When it mattered most, the Los Angeles Dodgers brought out the home run bats and an incredible start from Yoshinobu Yamamoto en route to winning - for the fourth straight season and 12th time in 13 seasons - the National League West Division title.
The Dodgers shut down the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-0 at Chase Field on Thursday afternoon, kicking off a very calm and collected celebration. There were no players jumping up and down. The Dodgers appeared to look like a team that had been in the postseason before and knows what lies ahead.
Who hit homers for the Dodgers? Let's start with Shohei Ohtani, who parked his 54th homer over the right-field fence. That ties Ohtani's franchise record for homers in a season.
Freddie Freeman followed that up with a homer as the Dodgers opened up an eight-run lead after four innings. The Diamondbacks didn't have enough offense to come back from the deficit.
Andy Pages also homered in the game for Los Angeles, making sure Los Angeles didn't put its struggling bullpen in too much trouble. Yamamoto struck out seven Diamondbacks over six scoreless innings.
It's been quite a season for the Dodgers, who have dealt with injury woes and relievers like Blake Treinen and Tanner Scott not able to shut down games in clutch moments. On Wednesday night, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called on starters Roki Sasaki and Clayton Kershaw - yes, Kershaw - to come on in relief work.
They got the job done as Los Angeles secured a 5-4, 11-inning victory over Arizona with Justin Wrobleski keeping the Diamondbacks off the scoreboard in their half of the 11th.
The Dodgers are looking to repeat as World Series champions. Roberts knows that the journey to enter into the postseason is never easy, no matter whether a team runs away or struggles to win a division.
"Baseball is different than any other sport," Roberts said, according to Dodgers reporter Sonja Chen of MLB.com. "The psyche part of it, the battle of attrition, all that stuff kind of matters in baseball. There's probably many reasons why it hasn't been done since the Yankees did it, but I think that's something that we're trying to do, and we have an opportunity to make history.
"It hasn't been easy, but that's part of it. It shouldn't be easy."
When the Dodgers start postseason play, they will have to be a part of the NL Wild Card action. Also, Dodgers fans will probably see Kershaw again in a relief situation. At this time, Roberts does not have plans to use Kershaw in the rotation.
But Dodgers fans will have to wait and see how things pan out. Kershaw wouldn't mind getting a postseason start as he's retiring after the 2025 MLB season ends. Los Angeles fans can start saving their money for trips to Cooperstown, New York, when Kershaw goes into the Baseball Hall of Fame in a few years.