October 14, 2021: Max Scherzer’s first save sends Dodgers to NLCS with win over Giants

The 2021 National League Division Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants was tied at two games each. The first two games were in San Francisco, followed by two in Los Angeles, with this deciding game on October 14 at Oracle Park in San Francisco before an enthusiastic, albeit chilly,1 crowd of 42,275.

The Dodgers were hoping to defend the World Series title earned in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. The Giants were aiming to advance in the postseason for the first time since their 2016 loss to the Chicago Cubs in the NL Division Series. In 2021 San Francisco (107-55) finished one game ahead of Los Angeles (106-56), giving the Giants the NL West Division title2 and forcing the Dodgers into a wild-card game against the St. Louis Cardinals.3 The Dodgers won that game on a bottom-of-the-ninth home run by Chris Taylor, leading to this NLDS showdown.

How significant was this game? Vin Scully, the longtime Dodgers announcer, tweeted that this was the most important game ever between the two storied rivals.4 Bold words, considering that the rivalry dated to the nineteenth century, when the franchises were based in Brooklyn and New York City. The Giants and Dodgers had played pennant-determining playoff series – both won by the Giants – in 1951 and 1962.5

Before Game Five, the managers engaged in some chess moves with the lineups and starting pitchers. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts texted Giants manager Gabe Kapler the night before to tell him that he was starting right-hander Corey Knebel rather than lefty Julio Urías. Twenty-game winner Urías seemed like the logical choice, given that he had held the Giants to one run in five innings in Game Two.

But the Dodgers had a plan designed by their front office after Game Four – start Knebel, then bring in Urías after the Giants had set their lineup based on a right-handed starter. If the tactic worked, the Giants would start their lefty batters, then pull them when Urias came in – making the lefties unavailable for late-game pinch-hitting.6 Given Knebel’s frequent use as a reliever and opener,7 however, the Giants figured that he wouldn’t be in the game for long. They started only three lefty batters: second baseman Tommy La Stella, shortstop Brandon Crawford, and right fielder Mike Yastrzemski.8

Another resource in the Dodgers’ Game Five pitching arsenal had arrived at the July trade deadline, when they acquired three-time Cy Young Award winner9 Max Scherzer (along with shortstop Trea Turner) by trading four prospects to the Washington Nationals.10 Los Angeles won all 11 of Scherzer’s starts in August and September. Although Scherzer – the winner of three postseason games during the Nationals’ World Series championship push in 2019 – had pitched seven innings three nights earlier in the Dodgers’ 1-0 loss in Game Three, he said he was “hot and ready to go” for this game.11 In 24 career postseason appearances, he had pitched in relief only four times, including a scoreless inning for a hold in Washington’s Game Two NLDS win at Dodger Stadium in 2019.

San Francisco’s starter, 24-year-old Logan Webb, was the winning pitcher in Game One six days earlier, allowing no runs in 7 2/3 innings. He faced the minimum in the top of the first – Mookie Betts hit a leadoff single, but after Corey Seager lined out, Trea Turner grounded into a double play.

In the bottom of the first, Knebel allowed a two-out double to Buster Posey but struck out Crawford to strand him.

Webb pitched a clean top of the second.

The bottom of the second saw the Giants get two men on against the Dodgers’ first reliever, righty Brusdar Graterol.12 He allowed singles to Kris Bryant and Wilmer Flores but got Evan Longoria on a foul pop and Webb13 on a swinging strikeout to keep the game scoreless.

Webb repeated his one-two-three performance in the top of the third.

Urías finally took the mound for the Dodgers in the bottom of the third. He faced right-handed pinch-hitter Donovan Solano, Darin Ruf, and Posey. A lineout and two fly outs and he was back in the dugout after eight pitches.

The Dodgers got two runners on in the top of the fourth with a leadoff single from Betts and a two-out walk to Will Smith, but Justin Turner grounded back to the pitcher for the third out.  Webb’s throw to first was wide, but Flores managed to keep his foot on the bag while lunging for the ball in foul territory.

