CHICAGO -- The Los Angeles Dodgers seemed as though they were about to apply their winning formula once more, and in the opening game of the National League Championship Series no less.
Get what you can out of a starter, have the bullpen hold tight and wait for the offense to deliver. It worked that way when Clayton Kershaw went on the disabled list in late June, and it continued to work until the Dodgers had clinched their fourth consecutive division title.
Total meltdown was never part of the equation.
Manager Dave Roberts ordered two intentional walks during a fateful bottom of the eighth inning against the Chicago Cubs on Saturday. Reliever Joe Blanton did as ordered, loading the bases on the second walk. Then a pinch-hit grand slam from Miguel Montero knocked the entire blueprint into the campfire.
When Cubs outfielder Dexter Fowler followed with his own home run off Blanton to provide the punctuation on what would be an 8-4 victory, it was like bouncing the check on a late fee.
Yet the scene in the losing locker room was far from doom. As Blanton poked at his postgame meal, Roberts sat down and put his arm around one of his most dependable relievers. The two shared a smile at a plan that was a pitch away from working, until Montero crushed that hanging slider in the general direction of every Cubs fan's wildest dream.
Neither man looked stunned. Neither seemed intimidated.
"That's the life of being a reliever; you have to be ready tomorrow," Blanton said. "This game doesn't matter. It's over. Our team did a great job of fighting the whole game, especially there at the end. Hopefully we can take that into tomorrow, pull one off and take a split. We have Kersh going tomorrow, so I think everybody should feel pretty good about that."
Roberts also held his head high. A two-intentional-walk inning that sends you to defeat in a playoff game is the stuff of nightmares, but Roberts barely had to explain the second free pass. In walking Chris Coghlan, it created a logjam on the bases that forced Cubs manager Joe Maddon to make a decision.
With Aroldis Chapman up next, Maddon would have to decide between leaving his pitcher in the game and letting him bat, or hit for him and remove his 103 mph fastball from a tie game. Maddon's coin flip landed on Montero, and the rest was history.
"I trust Joe [Blanton], I've trusted him all year long, he's been great for us, and he got ahead [of Montero] 0-2 and left a pitch up," Roberts said. "So, again, at that point in time, you know they’ve got to bring in [Hector] Rondon, and so I felt good for us to win the game, if we could get out of that inning. And it just didn't work out. But our guys fought. It was a well-played game."
The Cubs scored three early runs, one on a bloop double from Javier Baez, who later stole home when he drifted too far off third base, forcing a throw from catcher Carlos Ruiz. Baez sprinted home and scored when the return throw was not in time.
A standoff ensued, with the Dodgers flailing against another left-hander, Jon Lester, outside of a pinch-hit home run from Andre Ethier. The Dodgers' own bullpen of Pedro Baez and Ross Stripling managed to keep the Cubs' attack from gaining any traction.
But it wasn't until the eighth inning that the NLCS really started.
Dodgers sparkplug Andrew Toles continued to be the perfect blend of talent and naiveté, as the rookie stepped off the bench and delivered a pinch-hit single to lead off the eighth. Chase Utley walked, and Justin Turner hit a sharp ground ball to third. But in Kris Bryant's attempt to get the force out at third, Toles beat him to the base.
With the bases loaded, Maddon was the first to go bold, calling on Chapman for what looked to be a six-out save. After Corey Seager and Yasiel Puig struck out, the move looked to be a work of art. But it didn't account for the veteran savvy of Adrian Gonzalez, who singled up the middle to tie the game with two runs batted in.
Roberts was next to bring out his king in the bottom of the eighth. Blanton walked Jason Heyward with an open base, putting two aboard for the red-hot Javier Baez. The plan worked, though, when Baez hit a simple popup to right field.
The double-down came when Roberts ordered to walk Coghlan. The manager succeeded in lifting Chapman from the game, but Blanton could not get the final strike on Montero.
"I wanted to go in the dirt or throw a back-foot slider," Blanton said. "That's my spot to go on lefties and I just didn't execute. It stayed over for a strike. When you're 0-2, you don't want to throw a strike there. That's why it hung. I started it there, and it just didn't move."
The Dodgers were one back-foot slider away from having the chance to continue the offensive rally, this time against somebody other than Chapman. Instead, they were heading to the bus down 0-1 in the series, knowing they missed a prime opportunity against a heavy favorite.
"There was never really a doubt in our minds that we could play with them," Seager said. "We were going to keep battling, and we're going to be ready to come back, and that's how it's going to go the rest of the way."
In losing, the Dodgers showed they are in the NLCS for the long haul. They have a chance to steal a game at Chicago on Sunday. Then it is home for three next week.
"I think that's the thing is that as long as you think through things and put guys in the best position to have success on your team, a chance to win, you can do the right things," Roberts said. "They can't always work out, but I think the process for me, I felt really good about it. And I would do the same thing over again. Ten times out of 10, I would take Joe Blanton against Montero, and he took a good swing on a 0-2 pitch. And it's going to happen. That's baseball."