The truth is, Juan Uribe has redeemed the first two years of his contract all season. In over 900 innings, he’s made five errors defensively at third base. His hitting got progressively better over the course of the season, and on Monday night, he sealed the fate of how his time with the Dodgers will be remembered with this majestic blast, turning a 3-2 deficit into a series-clinching 4-3 victory.

Wooooo!

Until last year, I was one of the biggest Uribe detractors. When Luis Cruz was hitting home runs in Spring Training, I didn’t really see the need for him on the roster, despite his big contract. Through it all, he apparently remained very professional and did what the team asked him to do.

This season, in his contract year, he seemed slimmed down and has been a solid contributor. In the first four playoff games, he’s been nothing short of incredible. So, an apology is due:

Juan, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I called you a fat toad. I’m sorry for getting frustrated and laughing at emojuanuribe.com. I’m sorry for the boos.

On to the NLCS!

Dodger Stadium was beautiful on Monday night. By Owen Main

Garvey almost blows it

Steve Garvey had the honors of saying, “It’s time for Dodger baseball” before the game, but he added a little more. The former Dodger emphatically predicted that this would be the last game of the NLDS moments before the first pitch with the Braves looking on. A few heads in the Braves dugout definitely turned pretty quickly at that moment.

With the Dodgers down 3-2 in the 8th, all I could think about was how the team and its fans looked like they might eat Garvey’s words, especially if the Dodgers couldn’t pull out the series at all.

Oh, but ye (me) of little faith… . Juan Uribe and his home run swing made it all better.

Man, that was awesome. Awesome Awesome Awesome! Bring on the NLCS!

Carl Crawford 2011-2012: .260/.292/.419; Juan Uribe 2011-2012: .199/.262/.289. Tonight: 3 HR, 4 RBI, one trip to NLCS

— Eric Stephen (@truebluela) October 8, 2013