CINCINNATI — Had anyone at Great American Ball Park not been keeping up with the Dodgers, they may have thought that Monday was a night like any other.
When Kiké Hernández fielded the game-ending grounder and tossed it to Evan Phillips at first base for the final out, the scene was as routine as they come. Every Dodger in the field converged down the middle. Those in the dugout took their time joining their teammates on the diamond for high fives and handshakes.
For all the normalcy, it was a sight that underscored the winning culture of this era of Dodgers baseball.
There was no real question about whether the back-to-back champion Dodgers would return to the postseason, but they officially punched their ticket after homers from Kyle Tucker and Teoscar Hernández backed seven spotless innings from Tarik Skubal in a 4-1 victory over the Reds.
“We don’t take it for granted,” said Max Muncy, the longest-tenured Dodger, who has been around for nine of those years. “But it is the expectation here.”
There is always something for this Dodgers team to stay hungry for. That’s what they’ve learned over the course of this extended stretch of winning baseball.
“It’s what every team dreams for,” Teoscar Hernández said. “Every player wants to be back in the playoffs. … It’s important to be in this spot right now and just keep everything focused on the things that we want to achieve later in the season.”
With the Dodgers bidding for the Majors’ first three-peat since the Yankees won three straight World Series from 1998-2000, they swung big in both the offseason and the regular season with an eye on increasing their championship odds. Their biggest addition in free agency, Tucker, and their most notable in-season reinforcement, Skubal, keyed their postseason clincher.
With the Dodgers bidding for the Majors’ first three-peat since the Yankees won three straight World Series from 1998-2000, they swung big in both the offseason and the regular season with an eye on increasing their championship odds. Their biggest addition in free agency, Tucker, and their most notable in-season reinforcement, Skubal, keyed their postseason clincher.
Tucker opened the scoring with a solo home run off Reds left-hander Nick Lodolo in the second inning. While Tucker has struggled offensively and is out of time to fully turn his season around, he may be starting to get hot at the right time, having slugged three homers in his past five games. He also drew a two-out walk in the fourth ahead of Hernández, who took Lodolo deep to pad the Dodgers’ lead.
The way Skubal was throwing the ball, no lead felt unsafe. The southpaw authored one of his finest starts since being dealt to L.A. ahead of the Trade Deadline, striking out nine and scattering three hits and a walk across seven scoreless innings.
Skubal made the playoffs in each of the past two seasons with the Tigers, with Detroit winning its spot as a Wild Card team in both of those campaigns. Those Tigers clubs celebrated their postseason berths with champagne showers, as most teams tend to do.
Over the course of 14 consecutive trips to the postseason, the Dodgers have come to do things a little differently. Their tradition is to raise a glass to their postseason berth, while manager Dave Roberts gives a toast.
“It’s different than anything I’ve experienced, for sure. But I think it just speaks to the people in this room and what they expect out of this team,” Skubal said. “That was cool. A little toast and move on. Forget it happened. We’ve got more to accomplish this season.”
Roberts’ message to his team was that the best is yet to come. The Dodgers have yet to play their best baseball, even on Monday, when they won despite recording only three hits. They have been hit hard by injuries, losing key bats like Shohei Ohtani (left knee, right biceps) and Andy Pages (left hand fracture) to the injured list. But here they are, in the same position they’ve been for the past 14 seasons.
“The message was, ‘We’ve accomplished a lot up to this point, all the while not playing our best baseball,'” Roberts said. “‘So let’s get some of these guys healthy. A lot of guys contributed. A lot of guys that aren’t in the room still contributed to where we’re at. And let’s finish strong.
“‘And we got another month and a half of baseball to play.’”