There are days it's definitely easier being a Dodger fan than on all other days. In a year that included a poor 05 season at its heels, a lineup of unproven rookies, shakey pitching, dramatic losing streaks, a season ending injury to Gagne, a sweltering Los Angeles summer heat wave - one can see how Monday night was simply one of those easy kind of nights.
It would be fleece blanket night and the last homestand of the regular season. The final meeting of the division rival San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers. An uncharacteristic four game set concluding on a Monday night in front of a record sell out crowd. 2006 All Star starter Brad Penny reporting to the mound. Young Alabama ace and bad-tempered Jake Peavy called on for the Friars. For 24 hours the Dodgers had trailed the Padres in the NL West and the Padres had hoped to extend the lead to a game and a half. Where season change is rare, a crisp autumn air had begun to overtake the city and at arms length the brilliant lights of the downtown LA skyline sparkled. 55,831 fans were adorned in blue. Ok, so some were Padres fans. But everyone was ready for a decisive game, an important game, the most important game so far this season. It felt magical. And this was long before even the first pitch had been released.
We would be down 4-0 almost out of the gates. We do get 9 innings of game to play (at least that's what I shout to naysayers) and indeed we would squeeze it for all that it would be worth.
But we only care how it ends though, right? Who won, who lost, and maybe details a bench clearing brawl here and there. And indeed there was even the early signs of one of those.
Baseball is a sport of a habitual nature existing in a world of habit. And most people walk the earth awaiting a moment, and praying to the universe for a chance, to take a bat and break open the ordinary.
And then crack.
9-5 going in to the bottom of the 9th. Closer great Trevor Hoffman had been warming up, but with a 4 run lead, he wasn't needed for the save. Many argue save or not, this is crunch time, bring in your big guns regardless. But Padres manager Bruce Bochy sat him down and instead chose another reliever from the pen. Kent to the plate, blast. Homerun. Then Drew homers. Two in a row. Clearly Hoffman would be needed. However, he'd been sitting down, cold, not ready for a save opportunity, but Bochy called for him anyway. And in the bottom of the 9th with only 2 runs separating us, Trevor Hoffman reported to the rubber. First pitch to rookie Russell Martin, Homerun. Three in a row. First pitch to Marlon Anderson, homerun. Four in a row.
Back to back to back to back. Not since 1964 had any team in Major League Baseball accomplished this. Certainly never the Dodgers, ever. And certainly never off closer great Trevor Hoffman. And with the score tied 9-9, we would go to the 10th.
Some clutch plays by the Padres, we would again find ourselves down 10-9. Would it be possible that after that feat, the kind that comes around every 40 years, after one of the most electrifying and unbelievable comebacks in baseball, could we lose this game? I curled up in a ball in my seat. Literally. Bottom of the 10th. Lofton walked. With the tying run at first, and a fast runner at that, up to the plate walks Nomar, who had injured his left quad Friday, and had been nursing it since. Whatever happens, please let this to be a homerun, he's in no position for any kind of hustle baserunning, I mouthed to a reserve level basically empty at this point in the night. And on a 3-1 count, what made me smile, tear up, and laugh out loud almost as if all those things were one cohesive emotion, in the greatest performance this side of chavez ravine has seen by a disabled hitter since Kirk Gibson in the 1988 World Series, Nomar hits a walk-off homerun. Dodgers win the game 11-10 and reclaim the lead in the NL West.
"This will be a game," said manager Grady Little, "that people around here will remember for a long time."
It would be a game people would remember, if in April, if the homeruns were in the 2nd, if we ultimately lost the game. But with 12 games left in regular season play, a half game separating our division rivals, it was nothing short of magic.
If you're gonna go down, go down swinging, go down bunting, go down fighting in to that good autumn night.
In whatever way the next week and half shapes out, whether our bats get cold and we never see the light of post season play, or we have more to celebrate and more stories to tell come playoff time, I know only one thing - I got my fall classic. I got my fall classic in front of a sell-out crowd, on fleece blanket night, in my hometown.
"It was the best game I've ever seen," said starting pitcher Brad Penny.
It sure was.
