overshid the that's into score.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Freddy Freeman for the pat And this game has been
turned upside down.
Speaker 7 (21:43):
For Fay up, the Yankees cracked the door open with
the poor defense and the Dodgers kick it down.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
This is it.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
It's a new real game. It was now zero zero.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
By the time the top of the fifth ended, we
had batted around and tied the game at five. But
it felt like more than that. You know, the winning
percentage charts that they do. It was then it was
like all Yankees and then fifth inning it goes.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Like that to all Dodgers.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Crazy.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
The Yankees continued to have missteps, including a completely avoidable
bock by their closer Lukey.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
We had a bock.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
He had three disengagements sh and the Dodgers continued to
come through with contributions from nearly every member of the team,
but just about everybody who was available pitched, including Blake Trinan,
who went long after appearing in long outings already several
times throughout this series. And there was a beautiful moment
(22:44):
where Dodgers manager Dave Roberts visited Trinan on the mound.
Usually when a manager goes to the mound, he's taking
the picture out of the game, but instead Doc just
put his hands on Trinan's chest and asked him if
he wanted to stay in Trying and said that he did.
It was against the odds, it was against the analytics,
(23:04):
and it totally worked. Moment was huge.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
Yeah, it was, Yeah, because Trying had seen those guys
three games in a row, four games in a row, like, they.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
Saw him a lot, and they saw a lot of
pitches from him.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Yeah, so I was a little worried.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
I was surprised to see him come into the game.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
But who else we had we were at it, we
had like all our Triple A guys.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
They showed that art. I was like, oh no, yeah,
I was like wow.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
And also a kudos to Dave Roberts, doc skip, he
killed it. It's basically an annual tradition. Just about this
time every year, there are calls for manager Dave Roberts head,
usually using whatever postseason implosion the Dodgers have just gone
through as an excuse say they need to fire.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
I've always said the they're gonna fire Dave Roberts because
our guys aren't producing.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
That's dumb. It's such a dumb mentality. It's it's so
like like.
Speaker 5 (23:59):
You're not even like it's so casual. It's such a
casual fan mentality, you know what I mean. He's like
the winningest Dodger coach of all time. Yeah, how many
postings did take this suit? If the boys aren't producing,
they're not producing. He can't go up there and swing
the bat for them and hit you like this, you
know what I mean. So it's like, you know, and
he made the right he made the right moves. He
(24:20):
made the right moves those guys, and he need to
put in guys who were locked in?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Is it ever?
Speaker 7 (24:25):
So? Back to back walks issued by Bruce dark graderol
the go ahead run his arm and Jean cardlos Stanton's
coming up well though at this point every one of
the Dodgers' high leverage arms has been used up to
this point, two long, two out.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
The rest of Game five wasn't exactly a smooth ride,
but it was masterfully navigated by Dave Roberts. The Yankees
even took the lead later in the game by a
single run.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
And Mookie Backs comes up with the bases loaded in
one guard.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
But then we got it right back John Drake trade.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Still makes the court. Dodgers have come all the.
Speaker 7 (25:01):
Way back and taken the lead in Game.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Five from down five downfi they had seven.
Speaker 7 (25:08):
Six in the most preposterous.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Way a Walker lead.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Going into the bottom of the ninth, we had a
one run lead. There was just one problem.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
We're running out of pitchers.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
It was time for a dramatic final scene.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
I like that they just showed Walker Bueller in the bullpen.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Walker Buehler had a rocky year. He's had a rocky
couple of years and has been attempting a so so
comeback from his second Tommy John surgery. Before that, he
had arguably been the Dodgers ace during the team's twenty
twenty World Series winning season, and he loves big moments.
But he wasn't rusted. He had just made a start
(25:52):
two days before, so it was a surprise to see
him in the pen.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
Walker Buehler might be warming.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Up as he jogged from the dugout to the visiting bullpen.
According to an article in The Athletic by Fabian Ardaya,
Bueller was stopped by Clayton Kershaw, who said he loved him.
Few understand that walk like Kershaw, who twice has emerged
on short rest in relief and clinched in October celebration.
