LOS ANGELES — The ritual for the Los Angeles Dodgers commenced around 9:45 p.m. with a tradition, some words, and popping corks. They toasted tequila on Thursday night, as they always do after a series win. They sat as their manager, Dave Roberts, delivered his message for the eighth time now in his nine years at the post. Then they allowed the celebration to ensue.
Shohei Ohtani targeted strength coach Travis Smith with his bottle of Korbel. Clayton Kershaw peeled off his shirt, as he always does. Andy Pages snagged a Budweiser and sprayed Ohtani in the back. Kevin Kiermaier downed some Bud of his own, then sprayed it into the air like a fountain. As Miguel Rojas implored Yoshinobu Yamamoto to chime in on camera, Alex Vesia came over the top and doused them each with imbibements. Cigar smoke and Bad Bunny’s music filled the air as Tyler Glasnow nursed a beer in one hand and held a double cheeseburger in the other. Kiké Hernández flung baby powder at Andrew Friedman, the architect of this club that once again fought for the right to party.
The NL West was won once again.
Little has looked easy for these Dodgers. They’ve stumbled amidst the hype, despite owning baseball’s best record at 95-64. They’ve underperformed, committing $1.4 billion in one offseason only to win fewer than 100 games for the first time in a full season since the 2018 campaign. They’d endured as much significant change as any year during this run of prosperity, from the franchise-record 40 pitchers who appeared in a game for them to the injuries they’ve withstood. They’ve shredded elbows and strained shoulders, dealt with a torn esophagus and cracked fingernails. Their backup catcher has broken his big toe in two different places. Their longtime ace has spent the last month searching for proper insoles to keep pitching through bone spurs in his toe. By night’s end, another of their former MVPs was in a walking boot, with Freddie Freeman nursing a sprained ankle that will end his regular season. But he should be available when the NLDS begins in nine days.
“We worked really hard to overcome a lot of adversity and it never ends, it seems like, this year,” Freeman said after the Dodgers’ 7-2 clinching victory over the Padres. “I’ll do everything I possibly can to be ready by Saturday.”
It’s rare for dominance of a division to become an annual tradition, but that’s what these Dodgers have built. For the 11th time in 12 seasons, they could not be topped.
“We like high expectations,” Friedman said. “We relish them. It beats the s–t out of the alternative. People care, they’re passionate about the Dodgers. They have high expectations. So do we. We think that’s a great thing. And for us, this is step one.”
This time, they survived a division that supplied late challengers. There hasn’t been a better team in baseball since the All-Star break than the San Diego Padres. The Dodgers, needing to claim a series for the right to celebrate with fans in their own ballpark for the first time since 2018, rattled off a five-run seventh to make it happen.
“They all feel sweet,” Roberts said. “But I’ll tell you man, with what we’ve gone through this year, this feels a tick sweeter.”
That sweet feeling came after a start from the last man to start a division clincher with fans at Dodger Stadium, six years and a second Tommy John surgery later. It came with a bat flip, and an expletive from their mild mannered catcher who struggled all summer. It came on a two-run single from the MVP they made their unexpected Opening Day shortstop – the man who Roberts has long said has had the most direct impact on the Dodgers’ success. It came on yet another clutch hit from their $700 million man, a phenom who is hungry for his first taste of October baseball.
Walker Buehler and Will Smith on Thursday night. (Brian Rothmuller / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Five years, 11 months, 24 days and half a lifetime have passed since the Dodgers last clinched a division title at Dodger Stadium with fans in the stands, and yet some things do not change. They have since celebrated in Baltimore and Arizona and Seattle, held muted toasts and looked ahead, always, to October.
It was Walker Buehler who started that day in 2018, Game 163, a brash young rookie with an aptitude for spewing expletives and a wealth of possibilities.
It was Buehler — a marriage, a child and a second Tommy John surgery later — who took the mound on Thursday as the Dodgers once again claimed the division. He carried his daughter, Finley, around the empty field in the aftermath, soaking in nights like these he’d always made his own.
