ATLANTA -- What's frustrates opponents of the Los Angeles Dodgers more than the goo-gobs of money they spend and defer is what it buys them. For all the stars they boast, all the names befitting a team made for Hollywood, it's the nine-deep lineups and handfuls of starting-pitching options and relentless parade of bullpen arms that, more than anything, allow the Dodgers to bully, batter and, eventually, break.
"You never know who the guy's going to be," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said in the aftermath of their 4-1 victory over Atlanta on Wednesday that clinched their third consecutive National League Championship Series appearance.
The previous two ended in World Series titles, and the ease with which the Dodgers dispatched the Braves -- in four games, allowing a total of eight runs in the division series -- reinforced the reality anyone in their path faces: A championship runs through Los Angeles until it doesn't.
Nine-hole hitter Andy Pages was the guy in Game 4, lacing a two-run single in the seventh inning to break a 1-1 tie and silence the 41,173 at Truist Park who hoped to see the Braves save their season. Instead, it ended like the previous seven postseason teams that came at the Dodgers: with a low, gurgling whimper.
"They're going for their third straight world championship for a reason," Atlanta manager Walt Weiss said. "Their arms just keep coming at you."
Five of them combined to limit Atlanta to three hits, and none in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position. The Braves went 1-for-23 in the series in such situations, flummoxed by Los Angeles' deep reservoir of power arms. Starter Tyler Glasnow worked around five walks by allowing just one hit in 4⅔ innings of one-run ball. Alex Vesia secured two outs and Edgardo Henriquez five more before Tanner Scott and Edwin Diaz, closers signed in each of the past two offseasons, pitched one clean inning apiece to vanquish the NL East champions.
For much of their 100-win regular season, the Dodgers toyed around with their bullpen to figure out proper postseason roles. Diaz, who joined Los Angeles on a three-year, $69 million deal to chase championships, underwent elbow surgery in April that sidelined him for three months and hit the injured list again in August with neck inflammation. His electric stuff flickered. And the Dodgers started considering other end-of-game options.
By the end of September, the dominant Diaz had returned. And after Roberts used him in the sixth inning of Game 2, he turned to him with a one-run lead in the ninth inning of Game 3 and went back to him for the save again in Game 4.
"The postseason is different than the regular season," Roberts said. "There's no correlation to the success you have in the regular season into the postseason. For us, you've just got to be playing your best baseball, and guys have got to step up in big moments. That's what it takes. You've got to have some good fortune as well."
Such fortune kissed the Dodgers all series, and particularly in Game 4.
In the bottom of the sixth, with the score still tied, Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies rocketed a Vesia fastball toward left-center field. In 29 of 30 stadiums, it would have been a home run. At Truist Park, it clanged off the top of the fence and went for a double. Vesia induced a flyout and gave way to Henriquez, who worked out of the jam by getting Lane Thomas to ground out to third and Mauricio Dubon to line out to right field.
Los Angeles immediately did what Atlanta couldn't. With one out, Teoscar Hernandez singled, chasing starter Tyler Mahle, whose splitter had held the Dodgers in check all night. Rookie Didier Fuentes, who had retired the first 11 Dodgers hitters he faced in Atlanta's Game 2 win, struggled to find the strike zone. He walked rookie Josue De Paula and Kyle Tucker on five pitches each to load the bases, then worked the count full on Pages before he laced a 99 mph fastball back up the middle to plate a pair.
"The only thing in mind was just putting the team ahead, putting pressure on them," Pages said.
Pages is one of the Dodgers' best development stories, defecting from Cuba at 16 and signing for $300,000. On Aug. 21, when Shohei Ohtani was the only Dodgers player with more wins above replacement than Pages, a 100 mph Bubba Chandler fastball fractured Pages' left hand. To accelerate his return, Pages had a compression screw placed in his hand. He returned Sept. 22, proved himself sufficiently healthy to start in center field and delivered the hit that sent Los Angeles onto another NLCS.
"Coming back from the hand thing is not easy," Vesia said. "You can't just immediately start to pick it up right where you left off. There's peaks and valleys in this game. But I know at the end of the day, we bet on that guy. We want him to be in those situations. It's an awesome team, man. It really is."
The Braves were good, too, but suffered the same fate as those of recent vintage that have tried to dethrone Los Angeles. Austin Riley went hitless in 13 at-bats. Drake Baldwin batted .071 and Matt Olson .125. And Ronald Acuna Jr., their star right fielder, again collapsed in the postseason, with just two singles in 17 division series plate appearances.
"It's frustrating just because I know the talent that I have," Acuna said through an interpreter -- and tears. "It's frustrating when you know you have that potential and not doing anything with it."
The Dodgers do that. To great players. To great teams. And what's particularly scary is they did it to the Braves with Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Will Smith -- three of their top four hitters -- going a combined 6-for-43 without an extra-base hit. That's where the depth came into play. Freddie Freeman hit a pair of home runs. And Max Muncy, who capped the Dodgers' Game 4 scoring with an eighth-inning solo shot, deposited three balls over the fence.
With the sort of pitching Los Angeles unleashed, that was plenty. And it left one question as they prepare for their second straight NLCS against Milwaukee after embarrassing the Brewers in a sweep last year.
What are the Dodgers going to look like if they actually get their boppers going?
"Our goal is to win the World Series, not this series," Diaz said. "We've got eight more wins to go."