The reigning World Series champions only survived the St. Louis Cardinals thanks to the magic of Chris Taylor.
By advancing to the divisional round of the playoffs, the Dodgers will earn a shot at the San Francisco Giants team that outscored them by just one game in an epic run in the NL West. It will be the first time in the 131-year history of the Giants-Dodgers rivalry that they will meet in a playoff series.
The result saved Major League Baseball from a torrent of questions about the fairness of its single-elimination wild-card format. But the Dodgers survived nine high-pressure win-or-home innings and lived to see another day.
The game remained stalled until Taylor homered in the bottom of the ninth. His home run marked the fourth in Dodgers postseason history.