For these Dodgers, it takes big. Kershaw said he knew
(26:24):
we were going to need him. As we went into
the bottom of the ninth with the one run lead,
I knew that I was watching a historic Dodgers moment.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are three outs away from winning
the World Series. Walker Bueller into pitch.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
It is nine forty six pm.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
I want to be like Vince Scully, so I'm watching
the clock to make note of the time narratively as
he would. But I don't have a clock, so I
look at my phone. It is Wednesday, October thirtieth, eight
forty seven pm, very specifically Pacific time.
Speaker 7 (27:05):
Dodgers are turning to Walker Buller out of the bullpen
for the first time since the end of June and twenty.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Eighteen, breaking bitch, grabbing the floor us. He's got it out.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
He gets a ground out and there's one gone.
Speaker 7 (27:21):
Boston Wells on a three to two chain. His message
the Dodgers are one out of.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Way and a strikeout to gone. It strikes.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
I look at my phone clock again to make note
of the time narratively like Vince scullywood and when I do,
I see my dad as facetiming me. My phone is
in do not disturb it. Always is when I'm watching games,
but the FaceTime still showing up on the screen, and
(28:01):
then it hits me. It's all over. His TV feed
must be ahead of mine, and he just saw it
happen and he's calling because he wants to share the
moment with me. And I'm living in the future and
I know what's going to happen. But someone I'm in
the room with tells me I should focus, and it's
all just kind of funny's coming by guy, and then
(28:31):
it happens.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
It's the job.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
It's been letting low. It is eight point fifty sixty six,
and the job is finished.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
There was a lot that happened last night.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Man, Yeah, I got to rewatch it.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
There it is again. They're just showing the highlights. I
love it showing Walker.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Damn oh.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
This is one of the most deserved World series.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
The Yankees, not against the Guardians, not against the Tigers,
not against one of the smaller market teams, the big boys,
the beast in the East, and then we give them
the gentlemen sweep just because they're not bad guys. You know,
got to make it a little interesting. Three home runs.
The Yankees had three home runs. Stanton Judge Chisholm three
(29:34):
home runs in the Bronx and.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
So, you know, but we won.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Our team was a better playing team, and I think
our team, you know, they picked each other up. There,
there was a real camaraderie. There a lot of good
guys on that team. And yeah, a lot of overcoming
some like difficult situations this year.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
If you just look at you know, the MV three
and then all the way down, you know.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
The injuries, personal stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Frond Sun almost does. Losing your best friend because he
stole from you and betrayed you.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
It's crazy.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
All right, what else should we cover?
Speaker 3 (30:07):
I think we've covered it for now.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
All right, Well, congratulations to you graduate, see you, see
you at the parade. Yes, I'm very excited about the parade,
you know, because the Dodgers won in twenty twenty and
because the worst society was that. It's really great that
we're able to do this. No. No. November one, twenty
twenty four, two days after the Dodgers won the World Series,
(30:29):
Los Angeles had its first World Series parade since nineteen
eighty eight, on what would have been Fernando Valenzuela's sixty
fourth birthday. Yeah, Dodger Blue Dream is written and produced
(31:26):
by Me Richard Parks. The third original music in this
episode by William Bryan Fritch, Jonathan Snipes the Blasting Company,
and by Me. Production assistance from Tyler Hill. Special thanks
to Caitlin esh, Elizabeth Parks, Kibbie, Jordan Bass, and Wesley Avila.
(31:47):
Thank you for listening. Job finished. So this is the
last episode of Dodger Blue Dream, our documentary about the
baseball season, made in real time as the season unfolds.
Least for now, and what an ending to the story
of this incredible, unforgettable twenty twenty four Dodgers baseball season.
(32:09):
I have had so much fun doing this show and
I've put everything that I've got into it for more
than seven months now. Dodger Blue Dream is a totally
self funded, self motivated endeavor. It's time for me to
figure out whether I can continue doing this show and how.
If you would like to see me continue, here's how
(32:29):
you can help. Please leave us a rating and a
review on Apple Podcasts, or however you can share the
show with a friend today. Check out our back catalog
if you haven't already, and visit our brand new patriot
at Patreon dot com. Slash Dodger Blue Dream. We have stickers,
we have shirts, and it's a way for you to
(32:51):
kick in financially if you believe in what we're doing here.
All that aside, thank you for listening. It has been
a joy to help tell the story of this season.
I really appreciate your being along for the ride with me. Truly,
it's been an honor and a pleasure. Thanks again for listening.
