Just like they wrote it up … sort of.

The Dodgers went into AT&T Park for the final series of the 2018 regular season needing a sweep in order to catch and hopefully pass the Colorado Rockies to win their sixth consecutive National League West title. They did their part, but the NL East second place – and out of playoff contention – Washington Nationals did not do theirs, dropping two of three to the Rockies at Coors Field.

As a result, the Dodgers and Rockies finished the season with identical 91-71 records, forcing a one-game playoff – game number 163 – to be played at Dodger Stadium on Monday afternoon.

It’s a simple formula: If the Dodgers win game-163, they win the NL West and will face the Atlanta Braves in the 2018 National League Division Series, which begins on Thursday at Dodger Stadium.

If the Dodgers lose game-163, the Rockies win the NL West and the Dodgers will face the St. Louis Cardinals the very next day – on Tuesday – in the National League Wild Card games, also at Dodger Stadium. That game, however, is a win-or-go-home game, with the winner advancing to the NLDS and the loser having six months to think about what went wrong.

So how did the Dodgers get here, you ask? Unless you’ve been under a rock or abducted by aliens for the last three days, you are well aware that not only did the Dodgers sweep The Hated Ones in their own ballpark this past weekend, they absolutely annihilated them in Sunday’s series and season finale by an embarrassing football-like score of 15-0.

That’s not a typo, that’s fifteen to zero. In fact, the game was basically over after two batters and 14 pitches – a six-pitch leadoff walk by Dodgers left fielder Chris Taylor, and an eight-pitch at-bat by Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner that ended with an RBI double into the right field corner.

By the time the fourth inning rolled around, every one of the Dodgers starting nine except Dodgers starter Rich Hill had scored at least once.

Annihilation indeed.

Veteran Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp went 3-for-3 with three runs batted in during Sunday’s 15-0 shellacking of the Giants. (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

Don’t feel too bad for left-hander Rich Hill on missing out on Sunday’s hit parade, he was absolutely brilliant on the mound. In addition to shutting out the Giants in his seven innings of work, he allowed only two hits – back-to-back singles to Giants second baseman Joe Panik and third baseman Evan Longoria in the bottom of the fourth – while walking none and striking out seven, and doing so on only 75 total pitches of which 57 were strikes.

Dodgers left-hander Rich Hill was absolutely brilliant on Sunday afternoon. In fact, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called Hill’s seven-inning / two hit shutout “his best start in recent memory,”
(Photo credit – Joey Vangsness)

Hill was followed on the mound by right-hander JT Chargois and phenom left-hander Julio Urias, both of whom pitched a perfect inning while striking out two apiece.

That’s the good news, great actually.

The bad news is that while the Dodgers were thoroughly embarrassing the Giants in front of 41,280 at AT&T Park (a larger percentage of whom were wearing Dodger Blue), the Rockies were thoroughly embarrassing the Nationals 12-0 in front of 47,833 at Coors Field. As a result and as mentioned above, the Dodgers and Rockies ended the regular 162-game season with identical 91-71 records, forcing game-163.

But there’s more great news for Dodger fans. The Dodgers will send 24-year-old hard-throwing right-hander Walker Buehler to the mound in game-163. In his 23 appearances (22 starts) this season, the Lexington, Kentucky native and former Vanderbilt University Commodore posted a 7-5 record and excellent 2.76 ERA. In his combined 130.2 innings of work, Buehler walked only 34 while striking out 148. Additionally, the young fireballer with a fastball that consistently hits 97-mph  and occasionally higher has a fierceness about him reminiscent of guys named Don Drysdale and Orel Hershiser. In fact, many liken him to the latter quite often; not a bad comp by any standard.

If it can’t be Clayton Kershaw starting game-163 for the Dodgers, there is no one they would rather have doing so than Walker Buehler. (Photo credit – Jayne Kamin-Oncea)

First pitch for game-163 is scheduled for 1:09 pm PT and the game will be carried live on ESPN … and trust me, you won’t want to miss a single pitch of this one.

Play Ball!