The Dodgers defeat the Phillies in a wild-card round to advance to the NLCS

Andy Buggs hit a Dodger on the mound.

Orion Kerkering Send it in – then throw away the Philadelphia Phillies’ season.

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th in Game 4 of the National League Series, this is how the Dodgers got Winning 2-1. On a throwing error by Kerkering. On a ball that went into the bumper to allow Hyeseong Kim to score. Based on a brutal and confusing decision from the Phillies reliever, which unleashed chaos inside Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers won the series 3-1.

Thursday’s finale became an instant classic.

In what started as a pitchers’ duel between two dominant players, then turned into a battle of the bullpen, the Dodgers prevailed with a rally in the eleventh. They loaded the bases on singles from Tommy Edman and Max Muncy, then a two-out walk from Kiki Hernandez.

The pages reached the next panel, swung across a first-class sinker.

But then came the shocking ending.

The pages collided with another heavy drop that dripped in front of the pile. Kerkerking sent it over and – instead of getting what would have been a near certainty initially – he inexplicably turned around and threw for home instead.

The ball sailed over him. Catcher JT Realmuto couldn’t stop him from going to the pit stop. Kim crossed the plate, then came back and stepped on it just to make sure.

Kerkerking bowed in immediate remorse, as the Dodgers came pouring out of the dugout to rally the mob near first base.

“I thought he was going to throw first,” Buggs said through a translator in an on-field interview. “But when I saw him throw the ball home, I knew the game was over.”

All afternoon, tension had been rising in Chavez Ravine.

Through six innings, Tyler Glasnow and Christopher Sanchez kept the opposing lineup off the board. In the seventh inning, both teams broke through with a run after putting relievers on the mound. From there, the drama continued to escalate, as clubs returned to trading zeros to force the game to resort to extras.

Long before the end, there were star-worthy moments. Mookie Betts drew a bases-loaded walk off Phillies closer Jhoan Durán to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh. Rocky Sasaki entered the eighth in what became three perfect innings of relief, retiring all nine batters he faced.

By the end, it was almost easy to forget the promos that set up such a perfect, low-scoring, nerve-wracking October fight.

In his first postseason start, Glasnow pitched six scoreless innings as he struck out eight batters, relied heavily on a fastball that had extra life, and stranded all six runners who reached base against him.

On the flip side, Sanchez matched him step for step, stunning the Dodgers for the second time in the series with six scoreless frames of his own to start the day.

Finally, in the seventh round, both teams found something.

The top half of the inning began with a key decision from Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who elected to pull Glasnow after 83 pitches (for context, he had thrown 70 total pitches in the previous 18 days) and with the bottom half due to be called by the Phillies.

Emmett Sheehan took charge, but immediately ran into danger. JT Realmuto pushed a single to center with a good piece of hitting on a two-hit slider. Then, Sheehan appeared to get a double play from Max Kepler — only to miss a Mookie Betts throw while covering first. The ball bounced into the camera nicely. Kepler moved up to second place. A mistake would be costly. Nick Castellanos laced a line drive just inside the third base line on the next at-bat, leading to a Kepler double to open the scoring.

However, Sheehan settled down, limiting the damage there with a finishing kick from Trea Turner.

Even facing their first deficit of the day, the Dodgers responded, putting Sanchez out of the game with one out in the bottom of the seventh after an Alex Call walk and Hernandez single.

In an aggressive move from a manager fighting to keep his team’s season alive, Phillies skipper Rob Thompson called on a flame-throwing rotation to make eight saves. But he would get just one out before beating the lead off, walking Mookie Betts with the bases loaded later in the inning (following an Andy Pages grounder that moved the runners on, and an intentional walk to Shohei Ohtani).

From there, the match was in the hands of both teams.

Sasaki retired all nine batters he faced from eighth to tenth. The Phillies also posted three straight zeros, thanks to some help from expected Game 5 starter Jesus Luzardo. Phillies runner Alex Vescia stranded second in the 11th by hitting Harrison Bader on 10 pitches.

Finally, the Dodgers built a rally in the bottom of the 11th.

Edman hit a single from Luzardo, and was replaced by Kim as a runner. Muncy also singled two batters later, allowing Kim to speed up to third. With Hernandez on the rise, the Phillies called up Kerkering for a right-field outing. But after walking Hernandez to load the bases, it all came down to Buggs.

It turned out that Kerkering’s decision ended the Phillies’ season, and brought the Dodgers one step closer to defending their World Series title.