The Dodgers Won't Die

Standing in the way between the Dodgers and a postseason berth are the St. Louis Cardinals, the San Francisco Giants and time. The Cardinals magic number to clinch the final National League wild card spot was two heading into play on Monday. And all three obstacles nearly eliminated the Dodgers Monday night. Nearly.

Aaron Harang made the first pitch at 7:10 p.m., a fastball to Angel Pagan, and the Dodgers knew it would probably be in their best interest to win the game since the Cardinals had the 4-2 lead over the Cincinnati Reds.

Five minutes later after Harang walked Marco Scutaro, Buster Posey belted a double to left-center field that took a weird hop after bouncing off the bottom of the wall. Left fielder Shane Victorino bobbled the ball giving Scutaro enough time to race down the line and score ahead of the throw.

"Usually that ball comes off the wall," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "It's in the exact right spot and sticks under the fence."

With Matt Cain on the mound for the Giants, that seemed to be the season for the Dodgers. It was a mere formality about 40 minutes later at 7:54 p.m. when Jason Motte earned his 41st save of the season preserving the Cardinals 4-2 win over the Reds. But for Harang, that took a back seat to what he was focused on.

"I just told myself that's it," Harang recalled after giving up the run in the first inning. "That's all they're getting. I've got to go out and make pitches and give us an opportunity to get rolling."

To Harang's credit, that's exactly what he did going six innings for the first time since Aug. 18 giving up only that lone run. It's part of the collective mindset of the team and Harang described.

"We're battling. We've been battling all week. We know what's at stake. We've just got to go out and execute when we're on the field."

The Dodgers showed that execution with Andre Ethier injecting new life into the game in the bottom of the fourth inning. He took the first pitch in his at-bat against Cain and belted it 426 feet away to center field, a two-run homer at 8:09 p.m., that gave the Dodgers the 2-1 lead.

That livened up the crowd of hundreds 33,624 who bothered to show up to the game, a vocal minority of whom were Giants fans, showing how nonexistent this once fierce rivalry was. Even the Giants didn't seem to want to relish too much in bringing about the Dodgers demise — with Cain being set to start the first game of the NL Divisional Series for the Giants, manager Bruce Bochy favored leaving Cain in only five innings after making 68 pitches just as planned.

The game continued on as the Giants seemed willing to call it a night trailing the Dodgers 2-1. At least it seemed that way until the eighth inning when at 9:32 p.m. Scutaro hit a single off of Kenley Jansen that scored Pagan to tie the game and extended his hitting streak to 18 games.

Everything from earlier in September seemed to rush back: the offensive futility; the pulling out defeats from the jaws of victory. But this was a new Dodger team since that closed-door team meeting after the Tuesday loss in San Diego.

"We had a pretty tough meeting down in San Diego where [Mattingly] laid it out for us," A.J. Ellis said. "He called us on the carpet and put us in a spot where we had to take our own personal accountability for what's been going on."

Since that meeting the Dodgers had not lost a game, and they seem hellbent on continuing that trend.

At 9:59 with Hanley Ramirez on second base in the bottom of the ninth inning, Luis Cruz lined a one-out single to shallow left field. As Ramirez got ready to round third base to score the winning run, third-base coach Tim Wallach put on the stop sign holding Ramirez at third base much to the consternation of the crowd.

"The stop sign in the ninth was a no-brainer," Mattingly said. "He's out by a mile."

After A.J. Ellis was intentionally walked, it came down to Elian Herrera who came into the game in a double-switch in the top of the ninth inning. With the game tied Mattingly wanted reliever Brandon League to pitch two innings.

"I didn't really want to take Andre out of the game, but I had to do something," Mattingly explained. "Elian is my best leftfielder after Victorino, and I felt better with [Victorino] in right field."

At 10:04, Elian Herrera hit a line drive straight to second baseman Scutaro. As Scutaro jumped to make a play on the ball, it glanced off his glove and rolled to the lip of the left field grass giving the Dodgers the walk-off 3-2 win.

"I had to put the ball in play, then something can happen," Herrera said taking three or four steps before realizing that he did have his first walk-off hit in the Majors.

Unlike the Angels, the Dodgers are still alive after 160 games. However the elimination number is down to one meaning the Dodgers cannot lose a game nor can the Cardinals win another game. If this happens, then there will be a game 163 between the Cardinals and Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on Thursday.

"It's fun," was all Mattingly could say.