For the most part, over the course of a grueling 162-game season there are very few games that you will remember as being little more than a win or a loss in the grand scheme of things. But every now and then there is one of those games; a game that you will not only remember throughout the entire season, but you will quite possibly remember for the rest of your life. There is little doubt that Sunday’s game between the Dodgers and the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park was one of those game, and it could very well end up being the single most exciting game of the entire 2019 season.

Making only his second start of the season for the Dodgers was their ace and Future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw, who was as vintage of Clayton Kershaw as we have seen in quite some time. All the 31-year-old Dallas, Texas native and Dodgers 2006 first-round draft pick did was pitch 6.0 innings against one of the most potent line-ups in the game today, allowing only two runs on two hits, while walking four and striking out seven. But when asked about his second start of the season and despite the fact that he left the game with a 5-2 lead, Kershaw was as Kershaw always is – his own worst critic.

“It was a grind, definitely wasn’t easy today,” Kershaw said, critical of his four walks in six innings. “I was kind of fighting myself really the whole game.”

Fortunately for the Dodgers ace, left-handed reliever Scott Alexander was pretty good in his one inning behind him; pretty good in that he allowed only a base hit while striking out one. Alexander did, however, hit a batter to put runners on first and second but escaped the inning on a perfectly executed 5-4-3 double play.

But right-hander Pedro Baez was not pretty good … again. Were it not for an absolutely outstanding over-the-wall, home-run-robbing catch by Dodgers All-Star right fielder Cody Bellinger off the bat of (wait for it…) Brewers slugger Christian Yelich, it would have been a 5-3 ballgame.

“I knew he hit it pretty well so I just got to the wall as quick as I could,” Bellinger said. “He hit it so high in the air you just get to the wall and read it and try to time up the jump.”

It worked.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that Baez, as he so often does, subsequently gave up back-to-back singles to Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun and catcher (and former Dodger) Yasmani Grandal, which (thankfully) were followed by a pop-out by Brewers third baseman Jesus Aguilar, which (thankfully) prompted Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to bring in All-Star closer Kenley Jansen for a four-out save.

It didn’t work.

Instead, with inherited runners on first and second and on a 3-2 count, Jansen threw a 93.7-mph cut fastball right down Broadway that Brewers pinch-hitter Eric Thames absolutely crushed for a devastating game-tying 407-foot three-run home run.

“Sometimes when you make mental mistakes, that’s the hardest thing to deal with because that’s not supposed to happen out there. No mental errors are supposed to happen out there and I made a mental error,” said Jansen. “It’s not the pitch I’m supposed to throw right there.”

But as if following a script written by Dodger fans, in the top of the ninth inning with two outs and the bases empty in a 5-5 ballgame, and with the Dodgers down to their final strike, their seemingly nightly hero Cody Bellinger launched a 1-2 hanging slider off of Brewers All-Star closer Josh Hader into the right field seats for a solo home run to give the Dodgers a 6-5 lead, absolutely silencing the Miller Park crowd.

“He threw some early sliders. With two strikes against him, you literally just try to put it in play, see what you can do,” Bellinger said of his game-winning 11th home run of the season. “He just threw that one worse than his first two. Better for me. And I just tried to put the barrel to it.”

It worked.

Jansen – the real Kenley Jansen – showed up in the bottom of the ninth and promptly struck out the side to earn the 6-5 Dodgers win, albeit with a blown save thrown into the mix.

After a much-needed off-day on Monday, the Dodgers open a three-game series with the Chicago Cubs at “The Friendly Confines” of Wrigley Field. Let’s just hope it’s the Dodgers for whom they are friendly.

Play Ball!

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