The Dodgers are in a precarious position heading into Game 3 of the National League Championship Series. They trail 2-0 to the Cardinals in the series, the ninth time they have been behind 2-0 in a best-of-7 series. The Dodgers have won three of the previous eight series.
In seven of the previous eight such series the Dodgers lost the first two games on the road. In each case they won Game 3 at home.
Here is a look back at each series and the final results.
1916 World Series
The Brooklyn Robins lost a pair of one-run games to the Boston Red Sox in games 1 and 2, including a 14-inning loss in Game 2, the only Dodgers postseason game longer than Game 1 on Friday night in St. Louis. A 21-year-old Babe Ruth got the win by pitching 14 innings in Game 2, but the Dodgers held him to 0-for-5 at the plate in the series. He should have stuck to pitching. The Dodgers won Game 3 back in Brooklyn but dropped the next two at home to lose the series.
1947 World Series
After dropping the first two games at Yankee Stadium, the Dodgers returned home to win a slugfest in Game 3 at Ebbets Field, 9-8. In Game 4 the Dodgers came within one out of being victims of the first postseason no-hitter, but pinch hitter Cookie Lavagetto had other ideas. With runners on first and second base, courtesy of the ninth and 10th walks of the game by Bill Bevens, Lavagetto doubled to right field to give the Dodgers a 3-2 win and an even series.
The Dodgers would ultimately lose in seven games to the Yankees.
1953 World Series
The best Dodgers team of all time, the 105-win Brooklyn squad, lost the first two in Yankee Stadium but won the next two at Ebbets Field. But the scenario played out just like in 1947: the Yankees won Game 5, the Dodgers won Game 6, then the Yankees captured the series in seven games.
1955 World Series
In their fifth Fall Classic meeting with the Yankees in nine years, the Dodgers again fell behind 2-0 after two games in Yankee Stadium, but this time Brooklyn won all three home games, outscoring New York 21-11 in the process. The Yankees captured Game 6 back in The Bronx, but Johnny Podres pitched a shutout in Game 7 to give the Dodgers their first world championship.
1965 World Series
Just like in this NLCS the Dodgers sent their aces in reverse order in Games 1 and 2 against the Twins, but this time Sandy Koufax didn't start Game 1 because it fell on Yom Kippur. Drysdale got battered for seven runs while recording only eight outs in the opener, famously prompting him to tell manager Walt Alston (or did he?), "I bet right now you wish I was Jewish, too."
Minnesota also got to Koufax in Game 2, capitalizing on three Dodgers errors in a 5-1 win. The Dodgers returned home to Dodger Stadium and got complete-game wins out of Claude Osteen in Game 3, then Drysdale and Koufax in Game 5. Osteen and Koufax pitched shutouts, and the Dodgers outscored Minnesota 18-2 in the middle three games. The Twins evened the series in Game 6 but Koufax responded with the greatest pitching performance in Dodgers history, a three-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts on two days rest in Game 7.
1966 World Series
The heavily-favored Dodgers fell behind 2-0 to the upstart Orioles, and for the first time in their history the Dodgers dropped the first two games at home. The Dodgers made six errors in Game 2, including three in one inning by defensive whiz Willie Davis in center field. In Game 1 the Dodgers scored two runs in the first three innings, but would not score again as Baltimore completed the four-game sweep, holding the Dodgers scoreless over the final 33 innings of the series.
1981 World Series
In the final year of The Infield - Steve Garvey at first base, Davey Lopes at second base, Bill Russell at shortstop and Ron Cey at third base - the Dodgers faced the Yankees for the third time in five years, still stung from World Series losses in 1977 and 1978. The Dodgers dropped the first two games at Yankee Stadium, then turned to rookie Fernando Valenzuela, the Cy Young Award winner that season, in Game 3.
Valenzuela allowed nine hits and seven walks, the most runners allowed by a single Dodgers pitcher in a postseason game, but gutted out nine innings for a 5-4 win. It was the first of three straight one-run victories for the Dodgers at home, the last of which was a 2-1 win highlighted by back-to-back home runs by Steve Yeager and Pedro Guerrero off Ron Guidry.
The Dodgers battered the Yankees back in New York, 9-2 in Game 6, to complete a remarkable comeback run during the postseason. The Dodgers trailed the Astros 2-0 in a best-of-5 division series, they trailed the Expos 2-1 in the best-of-5 NLCS, and trailed the World Series 2-0. But in the end the Dodgers were hoisting the trophy.
2008 NLCS
After sweeping the 97-win Cubs for their first playoff series win in 20 years, the Dodgers lost all their momentum at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. The Dodgers led the Phillies 2-0 in Game 1 until a Rafael Furcal error in the sixth inning allowed Shane Victorino to reach base. Chase Utley hit the very next pitch from Derek Lowe into the seats for a tie game, then two batters later Pat Burrell gave the Phillies a lead they would never relinquish.
Chad Billingsley was bombed in Game 2 and the Dodgers returned home trailing 2-0 in the series. In Game 3 at Dodger Stadium the Dodgers struck for five runs in the first inning, and Hiroki Kuroda pitched six innings for the win.
In Game 4 the Dodgers held a 5-3 lead in the eighth inning, but Victorino hit a tying home run off Cory Wade then Matt Stairs took the air out of Dodger Stadium by hitting a ball that hasn't yet landed.
5 years ago today is when I started drinking free in Philly. Love homeruns !!!!
— mstairs12 (@mstairs12) October 13, 2013
The Phillies closed out the series in Game 5 in Los Angeles.