LOS ANGELES — The pressurized evening of single-elimination baseball that the Dodgers tried so hard to avoid turned out to be just as stomach-churning as they feared.
The reigning World Series champs only survived the St. Louis Cardinals because of some walk-off magic from Chris Taylor.
The valuable utilityman, who entered the game as a defensive replacement off the Dodgers' intentionally deep bench, launched a 2-run walk-off blast in the ninth inning off reliever Alex Reyes.
By advancing to the divisional round of the playoffs, the Dodgers will earn a crack at the San Francisco Giants team that bested them by a single game in an epic NL West race.