Andy Pages hit a dribbler to the mound.
Orion Kerkering fielded it — then threw away the Philadelphia Phillies’ season.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th in Game 4 of the National League Division Series, that’s how the Dodgers secured a 2-1 walk-off win. On a throwing error from Kerkering. On a ball that went sailing to the backstop to allow Hyeseong Kim to score. On a brutal, confounding decision from the Phillies reliever, that unleashed pandemonium inside Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers won the series 3-1.
And Thursday’s finale became an instant classic.
In what started as a pitchers’ duel between two dominant starters, then morphed into a battle of the bullpens, the Dodgers prevailed with a rally in the 11th. They loaded the bases on singles from Tommy Edman and Max Muncy, then a two-out walk from Kiké Hernández.
Pages came to the plate next, and swung through a first-pitch sinker.
Then, however, came the shocking end.
Pages hit another sinker that dribbled in front of the mound. Kerkerking fielded it and — instead of getting what would have been an almost certain inning-ending out at first — inexplicably turned and threw to home instead.
The ball sailed on him. Catcher J.T. Realmuto couldn’t keep it from going to the backstop. Kim crossed the plate, then went back and stomped on it just to be certain.
Kerkerking bent over in immediate regret, as the Dodgers came pouring out of the dugout to mob Pages near first base.
“I thought he was gonna throw to first,” Pages said through an interpreter in an on-field interview. “But when I saw him throw home, I knew the game was over.”
All afternoon, the tension had been building at Chavez Ravine.
Through six innings, both Tyler Glasnow and Cristopher Sánchez had kept the opposing lineup off the board. In the seventh, both teams broke through with a run after getting relievers onto the mound. And from there, the drama only continued to build, as the clubs went back to trading zeros to force the game into extras.
Long before the end, there were star-worthy moments. Mookie Betts drew a bases-loaded walk off Phillies closer Jhoan Durán to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh. Roki Sasaki entered in the eighth for what became three perfect innings of relief, retiring all nine batters he faced.
By the end, it was almost easy to forget about the starting pitching performances that shaped such a quintessential, low-scoring, nerve-wracking October dog fight.
In his first start of the postseason, Glasnow pitched six scoreless in which he struck out eight batters, leaned heavily on a fastball that had extra life, and stranded all six runners who reached base against him.
On the other side, Sánchez matched him step-for-step, flummoxing the Dodgers for the second time this series with six scoreless frames of his own to start the day.
Finally, in the seventh, both lineups found something.
The top half of the inning began with a major decision from Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who elected to pull Glasnow after 83 pitches (for context, he had thrown 70 total pitches the previous 18 days) and with the bottom half of the Phillies order due up.
Emmet Sheehan took over, but immediately faced danger. J.T. Realmuto poked a leadoff single to center with a good piece of hitting on a two-strike slider. Then, Sheehan appeared to have gotten a double-play grounder from Max Kepler — only to miss Mookie Betts’ throw while covering first. The ball bounced into the camera well. Kepler advanced to second. The error would prove to be costly. Nick Castellanos roped a line drive just inside the third-base line in the next at-bat, doubling home Kepler to open the scoring.
Sheehan, however, settled down, limiting the damage there with an inning-ending strikeout of Trea Turner.
And even in the face of their first deficit of the day, the Dodgers responded, knocking Sánchez out of the game with one out in the bottom of the seventh after an Alex Call walk and Hernández single.
In an aggressive move from a manager fighting to keep his team’s season alive, Phillies skipper Rob Thomson summoned the flame-throwing Durán for an eight-out save. But he would only get one before blowing the lead, walking Mookie Betts with the bases loaded later in the inning (following an Andy Pages grounder that moved the runners, and an intentional walk to Shohei Ohtani).
From there, the game lay in the hands of both teams’ bullpens.
Sasaki retired all nine batters he faced from the eighth to the 10th. The Phillies also posted three-straight zeros, thanks to some help from what was their projected Game 5 starter, Jesús Luzardo. Alex Vesia stranded a Phillies runner at second in the 11th by striking out Harrison Bader in a 10-pitch at-bat.
Finally, the Dodgers built a rally in the bottom of the 11th.
Edman hit a one-out single off Luzardo, and was replaced by Kim as a pinch-runner. Muncy also singled two batters later, allowing Kim to speed all the way to third. With Hernández up, the Phillies summoned Kerkering for a right-on-right matchup. But after walking Hernández to load the bases, it all came down to Pages.
And, it turned out, a decision from Kerkering that ended the Phillies’ season, and it moved the Dodgers another step closer to a World Series title defense.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