(33:12):
Go Dodgers.
The concept of this show is a documentary made in
real time as the baseball season unfolds, to relive all
the ups and downs of the twenty twenty four Los
Angeles Dodgers World Series Championship winning season. Check out our
back catalog. Thanks for listening onto this one.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Bitch time for Dodger.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
All right here we are see see see get in Hrook,
get ink Rooke.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Welcome to Dodger Blue Dream. I'm Richard Parks.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
The third, Thursday, October thirty, first Halloween.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Happy Halloween, Happy Halloween.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
How are you feeling good? Good?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
To celebrate the Dodgers World Series victory. I went out
to breakfast with my co conspirator on this show. You
know him, you love him? Chef Wesley Avula.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
What's on your mind doing? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
We win?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Job finished, Chunky Zoo. You know, we wait all season
long to get to the postseason. And then even if
you take it all the way like the Dodgers did
this year, these games just fly by. But this Game
five that we just played, the deciding game in the Bronx,
(01:23):
was kind of amazing. A fitting bookend to an incredible game,
one that we already covered on our episode. Let Freeman
ring and particularly the fifth inning can tell you so
much about why the Dodgers won this series and how
they won all year long. So this episode is just
going to be us enjoying our time talking through that
(01:46):
Game five, swapping feelings about a season we will never forget,
and just living in the moment. Man. So if that's
your kind of thing, stick around and bask in the
afterglow of a Los Angeles Dodgers World Series victory against
the New York Yankees.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
The Yankees glue.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Today's episode Blue Dream come True.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
It's great, I mean, of all the teams to win
against in their home in the Bronx.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Let's start with how Game five ended, the last out
of the Dodgers World Series Championship winning twenty twenty four season.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Dougie striking out at the end with.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
Walker Walker Bueller in to pitch the bottom of the
ninth Game five, bottom of the ninth two outs, and
it's Alex Verdugo, his former teammates, who represents the final
outs with.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Last night.
Not only did Walker Buehler, a starter who's had a
very up and down season coming back from his second
Tommy John Surgery make a surprise appearance out of the
bullpen to close out the World Series. He did it
against a former teammate in Alex Verdugo, who also represents
(03:16):
those who criticize the Dodgers twenty twenty World Series title
because it happened within a sixty game season. Verdugo had
left the team after a season there in twenty nineteen. Yeah,
they got a ring, Verdugo was quoted as saying, but
they didn't play any games at their home field. They didn't.
There weren't any fans there. It was sixty games. Anyone
could ball out for sixty games. Mister strikes, let's come,
(03:40):
great guy, and Butane struck him out. And after throwing
the third strike, Bueller just opens his arms and turns
toward the dugout like who's f talking now? Ice cold
(04:02):
and his teammates mob him. And it's a good day,
which is the name of a West Coast hip hop
anthem for those who don't know. I'm looking at you,
Alex Ferdugo. Anyway, it's always a good day when the
Yankees lose.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I love it, I love it, I love it, I
love it.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I love it. That was just so so good, so cathartic.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
You got the TV here playing La Wil Series Champions,
the highlights.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Honestly, I think I'm still stunned by the whole thing. Definitely,
we were by far the better team in this series.
That was such a great fifth inning, and the Yankees
made so many mistakes and gave us everything we.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Got last night.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, they gave us opportunity. We took it.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
We were on the ropes like we were coming back
to La like until when you turned it off?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah, I turned it on.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
When does you turn it off?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
All right? We're looping back to the early part of
the game here because it was a great game. And
if you've listened to this show, you know that Wes
doesn't like to watch great games. He doesn't like the stress,
and early on this game was stressful, fastball driven.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
The other way, Sleeping Shine has a.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Little kat, it is a judge, and blast.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
I turned it off after the second home month after Jazz.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Jazz bothers me so much.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Jazz Chisholm, it's chis.
Speaker 7 (05:32):
Him hard drive right field, good god, Jazz Chisholm almost
a deep right field.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
And the next thing you think, chen Carlo San got on.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Good at That's Last Night Back.
