MLB playoffs: Dodgers' collection of LA redemption stories spins a tale of triumph

Ryan Fagan

MLB playoffs: Dodgers' collection of LA redemption stories spins a tale of triumph image

CHICAGO — When you find a free moment, pull up the Dodgers’ NLCS Game 3 lineup. Take a good, hard look at the players Dave Roberts turned to in an effort to give his team a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series against the reigning World Series champions. 

That Game 3 lineup was an amazing testament to the power of roster construction.

And the lineup worked, of course. The Dodgers dominated the Cubs 6-1 on Tuesday night and are now just one win away from advancing to the World Series for the first time since 1988. It’s true the Dodgers have the highest payroll in baseball — and that has been the case for a couple years now — but they aren't standing on the precipice of greatness only because of massive free-agent contracts or blockbuster trades (such as the one for Game 3 starter Yu Darvish).

MORE: Takeaways from the Dodgers' Game 3 win

They’re here because the front office — led by president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi — believes in taking risks. That group believes in giving injured players a chance to prove they can regain their past glory, and the Dodgers believe in giving players who struggle in other places a fresh start in their organization. They believe in talent. 

And they have players who embrace the chances given to them. “You have a lot of guys that don't take things for granted,” veteran outfielder Andre Ethier said. “You know that things aren't going to always come easy, and you don't have many opportunities when you're in this position, not just in this position, but in baseball in general. You don't know how many opportunities you're going to get to play this game and be on a team, and then be on a team that can win and is successful. It keeps getting escalated from that point.”

Let’s look at how the Dodgers arrived at this Game 3 lineup. We’ll dive deep into a couple of stories, and give you the Cliff's Notes version of others. 

Leading off: Chris Taylor, SS

His LA story: The Dodgers traded for Taylor in June last year. You probably missed the news. The deal was most notable because LA sent former elite pitching prospect Zach Lee to Seattle in exchange for Taylor, a 2012 fifth-round draft pick who had batted just .240 in 86 games for the Mariners over parts of three seasons. This was a blip, at best. 

Taylor spent hours and days and weeks and months of the offseason reworking his swing, out of necessity. Heading into his Age 26 season, he was about out of time to prove he was a big-league player. “I really didn't know what to expect. I was coming in, I had to feel uncomfortable,” Taylor said after Game 3. “That was the biggest thing. I knew I had to kind of make that drastic change right away and get out of my comfort zone. Had no expectations going into it. I always have confidence in my ability, and obviously I was hoping it would come.”

MORE: Postseason first-timers came into NLCS looking to give LA spark 

And, yeah, the change worked. Taylor was one of baseball’s best out-of-nowhere stories in 2017. He popped 21 homers and stole 17 bases while posting an .850 OPS and starting at least 10 games at four different positions — left field, center field, second base and shortstop. Taylor has played every inning of the postseason; after starting the first five games in center, he started at shortstop in Game 3. And he hit his second home run of the NLCS on Tuesday, then followed that up with an RBI triple in his next at-bat. 

“To take a chance on trying to learn a new swing and to bet on yourself, and that's what he did. He committed to it,” Roberts said. “We saw early in spring training he was a different hitter. So he's a tireless worker. He's got a great head. He competes, and now you take that swing chain, and he's an impact player. To be able to start him in center field the first couple games, and then to start him at short and to get on base, to slug, drive runs in, catch the baseball, he's a huge asset for us.”

Batting second: Cody Bellinger, 1B

His LA story: Everyone knows Bellinger now — 39 home runs will put a guy on the map — but remember he didn’t even start the season with the big-league club. He was a fourth-round pick in the 2013 MLB Draft by the Dodgers out of high school and rose steadily through the system before finally arriving in the bigs for good in late April. 

Batting third: Justin Turner, 3B 

His LA story: Turner was traded by the team that drafted him (Cincinnati) and then basically dumped by both the Orioles (in 2010) and Mets (in 2013) before he signed with the Dodgers on a minor-league free-agent deal shortly before spring training 2014. He’s a Dodger hero now. Turner’s walkoff three-run home run in Game 2 of the NLCS was the first LA walkoff home run in the playoffs since, you guessed it, Kirk Gibson’s walkoff in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. 

WEXLER: Turner a cog in Dodgers' machine

Batting fourth: Yasiel Puig, RF

His LA story: Obviously, we don’t have time for a full Puig story here. You know the highest highs — he finished second in the 2013 NL Rookie of the Year race and hit .417 in the NLDS that year — and the lowest lows — he was demoted to Triple-A last year, amid both production and off-the-field issues. Now, though? Puig had two more hits in Game 3 and is batting .429 this postseason.

Batting fifth: Andre Ethier, LF

His LA story: Ethier has made a lot of money with the Dodgers, no doubt. But injuries have limited him to just 36 games over the past two seasons, which has been insanely frustrating for Ethier. He was a surprise addition to the Game 3 lineup; it was his first playoff start since 2015. So, of course, he hit a home run in his first at-bat, a solo shot that tied the game 1-1 in the second.

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“They were riding that momentum on [Kyle] Schwarber's first-inning home run right there,” Ethier said. “You can look at it two ways: Here we go again, or you can just say, 'We need to answer and we're going to fight.' And that's what we're doing.”

Ethier added a single in the sixth that led to another Dodgers run. 

MORE: Bracket, schedule for 2017 MLB postseason

“Very, very happy for him, and the game honors you,” Roberts said. “And a guy like Andre who has done it the right way for such a long time and repeatedly said he just wanted to be a part of this and to prepare every single day like he's going to play, and when that opportunity presented itself, he was ready. For him to come through and perform and pick us up the way he did is no surprise. It's just a credit to his professionalism.”

Batting sixth: Chase Utley, 2B

His LA story: Utley was a Phillies legend who has become an LA fan favorite over the past three seasons. It’s safe to say very few people thought Utley would be starting playoff games for the Dodgers in 2017 at 38 years old when he was traded from Philly in August 2015. 

Batting seventh: Austin Barnes, C

His LA story: Like Taylor, Barnes arrived with little fanfare. He was part of the seven-player deal that sent Dee Gordon from Los Angeles to Miami, and he was not the primary trade chip. But the ninth-round pick (Marlins, 2011) forced his way into the mix with a strong season at the plate. In 102 regular-season games, he hit .289 with an .895 OPS. He earned a platoon behind the plate with Yasmani Grandal, who was an All-Star in 2015 and received MVP votes in 2016. 

Barnes had a single and scored a run in the eighth inning of Game 3, when the Dodgers basically put the game on ice by extending their lead to five runs. 

Batting eighth: Joc Pederson, CF 

His LA story: Pederson’s star has dimmed a bit, no doubt. The 11th-round pick in 2010 was an All-Star in 2015, his rookie year, and he hit 51 homers over his first two seasons in the majors. He has struggled with strikeouts, though, and was injured much of 2017; he hit just .212 with 11 homers in 102 games. But he was in the lineup for Game 3, and he led off the fifth inning with a double down the right-field line, then scored on Taylor’s triple.  

Ryan Fagan

Ryan Fagan Photo

Ryan Fagan, the national MLB writer for The Sporting News, has been a Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2016. He also dabbles in college hoops and other sports. And, yeah, he has way too many junk wax baseball cards.