A two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning pushed the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals Wednesday night during the National League Wild Card Game.
The Dodgers' Chris Taylor, who was suffering from a recurring neck injury, netted the team the needed late-in-the-game lead over the Cardinals.
According to StatsPerform, a sports technology company, Taylor is only the second player in Major League Baseball history to hit a walk-off home run during an important winner-take-all playoff game, despite not starting the game. The other was Aaron Boone in Game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series.
The Dodgers, who are the defending National League champs, will now face off against the their biggest rivals: the San Francisco Giants in the division series.
Game 1 of the best-of-five series is Friday night in San Francisco.
"That's gonna be fun. Yeah, two of the best regular-season records of all time. We've been battling all year, so I expect a hard-fought series," Taylor said, according to ESPN.
It's sure to be a battle between the two powerhouses. According to the ESPN MLB Power Rankings, both the Dodgers and the Giants have swapped places for the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in all of baseball all season long.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.