Last week, they swept the Brewers. This week, they swept the Padres. The Dodgers, on what they believe is a methodical march to a past-due world championship, took another necessary step Thursday night by overwhelming the undermanned Padres, 12-3, clinching the National League Division Series at Globe Life Field in Arlington.\n\nBack-to-back postseason sweeps are impressive -- but not to the Dodgers.
“We did what we wanted to do, we did what we were supposed to do,” said outfielder
Their fourth best-of-seven NL Championship Series in the last five years begins Monday against Atlanta in Arlington, the first meeting of the clubs this year. It will be Los Angeles’ 14th NLCS appearance since its inception in 1969, tying St. Louis for the most.\n\n“We still know what’s in front of us,” said
Roberts said this Dodgers team is the best equipped to end the drought.\n\n“It is,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of talent here over the years I’ve been here. But we’re controlling the strike zone, and in the past few years, we haven’t done that very well. It’s a credit to the hitting guys and players for understanding that. It’s a buy-in about team baseball. Everybody wants to be the hero, but taking what the pitcher gives you, when we’re at our best, we do that.”\n\nAlthough their strategy to use Dustin May and his Internet-breaking sinker as an opener of a bullpen game -- to exploit his dominance over Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado -- went a little sideways after his scoreless one-inning cameo, just about everything else the Dodgers did worked efficiently in the wake of their epic Game 2 thriller.\n\nOn the mound, starter-turned-bulk-reliever
\n\n \n\nWhat other team can piggyback an opener like May with a multi-innings reliever like Urías and not even need to use Tony Gonsolin in either series?\n\nUrías’ first batter was the toughest, as he came in to strike out Tatis with the bases loaded and two outs in the second inning.\n\n“You can talk about the play of the game as the first hitter he faced,” said Roberts. “He punches Tatis and that could have been a different game. Right there that just flipped the game.”
\n\nNone of the foul-mouthed nastiness and equipment throwing and kiss blowing from Wednesday night’s game carried over to Game 3, and all drama vanished with the Dodgers’ five-run, 25-minute third inning.
It was sparked by an error on an otherwise spectacular try by shortstop Tatis, an RBI single that gave Turner the franchise record for postseason hits (64), and even a two-run hit by designated hitter