This time, they didn’t choke.
This time, they did the choking.
On a glorious night amid a roiling sea of joyful blue, the Dodgers wrapped their weary, weathered arms around the San Diego Padres Friday and crushed those brown jerseys like an empty paper sack, eventually exhaling with redemption, relief and a coveted spot just four wins from the World Series.
In the winner-take-all Game 5 of the National League Division Series, the Dodgers took all the criticisms of the past two postseason collapses and buried them under a barrage of fastballs and long balls in a near-perfect 2-0 victory over the Padres at a shamelessly joyful Dodger Stadium.