Dodgers break NL postseason consecutive scoreless innings record

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers have no Clayton Kershaw, no Tyler Glasnow, no Tony Gonsolin, no Gavin Stone, no Dustin May and, for that matter, no Shohei Ohtani (the pitcher). They have Yoshinobu Yamamoto still building endurance after missing just shy of three months with a shoulder injury. They have Walker Buehler fighting to the finish line of a season in which he made it back from his second Tommy John surgery only to be bothered by a bad hip.

And through all that, they also have a record for postseason pitching excellence — including a hidden perfect game.

When a Mets baserunning blunder helped starter Jack Flaherty complete a fifth scoreless inning to start Game 1 of the NLCS against the Mets, it gave Dodgers pitchers 29 consecutive innings without allowing a run. According to Elias, that set the NL record for a single postseason, besting a 119-year-old mark established by the New York Giants over Games 2-5 of the 1905 World Series.

And when L.A. left fielder Teoscar Hernández reached over the wall down the left-field line to catch the inning-ending out in the sixth, the Dodgers’ scoreless streak had gone all the way to 30 innings.

Only one team has put together a longer streak in a single postseason: The 1966 Baltimore Orioles, who went 33 innings without allowing a run over Games 1-4 of that year’s World Series against, of all teams, the Dodgers, who were swept in a series that ended with three straight shutouts.

The ‘24 Dodgers started their own streak in the wake of the Padres’ six-run second inning in Game 3 of the NLDS in San Diego. The Dodgers lost that game, but didn’t allow a run over the final six innings. Then they kept the streak going with consecutive shutout victories in Games 4 and 5 to send their season onward to the NLCS.

Flaherty had a little help from the Dodgers’ defense — and Mets designated hitter Jesse Winker — to keep the scoreless streak going long enough for a record. After Winker led off the fifth inning with a single, Jose Iglesias dumped another base hit into left-center field. When Winker took a wide turn around second base, center fielder Kiké Hernández’s throw went behind him to second. But Winker paused too long on his way to third, anticipating a rundown, and was the first out of what turned into another scoreless inning.

If that wasn’t good enough, there was a streak within the streak. Before Francisco Lindor led off the fourth inning with a walk to give the Mets their first baserunner against Flaherty, Dodgers pitchers had retired 28 straight batters faced going back to Game 5 of the NLDS, the third most in a single postseason, according to Elias.

The only longer streaks both belong to the Yankees. The 2004 Yanks retired 29 in a row between ALDS Game 4 against the Twins and ALCS Game 1 against the Red Sox, and the 1956 Yankees retired 31 consecutive Brooklyn Dodgers from Games 4-6 of the World Series — including the 27 up, 27 down in Don Larsen’s perfect game in Game 5.

Only three other teams can claim similar “hidden perfect games” in postseason history. These clubs all retired 27 consecutive batters in a single postseason: The 1939 Reds in Games 3-4 of the World Series, the 1927 Yankees in Games 2-3 of the World Series and the 1926 Cardinals in Games 2-3 of the World Series.