Crawford hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the fourth, made it to second on a wild pitch and to third on a groundout, but Urías got a popout to strand him.

The pitchers’ duel continued in the fifth; the only out that wasn’t a strikeout was a weak roller by Cody Bellinger back to Webb.

The scoring finally started in the top of the sixth. Betts hit a one-out single, stole second, and scored on Seager’s double down the left-field line. That was all for the Dodgers, though: Trea Turner struck out and Smith flied out.

The Giants evened the score immediately with Ruf’s leadoff home run in the bottom of the frame – dead center, just to the right of the 391-foot mark, sending the crowd into a frenzy. But that was all they could muster. Bryant hit a two-out single but was out on a fielder’s choice.

Webb pitched the top of the seventh, working another one-two-three inning, capped with an eight-pitch strikeout of Bellinger. He finished with four hits and one run allowed, with seven strikeouts, on 106 pitches.

Blake Treinen took the mound for the Dodgers for the bottom of the seventh. Flores lined out on the first pitch, and Treinen struck out the next two batters to complete his frame.

The Dodgers had two baserunners in the top of the eighth against submarining lefty Tyler Rogers. Pinch-hitter AJ Pollock singled with one out, and Betts followed with his fourth single of the game. After Rogers struck out Seager, manager Kapler brought in Camilo Doval to face Trea Turner. The switch worked – Turner flied out on the first pitch.

Kenley Jansen, the Dodgers’ 34-year-old closer, pitched the bottom of the eighth, showing the skills that kept him in the Top 10 in Saves and Games Finished every year since 2014. Solano lined out and Ruf and Posey struck out.14

Doval took the mound for the top of the ninth. With one out he plunked Justin Turner. Lux singled, moving Turner to second. Bellinger stepped to the plate, looking for redemption after a lost season.15 The 2019 NL MVP hit a perfectly placed single up the middle, scoring Turner with the go-ahead run.

Kapler immediately brought in Game Two starter16 Kevin Gausman, who got the next two outs with help from his defense. The third out was pinch-hitter Matt Beaty, who hit a slow roller to the left of first. First baseman Flores grabbed it and ran for the bag rather than flipping to Gausman who had run over to cover. Flores ran through the bag just before Beaty dove in, barely avoiding stepping on Beaty. But the inning was over with the Dodgers leading, 2-1.

Roberts placed the bottom of the ninth in Scherzer’s hands. The 37-year-old right-hander hadn’t pitched in relief in the regular season since his 2008 rookie year, although he had relieved in the postseason.17 This would be the first time in his 14-year career entering in the ninth inning.

Crawford lined out to left. Bryant hit a grounder just inside the third-base line. Third baseman Justin Turner grabbed the ball, but he bobbled it into foul territory. Bryant was safe and Turner was charged with an error.

Scherzer struck out pinch-hitter LaMonte Wade Jr. for the second out. That brought up Flores, who had faced Scherzer 18 times since 2013 – and had yet to get a hit. History repeated itself, as Scherzer struck him out on three pitches to close out the Series and earn his first career save. The last strike was a controversial not-checked-swing call by first-base umpire Gabe Morales.18

Cue the hugs, high-fives, and the champagne celebration. After indulging, Scherzer returned to the field wearing shorts, sandals, and goggles, hearing the chants of “M-V-P!” from the Dodgers fans in attendance.19

Kapler was philosophical about the final check-swing call: “Super tough. Obviously, you don’t want a game to end that way. … There are other reasons we didn’t win today’s baseball game, so that was just the last call of the game.”20

The win sent the Dodgers to the NL Championship Series – where they lost four games to two to the eventual World Series champion Atlanta Braves.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Max Scherzer, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheeet.org, and the highlights available on YouTube.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN202110140.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2021/B10140SFN2021.htm

YouTube highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjscAB1TEfk ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_SkdXnEyNU ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBajOO38Qio

Notes

1 Official start-time temperature was 66 degrees with a 10-MPH wind. The temperature dropped to below 60 by the end of the game. “Mill Valley CA Weather History,” Weather Underground, https://www.wunderground.com/history/daily/KJMC/date/2021-10-14 , accessed August 26, 2025.