“There’s one thing I’ve kind of hung my hat on,” Buehler said, “is pitching in big games.”
With the Dodgers seeking to secure a division title now, rather than deal with the uncertainty that comes with any trip to Coors Field, Buehler started on regular rest for the first time in 22 months. The time since then has hardly gone well for him. His elbow gave way and he underwent a second Tommy John surgery, etching his name into an exclusive, uncertain club. His first attempt at a return last September was aborted almost as soon as it began. His official return to the big league stage went so poorly that when he landed on the injured list in June, he sought external help at a private facility in Florida.
“From Walker, he was dead earlier this year,” Roberts said.
Buehler did not dominate the night. A Padres lineup that makes more contact than any team in baseball swung and missed just three times and produced traffic in all but one of the five innings he pitched.
“(I had) nothing really,” Buehler said. “Just trying to compete.”
He allowed just one run in five innings, keeping the Dodgers in the game even as Padres starter Joe Musgrove didn’t allow a run through his first six innings.
“We needed him to step up,” Will Smith said, “and he did.”
“He doesn’t shy away from the moment, he’s not scared of anything, and he’s gonna go out and compete,” Friedman said. “You saw that tonight.”
“Biggest game of the season, he wanted the ball,” Kerhsaw said. “He went out there and he did his job. He did awesome. So that’s in there for Walker. I think as the moment rises, he wants the ball. He wants to be a part of it.”
“He’s got a big set of you-know-whats,” Gavin Lux said, “and he’s gonna compete his ass off.”
Walker’s return to the big leagues has yielded a 5.38 ERA in 16 starts. That slate gets wiped clean on Sunday. He could very well start a postseason game in the next couple of weeks.
“I don’t care what Walker’s numbers are, I will always bet on that guy in these types of situations,” Max Muncy said. “He’s the guy you want on the mound in a big situation. I don’t care what his numbers say. You just know that that heartbeat, when he gets out there, it’s not going to waver at all. I’ve seen him in multiple, multiple big games for us. Every time, he delivers.”
Will Smith flips his bat after a homer. (Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)
For months, Will Smith has struggled to catch up to fastballs. Crushing them is how Smith has made his living, how he’s earned a record contract for a catcher and become a two-time All-Star. But that had been as much a source as any for the malaise he’s endured all summer. He slugged four home runs in a span of four at-bats in early July and yet had hit just four since entering Thursday night, hitting .203 in that stretch. As he hit his rut, he dropped in the batting order, hitting sixth on Thursday rather than the cleanup spot Roberts had envisioned as he wrote out his star-studded lineup this spring.
It’s been “a grind,” Smith admitted.
No one on the Dodgers had mustered much of anything against Musgrove, who allowed just three hits through his first six innings before Muncy watched three consecutive two-strike breaking balls go by outside of the zone to draw a leadoff walk.
Smith waved through a sweeper before Musgrove tried challenging him. A fastball missed well above the zone. Two cutters missed well outside.
When Musgrove left the next pitch, a fastball over the plate, Smith didn’t miss it. It cleared the center field fence to tie the game and redefine his season.
He let out an expletive as he launched his bat to the sky. Dodgers officials marveled at the height of the toss in the aftermath. Friedman said he’d never seen anything like that from him. Roberts relished it.
“That,” Roberts said, “was a lot of pressure and angst off his shoulders.”
Hours ahead of the party, Mookie Betts swung. And swung. And swung. The Dodgers’ raucous comeback on Wednesday night had brought them close to yet another title. For Betts, it brought a dubious distinction: he’d popped out four times in four at-bats, each time to a different infielder. He’d slugged the walk-off home run on Sunday to put the Dodgers on the doorstep of the division title and hadn’t collected a hit since. Roberts noted Betts doing what he almost never does, expanding the strike zone with reckless abandon.
So on Thursday, Betts swung. He sat in the cage and unleashed swing after swing.
“We all saw him,” Muncy said. “To see him in here working, everyone sees that.”
