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The Los Angeles Dodgers make history with another playoff win


The Los Angeles Dodgers make history with another playoff win

After losing pace in Game 2, the Los Angeles Dodgers returned to their dominant ways in Game 3 of the NLCS on Wednesday night.

The Dodgers slowly clawed their way to a stunning victory over the New York Mets, scoring points in the second, sixth, eighth and ninth innings to ultimately secure an 8-0 victory. The attack began with an RBI single from Will Smith and a sacrifice fly from Tommy Edman, but eventually included home runs from Kiké Hernandez, Shohei Ohtani and Max Muncy.

Los Angeles also managed to get another shutout from its struggling pitching staff, this time with 4.0 scoreless innings from starter Walker Buehler. Michael Kopech, Ryan Braiser and Blake Treinen each tossed 1.0 scoreless frames in relief, then Ben Casparius topped it off with 2.0 frames of his own.

Overall, the Dodgers allowed just four hits and four walks while recording 13 strikeouts. Their offense, however, made the most of their 10 hits and seven walks.

Game 3 was the Dodgers' fourth shutout win of the postseason, all coming in their last five games. They finished the NLDS against the San Diego Padres with an 8-0 win in Game 4 and a 2-0 win in Game 5, then opened the NLCS with a 9-0 win over the Mets.

According to MLB.com's Sarah Langs, only one team in MLB history has recorded more shutout wins in a single postseason. The 2016 Cleveland Guardians held their opponents scoreless five times en route to an American League pennant that year.

As for the other teams that have recorded four shutout wins, the Atlanta Braves in 2021 and 2020, the San Francisco Giants in 2012 and 2010, the New York Yankees in 1998 and the New York Giants in 1905 are the rest of this exclusive list. The 2020 Braves are the only one of these six teams that did not emerge as World Series champions.

However, none of these teams came close to the all-around dominance that the Dodgers displayed last week.

No team in MLB history had posted more than three shutout wins by more than five runs in a single playoff run until Los Angeles did it last week, Langs said. And by the way, all three of those Dodger victories were by at least eight runs.

The Dodgers lead the NLCS 2-1 and return to action Thursday night at 8:08 p.m. ET. Rookie Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who got the ball rolling in Los Angeles' Game 5 against San Diego last week, is considered the Dodgers' likely starter.

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