ST. LOUIS — What was that about a late-season Dodgers swoon?
Its playoff hopes seemingly left for dead after a horrible final week of the season, Joe Torre’s team now looks like the postseason’s hottest outfit after a 5-1 throttling of the Cardinals yesterday capped a three-game NLDS sweep.
Thanks to a shockingly dominant start by Vicente Padilla, who four-hit St. Louis over seven scoreless innings, LA bought itself an extended rest before the NLCS by manhandling the Cardinals in front of a stunned Busch Stadium crowd.
Andre Ethier hit a two-run homer in the third and Manny Ramirez broke out of a series slump with three hits (including two doubles) and two RBIs as the Dodgers jumped out early on St. Louis starter Joel Pineiro and didn’t let up.
“All year, you’ve seen this ballclub play a little ragged, and then all of a sudden we’re playing a team that we’re going to see if we can measure up with, and we show up,” Torre said after a champagne bath in the jubilant L.A. clubhouse. “And that’s basically what happened here.”
What the Dodgers didn’t need was another miracle finish like the one Thursday in Los Angeles, where Matt Holliday’s two-out error in the ninth paved the way for a stunning L.A. walk-off win.
The Dodgers didn’t need it because the Cardinals had all the life drained out of them by the Game 2 debacle.
While Pineiro struggled early, giving up four runs on four hits in four innings before manager Tony La Russa pulled the plug after just 63 pitches, St. Louis’ bats remained in deep freeze in crucial situations.
Once the Cardinals left the bases loaded in the first inning, dropping their mark to 3-for-24 with runners in scoring position for the series, the usually erratic Padilla went into shutdown mode.
Padilla, abruptly released late in the season by Texas because of his maddening ways, looked like the picture of control last night. He allowed just two hits and no walks over the next six innings, and those hits — both doubles — were the only balls out of the infield against him.
“They beat us to the punch all night, so give them credit,” a testy La Russa said during a postgame news conference that lasted all of two questions. “Congratulate the Dodgers.”
The famously supportive St. Louis fans greeted Game 2 goat Holliday with a standing ovation during introductions before the game, but Holliday — an offseason target of the Mets in free agency — deserved nothing but scorn for this series.
Holliday was an outright disaster for the Redbirds, and not just because of his egregious error in the Dodger Stadium twilight. The slugger did absolutely nothing at the plate, going 0-for-4 last night and 2-for-12 (.167) in the series overall.
Pitiful.
The Dodgers, on the other hand, now have four days to rest up for the Phillies or Rockies as LA makes its second consecutive NLCS appearance in Torre’s two years at the helm.
The Dodgers will go into the championship series seemingly hitting on all cylinders. Not only are their bats clicking and bullpen its usual dominant self, but LA’s Achilles’ heel — starting pitching — also was a surprising strength against the NL Central-champion Cards.
“We’re one step closer to the World Series, and it feels so good,” Ethier said.