Speaker 7 (05:46):
There's another Jack, Carlos Stanton who eats me the round boat.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
At the call.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
So in the first part of the game, the Yankees
were looking really, really good, and that was stressful. And
if you listen to our episode Save the Doves, you
know that we had our game one starter on the mound,
Jack Flaherty, and that we were ready to go with
our doves, our high leverage bullpen guys who were fresh
and ready to handle as much as six innings of work.
(06:18):
But j Flair just didn't have it. He got lit
up by Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Junior, Alex da
drive Zon, we didix fourty, even Alex Verdugo touched him
for an RBI knock.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Run, batted for Alex for Google and here bums.
Speaker 7 (06:36):
Dave Roberts signals to the pen for Anthony Bonda. Wow
de clarity after thirty five pitches in Game five, was
gonna get the hook.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
He just didn't have it. And Dave Roberts can not
stay on this train any longer. He's gonna happen to change.
Jay Flair only went an inning in a third and
after Ryan Brazier gave up a home run to gen
Carlos Stanton. It was five to nothing in just the
bottom of the third, and we did didn't have enough
dogs to cover all the innings we needed to the
idea of saving the dogs was backfiring because the guys
(07:08):
who saved the dogs the day before, typically the guys
who eat up innings when a starter doesn't have it,
weren't available because they'd just been used. This felt like
a game that we were definitely going to lose because
the boys in pinstripes, particularly the one on the mound,
(07:28):
were looking really sharp, so the larity really didn't have
it and Cole was super locked in bass out like
everything was perfect, no mistakes. I mean just at that
first inning, top of the first, the one, two, three.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
Oh, there was like four pitches or five pitches to
get three guys out three.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
He made the MV three look like minor leaguers.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yes, Garrett Cole.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Grett Cole's excited.
Speaker 7 (07:52):
The first five he just delivered strike one to all
five hitters so far. He was Keith Hernandez, Trnandez flies
it to Wright, sier furo Sodo to carl and the
true success sixteen.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I've got a day off tomorrow. I don't want to
start thinking about that. Cole looks so scary, locked in
taking my desire for the Dodgers to win out of it.
It's fun to watch a pitcher that is this good,
very at ease, but also there's this sort of like
brooding power. He's huge, six four two twenty, like a
(08:28):
normcore Bruce Wayne. Cole was in control of this game.
Every pitch, perfectly placed, fastball exploding with late life, a
knuckle curve, Bobin and Weavin, sliders and cutters and sinkers.
Oh my, it was five nothing Yanks and Cole had
a no no going as we reached the fifth inning
(08:49):
in Gotham City. This is has not been fun so far.
My spidy sense told me that Wes had already shut
the game off, and I texted him to con all right,
text from Wes can't watch the Lambs to slaughter Cole
is gonna get a historic no hit or well so
(09:10):
Wes is putting out the vibes. Unlike Wes when the
going gets tough, I keep watching. I've been with this
team every moment all season long. I wasn't gonna stop now.
This has been stressful. I mean, I was making my
plans to go to the game six back in Los
Angeles on Friday night, on what would be Fernando Vilensuela's
(09:31):
sixty fourth birthday. Going into the top of the fifth,
we haven't gotten a hit yet. I mean, it'd be
nice to just like get some runs and be in
this game. Little did I know I was about to
witness an incredible pressure cooker turn around half inning of
baseball that I will never ever forget. That encapsulated everything
that is wrong with the New York Yankees and everything
(09:53):
that is right about the Los Angeles Dodgers. You talk
about a momentum shift. The top of the fifth thinning
of this game is the quintessential example. Let's dig in.
Come on, Key K, if anyone can get to this guys,
Key K to lead off the top of the fifth,
(10:14):
Key K Hernandez.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
What did I say? What did I just say?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Key K smacks a single to right No, no, no mo.
And now it was Tommy Edmund's turn. Routine fly ball
to Yankees center fielder and captain Aaron Judge.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
The meltdown on TV right now, Oh that's Aaron Judge's error.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yes, that's Kek getting the second on Aaron Judge's error.
Totally by coincidence. They were playing the highlights from this
fifth inning on a TV screen at the diner Wes
and I were eating breakfast at.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Guess how many errors Aaron Judge had all season?
