Can SF Giants prevent Dodgers from another postseason series comeback?

The Dodgers find themselves in an uncomfortable, yet familiar spot Tuesday night with elimination staring them in their collective faces. They’ve got those pesky Giants to thank for that.

Yet, when the Giants head to Dodger Stadium for Game 4, looking to clinch the National League Division Series between the rivals, Los Angeles has a bit of history on its side. The last time the Dodgers needed to win twice to stave off elimination, they got back-to-back big-time pitching performances from Walker Buehler and Julio Urias to come back and beat the Braves in last year’s NLCS.

Perhaps with that in mind, the Dodgers announced late Tuesday morning their ace Buehler will work on three days’ rest and start Game 4. And, should Los Angeles survive Tuesday, Urias, who beat the Giants in Game 2, would get the call for a winner-take-all matchup with Logan Webb in Game 5.

Desperate times call for anything that might work, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after Monday’s 1-0 loss to the Giants.

“Everything’s on the table,” Roberts said when asked Monday night about Buehler working on short rest for the first time in his career. “Whatever it takes to win (Tuesday) and then we’ll kind of pick up the pieces after that.”

The Dodgers have performed extraordinarily well with their backs to the wall recently – they’ve already won four straight elimination games in less than a year, including last Wednesday’s walk-off wild card win over St. Louis. But, like every other team, they still haven’t been able to solve this year’s Giants.

As for the Giants, they don’t have much recent postseason history. It’s been five years since they’ve even been in the postseason, and it was Kris Bryant and his Cubs who ended San Francisco’s short-lived postseason run in 2016.

(In case the Giants have to play a Game 5 on Thursday night, here’s a nugget to impress your friends with: San Francisco won 10 consecutive postseason elimination games before that loss to the Cubs in ’16).

With Los Angeles facing elimination for the fifth time since last October and the Giants a win away from their first postseason series win since 2014, here’s a closer look at each team in the postseason over the past 10 years:

GIANTS SERIES-WINNING OPPORTUNITIES SINCE 2011

Record: 6-2

2014 WORLD SERIES, Game 7: Giants 3, Royals 2: Five words meant a third championship in San Francisco: Madison Bumgarner to the rescue. With one day of rest, MadBum pitched the biggest game in Giants history – five innings of shutout relief as the Giants hung on for the title.

2014 WORLD SERIES, Game 6: Royals 10, Giants 0: With a chance to clinch the title, the Giants essentially took the day off. Starter Jake Peavy was knocked out in the second inning and the rest of the game was just as forgettable.

2014 NLCS, Game 5: Giants 6, Cardinals 3: Travis (Freaking) Ishikawa. It was his pinch-hit, 3-run homer in the ninth inning that provided the unforgettable walk-off victory for the Giants.

2014 NLDS, Game 4: Giants 3, Nationals 2: Joe Panik scored the game-winning run in the seventh on a wild pitch – just the fourth time in MLB postseason history that the winning run in a series-clinching game on a wild pitch.

2014 NLDS, Game 3: Nationals 4, Giants 1: No sweep for the Giants as Bumgarner’s throwing error led to three seventh-inning runs as he took his only loss of the 2014 postseason.

2012 WORLD SERIES, Game 4: Giants 4, Tigers 3: How sweep it was: Marco Scutaro’s RBI single in the top of the 10th and Sergio Romo’s strikeout of Miguel Cabrera in the bottom of the inning finished Detroit in four.

2012 NLCS, Game 7: Giants 9, Cardinals 0: Matt Cain got the win, Brandon Belt homered and Marco Scutaro soaked it all in. The second baseman tied an NLCS record with 14 hits (he batted .500, 14-for-28) and was the NLCS MVP. Just as memorable was Scutaro opening his mouth late in the game to let the rain in.

2012 NLDS, Game 5: Giants 6, Reds 4: After winning two straight elimination games, the Giants won the series as Buster Posey blasted a grand slam off Mat Latos in a six-run sixth inning.

DODGERS ELIMINATION GAMES SINCE 2011
Record: 10-7

2021 NL Wild Card, Oct. 6: Dodgers 3, Cardinals 1: Chris Taylor hits two-run, walk-off homer in bottom of 9th inning.

2020 NLCS, Game 7: Dodgers 4, Braves 3: Cody Bellinger hit a tiebreaking HR in the seventh and Urias came on to throw three scoreless innings to close out the win.

2020 NLCS, Game 6: Dodgers, 3, Braves 1: Buehler pitched six scoreless innings for the win and Corey Seager set NLCS records with his fifth home run of the series and 11th RBI.

2020 NLCS, Game 5: Dodgers 7, Braves 3: Seager hit two homers and L.A.’s Will Smith homered off Atlanta’s Will Smith to give the Dodgers the lead for good.

2019 NLDS, Game 5: Nationals 7, Dodgers 3 (10 innings): Howie Kendrick’s 10th-inning grand slam doomed the Dodgers. L.A. became the first team to win 105 or more games in a season and not advance to the LCS. Now that’s a little history the Giants would love to see repeated.

2018 World Series, Game 5: Red Sox 5, Dodgers 1: Clayton Kershaw gave up two runs in the first and took the loss in Boston’s title-clincher. How many remember Steve Pearce hitting two homers for the Red Sox in the win and being named World Series MVP? Uh huh.

2018 NLCS, Game 5: Dodgers 5, Brewers 1: After homers by series MVP Cody Bellinger (yes, Bellinger used to be dominant) and Yasiel Puig, Kershaw closes out the win to send L.A. to the World Series.

2017 WORLD SERIES, Game 7: Astros 5, Dodgers 1: The Astros scored five runs in the first two innings on their way to a title. It was as though they seemed to know what was coming from Dodgers starter Yu Darvish.

2017 WORLD SERIES, Game 6: Dodgers 3, Astros 1: Joc Pederson homered in the seventh inning and current Giants pitcher Tony Watson picked up the win in relief, setting the stage for Game 7.

2016 NLCS, Game 6: Cubs 5, Dodgers 0: Kershaw gave up five runs, including a pair of homers, as the Cubs extended L.A.’s World Series drought to 28 years.

2016 NLDS, Game 5: Dodgers 4, Nationals 3: Justin Turner hit a two-run triple and Kershaw picked up his first career save as it only took a postseason record 4 hours, 32 minutes for this nine-inning affair.

2016 NLDS, Game 4: Dodgers 6, Nationals 5: Current Dodgers second baseman Trea Turner scored twice for the Nats, but the Dodgers scored three runs in the seventh as current L.A. reliever Blake Treinen took the loss.

2015 NLDS, Game 5: Mets, 3, Dodgers 2: Daniel Murphy’s homer made a winner out of Jacob deGrom, paving the way for Don Mattingly’s exit as Dodgers manager. Roberts was hired later that offseason.

2015 NLDS, Game 4: Dodgers 3, Mets 1: With Kershaw starting on three days’ rest, the Dodgers stayed alive.

2014 NLDS, Game 4: Cardinals 3, Dodgers 2: Kershaw, once again going on three days’ rest, pitched six innings of shutout ball but it wasn’t enough. Matt Adams’ 3-run homer was the winner. Trevor Rosenthal got the save, which is one more than he got for the A’s this past season.

2013 NLCS, Game 6: Cardinals 9, Dodgers 0: Kershaw couldn’t force a Game 7, in fact, he couldn’t do much of anything as he gave up seven earned runs in four innings.

2013 NLCS, Game 5: Dodgers 6, Cardinals 4: Zack Greinke pitched seven strong innings and Adrian Gonzalez homered twice as L.A. survived for another day.