For months, it’s been a chase against missed time for Betts. He was slated to be an everyday second baseman for the first time this spring, only to get shifted to shortstop – a position he hadn’t played full-time since high school – just two weeks before the Dodgers opened their season against the Padres in Seoul. A potential MVP campaign was cut short in June when a stray fastball from Dan Altavilla broke his hand.
He hardly missed a beat after his return, until now. So he sought to correct it. He singled in his first at-bat off Musgrove. And after Ohtani’s single snuck through between first and second base to give the Dodgers the lead, it was Betts who added a punch of his own, driving a Tanner Scott slider into right field for a two-run single.
In the aftermath, as the T-shirts were handed out in the handshake line on the field, Betts spotted Roberts and leaped onto his manager and shook him.
“Mookie, the last couple weeks, hasn’t been Mookie,” Roberts said. “You can see that excitement, that relief.”
That continued into the clubhouse, as he conducted interviews in the line of fire.
“It never gets old,” Betts said. “It’s always cold. But whenever you get champagne on us, we did something good.”
Mookie Betts soaks in another celebration. (Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)
In the back corner of the clubhouse, cigar in hand as the night died down, Muncy struggled to come up with words for a teammate that has inspired plenty of them. What Shohei Ohtani has accomplished in his first season as a Dodger is remarkable: slugging a walk-off grand slam to become one of six men to accomplish a 40-40 season, then becoming the first ever to reach 50-50. He’d add another to the tally on Thursday, becoming the first player in 23 years to reach 400 total bases in a season.
But as much as Ohtani has inspired awe, it’s what he has done the last few weeks that has stood out. As he chased history, as well as his first-ever postseason berth after years mired in Anaheim, the Dodgers watched Ohtani go a step beyond just flourishing. “As the season’s gone on, you’ve almost seen a maturity where you realize there’s a lot of pieces surrounding you,” Muncy said, “and that’s helped him become an even better player.”
Those around the Dodgers have marveled as Ohtani has served as an igniting force. It was his two impactful swings that helped push the Dodgers to the brink of a clinch on Wednesday night, and the outpouring of emotion that followed. His chase of his first-ever division crown and first chance at October has coincided with one of the best stretches of his career at the plate: over his last seven games, he’s gone 20-for-29 with five homers and seven stolen bases.
Over his last 11 at-bats with runners in scoring position, he’s collected 10 hits, including staying back just enough on a slider from Scott in the seventh inning to poke it between Jake Cronenworth and Luis Arraez for the eventual game-winning single.
“It’s hard to say that a guy has lived up to the hype, but in all reality he’s almost exceeded it,” Muncy said. “He keeps getting put in these situations where you’re questioning whether or not he’s going to do something big, and he does it. It’s been absolutely incredible to watch.”
Ohtani eschewed goggles for his first champagne celebration. It stung a little bit, he said through interpreter Will Ireton, but it was worth it.
He giddily poured booze over his teammates and joined the center of the fray. In recent days, Roberts noted Ohtani’s eagerness to be part of this moment, from pacing the dugout to popping out to the on-deck circle before it was even his turn to hit.
This is what Ohtani wanted when he came here.
“I am hoping to be able to continue popping champagne,” Ohtani said.
The Dodgers are relying on him to keep doing that.
“We’re going to ride that horse, that thoroughbred, to a championship,” Roberts said.
Dave Roberts, Max Muncy and a lot of cigar smoke. (Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)
A night before the Dodgers clinched, Roberts was honest.
“We still have the best record in baseball,” he said, before admitting “it might not feel like that.”
The Padres had nipped on their heels for months. The Arizona Diamondbacks, the club that eliminated the Dodgers in three games a year ago, did their part to make things interesting. Just before Thursday’s game, they added two more players to their list of injuries, hours before almost losing an MVP in Freeman.
Such has been the Dodgers season. Thursday, in the midst of celebration, it didn’t matter.
“It feels like it tonight,” Roberts said, shielding his eyes from the liquid sprayed around him. “It feels like we have the best record in baseball tonight.”
(Top photo of Shohei Ohtani and Walker Buehler celebrating another division title for the Dodgers: Brian Rothmuller / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