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Zero zero zero.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
I mean, that's why he's number ninety nine. Ninety nine
times he gets perfect except for that just one that
matters the moose and that.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Ball just popped out of his It was like a
hard metal surface, like boom, yeah, boom boom, And that's
all it takes for a game to totally turn on
its head. It was first and second on the Judge
error with nobody out. This is when I texted Wes
ay Siri, text wes Ovula, turn it on.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
We've got a chance right now, Come on, baby.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Will Smith hits a routine grounded a short.
Speaker 7 (11:29):
Yeah, there we go.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
That's a pretty bad error. The bad throw er Volpylpy Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Anthony Volpi, a young Yankee shortstop who hit a grand
slam the day before in Game four, who the New
York media portrays as a kind of Derek Jeter two
point zero, made a bad throw to third base, an
error that loaded the bases.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Throwing to third and try to get the lead runner.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
He could have gotten a double play. He could have
gone six, four to three when he could have gone
to second or at least to first to throw out
our catcher Will Smith running slowly up the line. Instead,
it was bases loaded. Boltby can't even get Oh yeah,
I know it's sad because you're not good, he sirie
tex wes Avula bases loaded, nobody out two consecutive defensive
(12:16):
blunders at two premier defensive positions. And here I thought
that they were supposed to drop the ball on New
Year's Eve in New York City and the bases are loaded.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Two defensive mishaps for New York.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
No runs had yet scored, but it felt like a
whole new ballgame. When you look at the replay of
the first air, Aaron Judge literally takes his eyes off
of the ball as it is sailing through the air
towards him. He's looking at Keik Hernandez because he's trying
to keep him from tagging up and advancing to second.
(12:52):
Maybe he even thought he could double him up. Whatever
the case, he wanted more than just catching the ball
and so instead he and Kik runs super hard because
he was staying close to first, not wanting to be
doubled up, but he hustles all the way to second.
Good base running FUNDAMENTALSKK.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Did a really good job there, and if.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
You look at the Vultpi error, it kind of feels
analogous a grounder to short off of the bat of
Will Smith, our catcher. He's not going to get to
first very fast. But instead of getting the easy out,
Voltpi tried to get the lead runner at third and
he yanked the ball overthrowing it, bouncing it in the dirt.
Maybe he was trying to get too or maybe it
(13:36):
was Ki k crushing the fundamentals, getting a good jump,
hustling it out, and taking a running path that made
the throat difficult. Either way, everybody is safe. The Yankees
team is built around power hitting and power pitching, which
was very much on display during this Game five, but
it comes at the cost of defense, good base running,
(13:58):
and the type of solid fundamentals you learn in Little League.
This Yankees team has clear deficits in those areas, and
yet they were able to finish the season with the
best record in the American League. And Cruz passed the
Royals and the Guardians to this world series. Now let's
get back to this game and the top of the
fifth inning, nobody out with Gavin Lux coming to the plate,
(14:22):
followed by Shohei Otani.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
We got Lucks here. He worked at walk last time.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
None of this was owed to Garrett Cole, and he
was still looking very locked in.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Voted for Gavin Lucks.
Speaker 7 (14:38):
For the first sat the fifth not who has changed
demeanor wise for Garrett Cole.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
But then Cole struck out Lux.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
It's O'tani with the bass, jew still in the.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Hip and poor show Hay wincing in pain with every
swing using that dislocated shoulder. He strikes out too.
Speaker 7 (14:58):
Superstar against Superstar on the biggest stage, and Garrett Cole wins.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It had to have.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
This is where it gets home. His teammates were making
fundamental defensive errors, but Cole was superb. He was gonna
get himself out of a bases loaded no out jam
all on his own with two odds.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
It's another MVP coming up, Ki spaw Wan.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
The first pitch to Muki is low and out of
the zone.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Might even see some emotion from Garrett Cole.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
On the second pitch, Come on, Mooki hits a number
right off the end of the bat that slowly rolls
up the first baseline straight towards Yankees' first baseman Anthony Rizzo,
who has won the Gold Glove Award for Outstanding Defense
four times in his career. It looked like a no
(15:52):
doubt out three rally opportunity squandered. Come on, damn it,
and I'll let myself recorded real time reaction tell it
from here. Damn it.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Oh oh oh.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Ah, A little dribbler up the first base line and
nobody covers. First watch this look such an easy play.
Look at Mooki running it out. I love you, Mooki.
