Twenty year-old Urias gets win for the Dodgers, to face Cubs in NLCS

By Francisco Romero

Someone had to win! In a game that kept the Washington Nationals fans as well as the Los Angeles Dodgers fans on the edge of their seats; at the end, Dodgers manager Dave Robert’s moves came out ahead as the boys in blue beat the Nationals 4-3 in game five of the National League Division Series.

It was an epic game with moves by the managers that made the contest a total chess match on a diamond. Only in baseball, the unimaginable happened; Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen was the set-up man and actually was credited with a hold for Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw who threw two-thirds of an inning for the save.

Nationals starter Max Scherzer allowed only one run in five innings while striking out seven; Scherzer came out after Joc Pederson hit a home run to begin the top of the seventh inning; the Dodgers ended up scoring 4 runs in that frame.

The Nationals closed up the gap in the bottom of the seventh inning by scoring 2 runs and making the score 4-3; a Dodgers’ lead that was never relinquished.

Culiacan, Mexico native Julio Urias got the win as he came in relief and threw two shutout innings.

In a game with unorthodox moves Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts gave all the credit to his players, who were willing to put it all on the line in an elimination game, “You know what, it’s all about the players. The players just giving me, the coaches, an opportunity to try to navigate. And I think that with players to buy in and trust that we’re doing the right things, that’s first and foremost. But these are conversations that me, the front office, we have daily, about just kind of forward-thinking, being open-minded to how you can use guys in certain roles. And today was a prime example.”

The Dodgers will now face the Chicago Cubs for the right to advance to the World Series.