LOS ANGELES -- What a day for Walker Buehler.
The rookie with an extraordinary sense of calm pitched the Los Angeles Dodgers to a record sixth consecutive NL West title by tossing one-hit ball into the seventh inning, and Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy hit two-run home runs to beat the Colorado Rockies 5-2 in a tiebreaker Monday.
"It's a normal baseball game. It's hyped up, there's an adrenaline, but you got to execute," Buehler said. "That's all you can do."
The defending NL champion Dodgers became the first major league team to win six consecutive division crowns since the Yankees captured nine AL East titles in a row from 1998-2006.
"It doesn't get old," confirmed ace Clayton Kershaw.
Los Angeles now hosts Atlanta in the best-of-five NL division series beginning Thursday.
"We're going to beat Atlanta," a shirtless Yasiel Puig proclaimed, rivulets of beer and champagne down his front and back. "No matter who's coming, we're going to the World Series and bring the 2018 championship here."
Denied their first division title in franchise history, the Rockies head to Wrigley Field to play the Chicago Cubs in the NL wild-card game tonight.
"Our guys will put it in the rear-view for sure," Rockies Manager Bud Black said of the loss. "The resiliency of this group has been awesome all year."
Pitching in 90-degree heat, Buehler was oh-so-cool in closing out a regular season that ended with Game 163 after both teams had identical records of 91-71.
The soft-spoken, 24-year-old from Lexington, Ky., has been so steady of late that Manager Dave Roberts had no qualms about giving Buehler the ball for the crucial game that decided the Dodgers' postseason fate.
"He's ready for this moment," Roberts said, "and he responded."
Buehler settled in quickly, retiring his first six batters in a row, and never did allow a run.
"Walker is a tremendous talent," Kershaw said. "His competitiveness is off-the-charts, his ability is off-the-charts."
Buehler (8-5) had his no-hit bid broken up in the sixth on Charlie Blackmon's single, one of his two hits for the Rockies.
"He didn't fold at all under pressure," Muncy said. "He went out there and attacked them just like we knew he was going to."
Buehler even helped himself offensively, hitting a single in the sixth for his first professional RBI to extend the Dodgers' lead to 5-0.
"Love that, absolutely," he said, soaked to the skin.
After giving up a two-out walk to Carlos Gonzalez in the seventh, Buehler exited to a standing ovation from the announced crowd of 47,816. He waved his right hand and quickly strode to the dugout as fans chanted his last name. The right-hander struck out three and walked three.
Despite posting the best road record in franchise history (44-38), the Rockies couldn't get untracked. They didn't advance a runner past second base until the ninth when Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story homered back to back off closer Kenley Jansen.
Jansen then retired the next three batters in a row.
"What happened?" Jansen said when asked about the home runs. "We're first in the division, that's what happened."
The Dodgers' two home runs extended their franchise and NL-leading total to 235.
Bellinger got the Dodgers on the board with his 25th home run in the fourth, a two-out shot to left that made it 2-0. Muncy struck out leading off but was safe at first on a passed ball by catcher Tony Wolters. After Manny Machado and Yasmani Grandal struck out, Bellinger connected on a 1-0 pitch from German Marquez (14-11).
Joc Pederson doubled to deep right-center leading off the fifth. One out later, Muncy hit his 35th home run to left-center, extending the lead to 4-0 and chasing Marquez.
Marquez gave up 4 runs -- 2 earned -- and 5 hits in 4⅔ innings. He struck out nine and walked two.
Sports on 10/02/2018