Look at that They had Mooki dead to rights. Rizzo
could have ran it to the bag himself, or he
could have tossed Cole for the out. But Cole wasn't covering,
(16:36):
and Rizzo didn't run, and Mooki was hustling because it's
the World Series and because that's what they teach you
to do in Little League. It was his sixth fastest
sprint speed out of the box of the entire season,
and it made all the difference. And so a run
comes in and nobody's out and the bases are still loaded.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Like they couldn't get it. They couldn't get an out.
It's like one of those ones where I just get
a out. I love that.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
The Yankees are playing dumb ball, you know, like they're
giving us everything that we've got. And by this time,
Wes had turned the game back on and it was
turning into his kind of game.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
As soon as I turned it on, Mookie was up.
And then that's when that mistake happened.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
And I was like, oh, that's oh yeah, you got
to see the Garrett that was a little number off
the end of the Batay, this is when it's this
is going down.
Speaker 7 (17:34):
Atrocious defense from the Yankees leading directly to a Dodger
run in the fifth.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
I swear it's a coincidence. At these Yankees defensive airs
in the top of the fifth inning, we're playing on
a screen above us in the diner, almost on loop.
They are the highlight reel of this game.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
And then that's the coal air.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Oh man, it's so the cole not covering first was
the nail in the coffin, because we wouldn't have tied
the game in that ending had that error.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Not happened with you.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
You could have had the air and judge error, and
you could have had the bolbear. The Dodgers' strengths fundamentally,
and their ability to pass the baton and rely on
every person to run hard and play smart, and the Yankees'
remarkable deficits fundamentally are the clear difference between these two
teams and the reason why the Dodgers are World champions
(18:27):
and the Yankees are not. And the Dodgers knew that
they could beat the Yankees this way. I'm going to
quote from an article by Joel Sherman in The New
York Post that was published the day after the World
Series ended. The Dodgers told their players in scouting meetings
that the Yankees were quote talent over fundamentals, that if
(18:49):
you run the bases with purpose and aggression, the Yankees
will self inflict harm, as was exposed by Betts, Tommy Edmund,
Freddie Free, et cetera. They mentioned that the Yankees were
not just the Major's worst base running team by every metric,
but the difference was vast on the field between them
(19:11):
and the Padres, who the Dodgers beat in the National
League Division Series. Anyway, getting back to the game. There
were still two outs and only one run had come in,
but it already felt like the tables had turned. It
felt like it was our game to lose. And this
top of the fifth inning was only about halfway done.
Speaker 7 (19:34):
Well, from no stress to a ton of stress for
Garrett Cole, for Luis Crowd, love house.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
But yeah, because.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
They're playing like not only were they unsound fundamentally in
this inning, the Yankees were failing because of how lopsided
they are. They rely on their superstars to create their offense,
and in this game, their starting pitcher was doing everything
Garrett Cole, and once we put a chink in his armor,
(20:04):
the whole thing started falling apart.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
He didn't even sweat, He didn't break one sweat until
he made the mistake and didn't cover first when he
didn't run full speed of first, and.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
That was after that inning already started falling apart. So
he was stressed. Yeah, you can't take that for a Cole.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Sad.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
He looks sad blue, he looks scared.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Five to one, two outs and guess who's at the
plate and the Dodgers have their first run.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
They're loaded for free.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Freddy Fouls off a sinker that bended out of the
zone away and then spits on the exact same pitch.
The count is one and one.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Freeman clives follows it dread.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
He fouls back a fastball up and out of the zone,
and Cole is one strike away from getting out of
the inning having given up just one run. Cole throws
him that sinker again and Freddy fights it off, ands
dos a lot another foul ball.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
It's got something.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Freddy Freeman on one too. Yeah, Tabo runs his score man.
Speaker 7 (21:02):
The Dodgers take advantage of the bat defense from New York,
and this game has changed in the blank of it all,
and guess who it's Freddy Freeman right in the middle
of it.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
He tried that high fastball again, but it wasn't that high,
and Freddy smacked it into center for a single.
Speaker 7 (21:20):
Tie on a board now too gone in the fifth
for Taskernandez.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Next it was Tao's turn and he was clutch yes.
Speaker 7 (21:29):
In the air left center field judge on the run,
dead screw, that's overshid the that's into score.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Freddy Freeman for the pat And this game has been
turned upside down.
