Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
Kenley Jansen, left, and Clayton Kershaw after the Dodgers' win. Kershaw gave up two runs and three hits in six innings.
LOS ANGELES — As if the $235 million payroll, and the decision to refrain from fully investing in Manager Don Mattingly, left any questions about the Steinbrenner-like expectations of the Los Angeles Dodgers, they issued another proclamation Monday.
Clayton Kershaw, who might have been viewed as a Game 5 security blanket in case the series were to return to Atlanta, instead was summoned Monday on three days' rest to end the teams' National League division series here and now.
It was another sign that the Dodgers will worry about tomorrow later.
The tactic paid off, barely, when Juan Uribe rescued the Dodgers, and their decision makers, by hitting a two-strike, two-run home run in the eighth inning, lifting the Dodgers to 4-3 series-clinching victory over the Braves before a rollicking sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium.
While Kershaw delivered a gem, and Carl Crawford struck a pair of solo home runs, the rest of the Dodgers suffered from poor fielding and — until Uribe came through — a paucity of clutch hitting.
Uribe's blast, a drive down the left-field line, was the Dodgers' only hit in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Fittingly, given the Dodgers' chips-to-the center-of-the-table organizational approach, Uribe's homer came after a foray into playing it safe failed. Uribe fouled off two bunt attempts trying to push Yasiel Puig, who led off the inning by lacing a double to right field, over to third.
When Kenley Jansen, who struck out the side in the ninth inning, blew a fastball past Justin Upton, the Dodgers poured out of the dugout for the celebration, which included victory laps on the field, Randy Newman's "I Love L.A." blasting over the stadium speakers and champagne showers in the clubhouse.
"You just never know when you're going to get to do it again," said Kershaw, who was embraced by the former Dodger Sandy Koufax afterward. "The last three years of not getting to go really taught me to embrace this opportunity. You've just got to enjoy it, savor it."
They will either host Pittsburgh or travel to St. Louis for the National League Championship Series, which begins Friday.
The decision to pull the bunt sign off Uribe was not the only go-for-it decision that paid off.
The decision to start Kershaw instead of Ricky Nolasco is something the Dodgers had mulled for more than a week. And it would have been expected, had the Dodgers been facing elimination.
But the Dodgers announced the change in plans just after noon. Among those who were in on the decision were Mattingly, the pitching coach Rick Honeycutt, General Manager Ned Colletti and members of his staff.
The most prominent voice, though, might have been Kershaw, who lobbied for the move after throwing 124 pitches in a 7-1, 12-strikeout gem in the series opener.
"Without a doubt, he probably had the actual deciding voice," Honeycutt said. "His decision weighed heavily in the decision."
Colletti said: "Obviously, it was a bit of a gamble, but when I looked him in the eye last night he said there was no doubt, 'I'll be as good tomorrow as I will be on Wednesday.' When you've got somebody that good that demands the opportunity, sometimes you take a chance and give him the opportunity."
It was fitting, then, that working in the broadcast booth was Orel Hershiser, who pitched three times on short rest — including a Game 7 shutout of the Mets — as he led the Dodgers to their last World Series title, in 1988. And singing a moving rendition of the national anthem was Drew Drysdale, the daughter of Don Drysdale, who was among the fiercest pitchers of his generation.
Drysdale surely would have scoffed at all the hand-wringing over whether the Dodgers would be putting their franchise pitcher at risk by bringing him back early after a stressful outing. But with so much money tied up in elite pitchers, caution and pitch counts rule the day. And still the baseball landscape is littered with franchise pitchers — Stephen Strasburg, Matt Harvey and Johan Santana among them — blowing out their arms.
Kershaw was nothing short of Cy Young form, even if he sacrificed dominance for efficiency. He allowed three singles and a walk and struck out six, getting through six innings in a relatively economical 91 pitches.
Kershaw's greatest shortcoming was that he allowed the Braves to hit the ball to the Dodgers infielders.
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