Dodgers advance to NLCS with wild walk-off win over Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers didn't blink as the pressure built, inning after scoreless inning. Both teams pushed a single run across, forcing extra innings. Then came one of postseason baseball's craziest endings.

Orion Kerkering made a wild throw past home instead of tossing to first after mishandling Andy Pages' bases-loaded comebacker with two outs in the 11th inning, and the Dodgers escaped with a 2-1 win Thursday for a 3-1 NL Division Series victory.

"That was a nail-biter," beer-soaked Dodgers catcher Will Smith said in the postgame celebration. "They cracked. We didn't."

Kerkering hung his head and put hands on knees after his throw sailed past catcher J.T. Realmuto as pinch-runner Hyeseong Kim crossed the plate, advancing the Dodgers to the NL Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs or Milwaukee.

"I was surprised he threw it home," Kim said through a translator. "I just ran as hard as I could."

Realmuto had pointed to first when the broken-bat, two-hopper hit off Kerkering and rolled just in front of the mound.

"Just hit off my foot," Kerkering said. "Once the pressure got to me, I just thought there's a little faster throw to J.T., little quicker throw than trying to cross-body it to Bryce (Harper at first)."

Kerkering picked up the ball and in one motion made a sidearm throw, 46 feet from the plate. The ball sailed up the third-base line, past Realmuto's outstretched mitt, and fans in the crowd of 50,563 at Dodger Stadium erupted after spending the final three innings on their feet.

"It's brutal," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "It's one of those things that it's a PFP, a pitcher's fielding practice. He's done it a thousand times. And right there he was so focused, I'm sure, on