Speaker 7 (21:43):
For Fay up, the Yankees cracked the door open with
the poor defense and the Dodgers kick it down.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
This is it.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
It's a new real game. It was now zero zero.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
By the time the top of the fifth ended, we
had batted around and tied the game at five. But
it felt like more than that. You know, the winning
percentage charts that they do. It was then it was
like all Yankees and then fifth inning it goes.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Like that to all Dodgers.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Crazy.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
The Yankees continued to have missteps, including a completely avoidable
bock by their closer Lukey.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
We had a bock.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
He had three disengagements sh and the Dodgers continued to
come through with contributions from nearly every member of the team,
but just about everybody who was available pitched, including Blake Trinan,
who went long after appearing in long outings already several
times throughout this series. And there was a beautiful moment
(22:44):
where Dodgers manager Dave Roberts visited Trinan on the mound.
Usually when a manager goes to the mound, he's taking
the picture out of the game, but instead Doc just
put his hands on Trinan's chest and asked him if
he wanted to stay in Trying and said that he did.
It was against the odds, it was against the analytics,
(23:04):
and it totally worked. Moment was huge.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
Yeah, it was, Yeah, because Trying had seen those guys
three games in a row, four games in a row, like, they.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
Saw him a lot, and they saw a lot of
pitches from him.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Yeah, so I was a little worried.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
I was surprised to see him come into the game.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
But who else we had we were at it, we
had like all our Triple A guys.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
They showed that art. I was like, oh no, yeah,
I was like wow.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
And also a kudos to Dave Roberts, doc skip, he
killed it. It's basically an annual tradition. Just about this
time every year, there are calls for manager Dave Roberts head,
usually using whatever postseason implosion the Dodgers have just gone
through as an excuse say they need to fire.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
I've always said the they're gonna fire Dave Roberts because
our guys aren't producing.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
That's dumb. It's such a dumb mentality. It's it's so
like like.
Speaker 5 (23:59):
You're not even like it's so casual. It's such a
casual fan mentality, you know what I mean. He's like
the winningest Dodger coach of all time. Yeah, how many
postings did take this suit? If the boys aren't producing,
they're not producing. He can't go up there and swing
the bat for them and hit you like this, you
know what I mean. So it's like, you know, and
he made the right he made the right moves. He
(24:20):
made the right moves those guys, and he need to
put in guys who were locked in?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Is it ever?
Speaker 7 (24:25):
So? Back to back walks issued by Bruce dark graderol
the go ahead run his arm and Jean cardlos Stanton's
coming up well though at this point every one of
the Dodgers' high leverage arms has been used up to
this point, two long, two out.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
The rest of Game five wasn't exactly a smooth ride,
but it was masterfully navigated by Dave Roberts. The Yankees
even took the lead later in the game by a
single run.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
And Mookie Backs comes up with the bases loaded in
one guard.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
But then we got it right back John Drake trade.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Still makes the court. Dodgers have come all the.
Speaker 7 (25:01):
Way back and taken the lead in Game.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Five from down five downfi they had seven.
Speaker 7 (25:08):
Six in the most preposterous.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Way a Walker lead.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Going into the bottom of the ninth, we had a
one run lead. There was just one problem.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
We're running out of pitchers.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
It was time for a dramatic final scene.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
I like that they just showed Walker Bueller in the bullpen.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Walker Buehler had a rocky year. He's had a rocky
couple of years and has been attempting a so so
comeback from his second Tommy John surgery. Before that, he
had arguably been the Dodgers ace during the team's twenty
twenty World Series winning season, and he loves big moments.
But he wasn't rusted. He had just made a start
(25:52):
two days before, so it was a surprise to see
him in the pen.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
Walker Buehler might be warming.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Up as he jogged from the dugout to the visiting bullpen.
According to an article in The Athletic by Fabian Ardaya,
Bueller was stopped by Clayton Kershaw, who said he loved him.
Few understand that walk like Kershaw, who twice has emerged
on short rest in relief and clinched in October celebration.
For these Dodgers, it takes big. Kershaw said he knew
(26:24):
we were going to need him. As we went into
the bottom of the ninth with the one run lead,
I knew that I was watching a historic Dodgers moment.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are three outs away from winning
the World Series. Walker Bueller into pitch.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
It is nine forty six pm.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
I want to be like Vince Scully, so I'm watching
the clock to make note of the time narratively as
he would. But I don't have a clock, so I
look at my phone. It is Wednesday, October thirtieth, eight
forty seven pm, very specifically Pacific time.