2 The Dodgers had won the division title the previous eight years (2013-2020). The Giants’ last division title was in 2012, when they won the World Series. They also won the Series in 2014, reaching the postseason via a wild-card victory.

3 The Dodgers-Giants regular season head-to-head record was Giants 10, Dodgers 9.

4 Jorge Castillo, “Their Saving Grace, Bellinger’s Clutch RBI in Dramatic Ninth and Scherzer’s First Career Save Slays the Giants,” Los Angeles Times, October 15, 2021: D1; Janie McCauley, “Dodgers Advance to NLCS,” West Hawaii Today, October 15, 2021: B1.

5 Donald Beard, “Giants-Dodgers Cover a Lot of Ground,” Washington Post, March 30, 2005: H05, https://web.archive.org/web/20110628232226/http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A8285-2005Mar28?language=printer retrieved July 21, 2025.

6 Dylan Hernández, “Their Saving Grace, Determined Scherzer Emerges in Reserve,” Los Angeles Times, October 15, 2021: D1; Castillo, “Their Saving Grace.”

7 Knebel’s longest outing in 2021 had been two innings. Typically, he pitched in relief, although he had served as an opener during the 2021 regular season on four occasions.

8 Only Crawford started against Urias in Game Two. Yastrzemski and La Stella pinch-hit in that game and stayed in to play center field and second base respectively.

9 Scherzer won the Cy Young Award in 2013 with the Detroit Tigers, and in 2016 and 2017 with the Nationals. He was in the top five in the Cy Young race every year from 2013 through 2021 except the COVID-shortened 2020 season.

10 The Nationals received pitcher Josiah Gray, catcher Keibert Ruiz, pitcher Gerardo Carrillo, and outfielder Donovan Casey. Gray and Ruiz assumed regular roles with the Nationals soon after the trade; Gray was selected as an NL All-Star in 2023. Through 2025, Carrillo had not reached the majors, having played at the Double-A level for the Dodgers, the Nationals, and the Rangers, and pitched in two games at Triple A in the Rangers’ system. Through 2025, Casey had not made it to the majors, topping out at Triple A in 2022 in the Nationals’ system. Both had found some success in the Mexican Leagues.

11 Hernández, “Their Saving Grace.”

12 He was typically a late-inning reliever in the regular season and playoffs. Graterol had pitched 33 1/3 innings in 34 games in 2021, with a 4.59 ERA. In the 2021 postseason, he’d allowed only one hit in four appearances over 3 2/3 innings, with a 0.00 ERA.

13 Webb’s 2021 regular season batting average was .130 with 21 strikeouts in 53 plate appearances. He did hit one home run. 2021 was the last season in the NL in which pitchers batted. The NL moved to the AL’s “DH for the pitcher” model starting in 2022, with exceptions for two-way players.

14 It was the final at-bat of Posey’s 12-season major-league career, spent entirely with the Giants.

15 Castillo, “Their Saving Grace.” In 2021 Bellinger batted .165 and appeared in only 95 games due to injuries and ineffectiveness. From his rookie year of 2017 through 2024, 2021 was the only year when he contributed negative WAR (-1.6).

16 Gausman was charged with the loss in Game Two, pitching 5 1/3 innings and allowing four earned runs.

17 Scherzer made one mid- or late-game appearance in postseason games in 2011, 2013, 2017, and 2019. His record in those games was two holds, a win, and a loss.

18  McCauley, “Dodgers Advance to NLCS.”

19 Hernández, “Their Saving Grace.”

20 McCauley.