Here's what actually happened in the ninth inning of Game 3: Freddie Freeman pried the door shut for Edwin Díaz.
Díaz came in to protect a two-run lead and gave up a leadoff double right away. He got two outs on a groundout and a flyout, but he couldn't put the Braves away clean. The Braves fouled off seven pitches against him before it was over, and the game only ended because Freeman scooped a low relay throw at first base to complete the out. A pitcher who puts himself in that spot and gets bailed out by someone else's glove is lucky it didn't blow up on him.
The people calling this redemption are ignoring the season that got us here. Díaz was good enough to make an All-Star team, then bad enough afterward that the Dodgers shipped him to the injured list with neck inflammation and handed the ninth inning to Tanner Scott. When he came back, he still posted an ERA north of 11 and a WHIP over 2.5, with four blown saves in his opportunities this year. That's a pattern. The fans who tensed up the moment Dave Roberts waved him in from the bullpen were pattern-matching off real data, and the ninth inning gave them more of it.
The obvious response is that he got the out, the Dodgers are up 2-1, who cares how it looked. How it looked is the entire ballgame in October. A reliever who needs a highlight-reel defensive play from his first baseman to finish off a two-run lead has shown he can't be trusted with the next one. Even the generous recaps of the night admitted Roberts' decision to hand Díaz that spot was a stunner.
Give Roberts credit for aggression. He flipped his lineup, put Betts leadoff and Freeman second, moved a struggling Ohtani down, and the hitters delivered. That's a manager willing to gamble on his instincts, and it worked. The Díaz call is a different story. It was a gamble rescued by his first baseman's hands, and this morning's coverage is treating it like a calculated risk that paid off on the merits.
Freeman is the real hero of that sequence. He's the one who turned a shaky, foul-ball-plagued inning into a series-building win. Díaz just happened to be standing on the mound when it happened.
The panic got confirmed in that ninth inning, then papered over by the best defensive first baseman the Dodgers have.
