Dodgers beat Mariners, clinch NL West title – Orange County Register

SEATTLE — With 10 division titles in the past 11 seasons, the Dodgers are used to the taste of champagne. But that doesn’t make it any less sweet.

On Saturday night in Seattle, the Dodgers extended a dynastic decade of success with a 6-2 win over the Mariners to clinch the NL West yet again, as Max Muncy came through when the Dodgers needed it most.

In the top of the 11th with the game tied 1-1 and Mookie Betts starting at second base as the automatic runner, the Mariners intentionally walked Will Smith to get to Muncy with lefty Gabe Speier (2-2) on the mound. Muncy made the Mariners pay, lining a single to left field to score Betts as the largely blue-clad crowd at T-Mobile Park let loose with a deafening roar.

The Dodgers added to the lead after a Mariners pitching change, when former Mariner Chris Taylor and Kike Hernandez each hit two run singles off Mariners reliever Isaiah Campbell.

The Mariners scored one in the bottom of the 11th on a Joe Kelly wild pitch, but Kelly got Jarred Kelenic to ground to second base for the final out.

The Dodgers are the second MLB team to clinch a division title this season, after the Atlanta Braves.

The team could’ve also clinched if the San Francisco Giants lost both games in their Saturday doubleheader against Colorado, and the Arizona Diamondbacks fell to the Chicago Cubs.

The Giants did their part, as the Rockies swept the double tilt by scores of 5-2 and 9-5. The Diamondbacks appeared to be headed for a defeat too, but came back in extra innings to beat the Cubs, 7-6, in 13 innings.

Once the Diamondbacks score went final, it was up to the Dodgers to make it happen. Once Freddie Freeman caught the throw from Mookie Betts for the final out, the team celebrated near the mound while the thousands of Dodgers fans in the stands cheered with joy.

“Winning the division is something (that is) always special,” manager Dave Roberts said. “But doing it by winning a baseball game and not by default makes it more special. So tonight we get a chance to celebrate with one another, celebrate with our fans, and I think there were probably about 20,000 Dodgers fans supporting us tonight. It felt like it was a home game. That’s a good club over there, but there is nothing better than popping champagne.”

The game was a prototypical pitcher’s duel, with Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw giving up just two hits and two walks over four shutout innings with four strikeouts. It was Kershaw’s first start in 10 days, with his scheduled Monday start being pushed back after the lefty dealt with velocity issues in his most recent outing.

No matter the recent issues, Kershaw looked like his old self in his abbreviated start, and the Dodgers bullpen was even better, with Emmett Sheehan giving up just one hit in three shutout innings in relief, and Alex Vesia and Ryan Brasier combing to snuff out a potential Mariners rally in the eighth.

Mariners rookie Bryce Miller was every bit as good as Kershaw over his 5 ⅓ shutout innings, with four hits, one walk, and four strikeouts to his name.

The Dodgers threatened in the top of the fifth, but Miller escaped damage thanks to a highlight-reel play by Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez.

Jason Heyward led off the inning with a double, and later advanced to third on a Miguel Rojas groundout. Heyward sprinted toward home plate when Betts hit a flyball to shallow center field with two outs, but Rodriguez made a diving catch to end the inning and ran off the field to a standing ovation.

Miller walked Freeman to lead off the sixth, and was replaced by Taylor Saucedo after getting Will Smith to fly out. Saucedo then got Max Muncy to ground into an inning-ending 3-6-3 double play.

The zeros continued through the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings.

In the 10th, J.D. Martinez started at second as the automatic runner, and advanced to third as the Dodgers loaded the bases with a single by Chris Taylor and a James Outman hit by pitch. Pinch-hitter Kolten Wong then came to the plate and drove in Amed Rosario with a sacrifice fly that gave LA its first lead.

But Mike Ford tied it back up with an RBI single in the bottom half of the frame, before the Dodgers put it away with their five-run rally in the 11th.

Outside of 2021, the Dodgers have won the NL West every year since 2013.

“It’s not like we were underdogs, by any means,” Kershaw said. “We expected to do this, we were supposed to do this, regardless of what people said. It wasn’t like a ‘silence the doubters” type of moment. We expected to do this, we were supposed to do this. But it doesn’t make it any less special.”

For Kershaw, who has celebrated 12 division titles and one World Series championship in his Dodgers career, the chance to spray his teammates with champagne is never something to take for granted. At 35 years old and on a one-year contract, he knows that any celebration could be the final one of his Hall of Fame worthy career.

On Saturday, he knew that the thing to do was soak in every glorious moment in that alcohol-soaked locker room.

“I’ve been saying ‘it could be the last one’ for a long time,” Kershaw said. “Every year I say that. You just can’t take it for granted. It’s such a special thing to get to celebrate with a group of guys that work so hard throughout the whole year to achieve a goal like this. Obviously, it’s not the ultimate goal, but to be able to do this and get to have a night to celebrate with your teammates is so special.”

While special, a division title is just a stepping stone on what the Dodgers hope is a run to another championship. They know that it isn’t going to be easy.

“We’ve got a tough road ahead of us,” Martinez said. “Obviously, we’re not all thinking about this, we’re thinking about the future, you know. We’re trying to get to the World Series.”