Speaker 7 (27:05):
Dodgers are turning to Walker Buller out of the bullpen
for the first time since the end of June and twenty.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Eighteen, breaking bitch, grabbing the floor us. He's got it out.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
He gets a ground out and there's one gone.
Speaker 7 (27:21):
Boston Wells on a three to two chain. His message
the Dodgers are one out of.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Way and a strikeout to gone. It strikes.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
I look at my phone clock again to make note
of the time narratively like Vince scullywood and when I do,
I see my dad as facetiming me. My phone is
in do not disturb it. Always is when I'm watching games,
but the FaceTime still showing up on the screen, and
(28:01):
then it hits me. It's all over. His TV feed
must be ahead of mine, and he just saw it
happen and he's calling because he wants to share the
moment with me. And I'm living in the future and
I know what's going to happen. But someone I'm in
the room with tells me I should focus, and it's
all just kind of funny's coming by guy, and then
(28:31):
it happens.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
It's the job.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
It's been letting low. It is eight point fifty sixty six,
and the job is finished.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
There was a lot that happened last night.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Man, Yeah, I got to rewatch it.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
There it is again. They're just showing the highlights. I
love it showing Walker.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Damn oh.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
This is one of the most deserved World series.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
The Yankees, not against the Guardians, not against the Tigers,
not against one of the smaller market teams, the big boys,
the beast in the East, and then we give them
the gentlemen sweep just because they're not bad guys. You know,
got to make it a little interesting. Three home runs.
The Yankees had three home runs. Stanton Judge Chisholm three
(29:34):
home runs in the Bronx and.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
So, you know, but we won.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Our team was a better playing team, and I think
our team, you know, they picked each other up. There,
there was a real camaraderie. There a lot of good
guys on that team. And yeah, a lot of overcoming
some like difficult situations this year.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
If you just look at you know, the MV three
and then all the way down, you know.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
The injuries, personal stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Frond Sun almost does. Losing your best friend because he
stole from you and betrayed you.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
It's crazy.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
All right, what else should we cover?
Speaker 3 (30:07):
I think we've covered it for now.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
All right, Well, congratulations to you graduate, see you, see
you at the parade. Yes, I'm very excited about the parade,
you know, because the Dodgers won in twenty twenty and
because the worst society was that. It's really great that
we're able to do this. No. No. November one, twenty
twenty four, two days after the Dodgers won the World Series,
(30:29):
Los Angeles had its first World Series parade since nineteen
eighty eight, on what would have been Fernando Valenzuela's sixty
fourth birthday. Yeah, Dodger Blue Dream is written and produced
(31:26):
by Me Richard Parks. The third original music in this
episode by William Bryan Fritch, Jonathan Snipes the Blasting Company,
and by Me. Production assistance from Tyler Hill. Special thanks
to Caitlin esh, Elizabeth Parks, Kibbie, Jordan Bass, and Wesley Avila.
(31:47):
Thank you for listening. Job finished. So this is the
last episode of Dodger Blue Dream, our documentary about the
baseball season, made in real time as the season unfolds.
Least for now, and what an ending to the story
of this incredible, unforgettable twenty twenty four Dodgers baseball season.
(32:09):
I have had so much fun doing this show and
I've put everything that I've got into it for more
than seven months now. Dodger Blue Dream is a totally
self funded, self motivated endeavor. It's time for me to
figure out whether I can continue doing this show and how.
If you would like to see me continue, here's how
(32:29):
you can help. Please leave us a rating and a
review on Apple Podcasts, or however you can share the
show with a friend today. Check out our back catalog
if you haven't already, and visit our brand new patriot
at Patreon dot com. Slash Dodger Blue Dream. We have stickers,
we have shirts, and it's a way for you to
(32:51):
kick in financially if you believe in what we're doing here.
All that aside, thank you for listening. It has been
a joy to help tell the story of this season.
I really appreciate your being along for the ride with me. Truly,
it's been an honor and a pleasure. Thanks again for listening.
(33:12):
Go Dodgers.
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