LA's historic '17 capped by return to Series

Kershaw, Jansen, Turner and Bellinger among club's standout performers

December 16th, 2017

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers capped an historic 104-win regular season in 2017 by appearing in their first World Series since 1988, losing to the Astros in seven games.
They have five consecutive National League West titles and back-to-back unanimous National League Rookie of the Year Award winners, with following .
The offense set franchise records with 221 home runs, 312 doubles and 553 extra-base hits. The pitching staff, led by ace and closer , led the league in ERA, opponents' batting average, strikeouts, WHIP and shutouts.
Six Dodgers were All-Stars -- Kershaw, Jansen, Bellinger, Seager, Alex Wood and . Bellinger, 11 days shy of his 22nd birthday, was the youngest All-Star in Dodgers history. Turner earned his spot through the Final Vote with a record 20.8 million votes.
Top five moments
Oct. 19: At Wrigley Field, where the Dodgers were eliminated in 2016, they rode 's three-homer, seven-RBI Game 5 to beat the Cubs in the NL Championship Series and advance to the World Series for the first time since 1988. Hernandez was the first Dodger with a three-homer postseason game, the fourth Dodger with a postseason grand slam and the fifth player in Major League history with three homers in a postseason clincher.

Oct. 15: Turner's epic three-run blast in the ninth inning in Game 2 of the NLCS was the first Dodgers postseason walk-off home run since Kirk Gibson's in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. Turner, who fell short of his first batting title in the final week of the regular season, had four postseason homers and a franchise-record 14 RBIs.

Aug. 23:Rich Hill lost a perfect game on a error in the ninth inning, then lost his no-hitter -- and the game -- on Josh Harrison's walk-off homer leading off the 10th in a 1-0 Pirates win. According to Elias Sports Bureau, Hill was the first pitcher since Lefty Leifield of the 1906 Pirates to lose a game with nine or more innings pitched, one or fewer hits and zero walks. The last pitcher to lose a game after starting with at least nine no-hit innings was Montreal's Mark Gardner at L.A. on July 26, 1991, losing in the 10th, 1-0.

Sept. 22: Bellinger's 39th home run, which helped give the Dodgers a 4-2 win over the Giants to clinch their fifth consecutive division title, also set an NL record for home runs by a rookie, breaking the mark held by Frank Robinson (1956) and Wally Berger ('30). Bellinger opened the season in the Minor Leagues, but the club went 91-41 in games he appeared. Bellinger became the third rookie to lead the Dodgers in home runs, runs scored and RBIs, and the first since Mike Piazza in '93.

Oct. 19: Kershaw started and was the winning pitcher in the pennant clincher, his second win over the Cubs in the NLCS. Kershaw led the league in wins and ERA, was selected to his seventh All-Star team, set a franchise record with 200 strikeouts for a seventh season and joined Greg Maddux as the only pitchers with seven consecutive top-five NL Cy Young Award finishes.