October 1, 2018: Rookie Walker Buehler beats Rockies as Dodgers win NL West title

After falling nine games off the pace on May 8 and treading water during the month of August, the Los Angeles Dodgers battled back to finish the 2018 season with a record of 91-71, tied for first in the National League West Division with the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies won nine of their final 10 games to force a one-game tiebreaker at Dodger Stadium. At stake was a trip to the National League Division Series.

The Monday afternoon winner-take-all matchup pitted a pair of young up-and-coming right-handers against each other. The Dodgers started right-hander Walker Buehler. The 24-year-old rookie and former first-round draft pick out of Vanderbilt University was 7-5 with a 2.76 ERA. Before the game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts referred to Buehler as his team’s “best.” He described the decision to start him as “a no-brainer.”1

“I believe he’s the right guy for this moment,” Roberts said.2

Buehler was opposed by the Rockies’ 23-year-old Venezuelan right-hander Germán Márquez, who was 14-10 with a 3.76 ERA. Márquez entered the game with a string of 12 consecutive quality starts and a 2.14 earned-run average in September.3

The game drew an announced crowd of 47,816 and was played under nearly ideal conditions. The temperature was 90 degrees with sunny skies and a gentle breeze blowing out to center field when Buehler delivered the first pitch at 1:09 P.M.

Buehler retired the Rockies in order in the top of the first. Márquez did the same to the Dodgers in the bottom of the inning before Buehler tossed a second one-two-three inning in the top of the second. Márquez navigated his way around a second-inning leadoff single by Manny Machado to keep the game scoreless.

Buehler, displaying his imprecise command, hit Rockies first baseman Ian Desmond with a pitch to start the third inning. After Rockies catcher Tony Wolters grounded into a fielder’s choice, Márquez sacrificed Wolters to second and Charlie Blackmon drew a walk. With runners on first and second, Buehler retired the side on DJ LeMahieu’s grounder to shortstop. Márquez walked Buehler but pitched a scoreless bottom of the third. The game appeared to be shaping up as a pitching duel.

The Dodgers caught a sizable break against Márquez in the fourth, when catcher Wolters dropped a third strike and allowed Max Muncy to reach first base after striking out on a 98-mph fastball. Márquez stuck out the next two batters he faced – effectively striking out the side – but still had to face Cody Bellinger.4 The Dodgers center fielder unloaded on a fastball, depositing a two-run homer into the pavilion in right-center field to give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. It was Bellinger’s 25th home run of the year. Yasiel Puig doubled to deep left-center and Kiké Hernández was intentionally walked, but Márquez stuck out Buehler, his fourth strikeout of the inning, to retire the side.

Buehler continued his mastery of the Rockies in the fifth inning, retiring the side in order on 10 pitches before the Dodgers struck again. Left fielder Joc Pederson led off the bottom of the fifth with a double to center. Two batters later, Muncy hit his 35th home run of the season, a shot to left-center, to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 4-0. After Machado flied out to deep left, Rockies manager Bud Black called on left-hander Harrison Musgrave to face catcher Yasmani Grandal. Musgrave, who entered the game with a 2-3 record and a 4.57 ERA, retired Grandal on a groundout to short.

The Rockies finally touched Buehler for a hit when Blackmon singled to right field with one out in the sixth. Buehler retired the next two batters of groundballs and Blackmon was stranded at second base. The score remained 4-0.

The Dodgers added a run in the bottom of the sixth. Hernández hit a two-out ground-rule double to right and Buehler helped his own cause with an RBI single to right. The Dodgers now led 5-0.

Buehler retired the first two Rockies on fly balls to right-center to start the seventh inning. After he walked right fielder Carlos González, Roberts decided to go to the bullpen. “Buehler showed his surfeit of talent across 6⅔ innings of one-hit baseball,”5 silencing the bats of the Rockies, who had averaged more than 7 runs per game over their last 10 games. Right-hander Pedro Báez, who was 4-3 with a 2.91 ERA, walked Ian Desmond but got Matt Holliday on a popup to shortstop for the last out of the seventh inning.

Scott Oberg relieved to start the bottom of the eighth for the Rockies. An unsung hero of the Rockies bullpen, the right-handed Oberg entered the game with a record of 8-1 and a 2.48 ERA. After giving up back-to-back singles to Justin Turner and Muncy to lead off the inning that put runners at the corners, Oberg got Machado to ground into a double play with Turner holding at third. With the switch-hitting Grandal due up, the Rockies went the bullpen once again, bringing in veteran Jake McGee. The situational left-hander, who had struggled for much of the season and was 2-4 with an inflated 6.62 ERA, struck out Grandal swinging to end the inning.

The Dodgers used three pitchers in the eighth inning. Baez, who recorded the last out of the seventh, started the inning by getting Chris Iannetta to line out to third. Left-hander Scott Alexander, making his 73rd appearance of the season, gave up a single to Blackmon, his second hit of the day. Roberts then turned to Japanese right-hander Kenta Maeda, who recorded the final two outs of the inning.

McGee came back out to start the bottom of the eighth. He retired Bellinger and Puig on groundouts to first and third, respectively, before being replaced by DJ Johnson. The right-handed-throwing Johnson retired Hernández on the first pitch, a grounder to third base. After eight innings, the score remained 5-0.

Although it was not a save opportunity, the Dodgers turned to closer Kenley Jansen for the bottom of the ninth. The right-hander was 1-5 with a 2.80 ERA and 38 saves. The Rockies finally got on the scoreboard when third baseman Nolan Arenado sent Jansen’s first offering into the left-field pavilion, his 38th home run of the season. Shortstop Trevor Story then won a nine-pitch battle with Jansen, sending his 37th home run to right-center, cutting the Dodgers lead to 5-2. Jansen quickly recovered, getting Gonzalez to ground out to first on the next pitch, then striking out to final two batters to preserve the victory and send the Dodgers to a NLDS matchup against the Atlanta Braves.

With the victory, Buehler improved his record to 8-5 and lowered his ERA to 2.62. Márquez finished with a record of 14-11. His 14 victories were a career high. The time of the game was 3 hours and 21 minutes.

After the game, a reporter asked the brash Buehler if he knew he was going to win the game. Buehler curled his upper lip into a grin. “I won’t say yes,” Buehler said. “But, yes.”6

The Dodgers went on to beat the Braves in the NLDS three games to one and advanced to the National League Championship Series. They won the National League pennant by beating the Milwaukee Brewers four games to three before dropping the World Series to the Boston Red Sox four games to one.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author relied on Baseball-reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and Baseball-Almanac.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN201810010.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2018/B10010LAN2018.htm

Notes

1 Tribune Content Agency, “Walker Buehler Leads Dodgers to NL West Title and the NLDS,” Fairfield (California) Daily Republic, October 1, 2018. Retrieved on October 4, 2023, from www.dailyrepublic.com/sports/walker-buehler-leads-dodgers-to-nl-west-title-and-the-nlds/article_ca00f848-4a6b-5e55-82fc-1bd82586b83d.html.

2 Tribune Content Agency.

3 Tribune Content Agency.

4 Andy McCullough, “Walker Buehler Leads Dodgers to NL West Title and into NLDS, Los Angeles Times, October 1, 2018. Retrieved on October 3, 2023, from https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-dodgers-rockies-20181001-story.html.

5 McCullough.

6 McCullough.