LOS ANGELES — The hero was 1 for 24 in the series and had been dropped to ninth in the lineup for Game 4. The winning run was scored by the last player on the roster, playing in his first postseason game. The weakest link on the team has been shored up by a pitcher dominating at something he has never done before.

Two rookies and a second-year player – just like the Dodgers envisioned when they started writing $400 million worth of checks this year.

In danger of losing back-to-back games at home to send their National League Division Series back to Philadelphia to be decided, the Dodgers canceled their flight in the wackiest of ways, scoring the winning run in the 11th inning on a broken-bat comebacker that a panicked pitcher fired to the backstop.

The 2-1 victory in Game 4 over the Phillies sends the Dodgers on to the National League Championship Series for the fourth time in the past six years and the seventh time in the past 10 years under Manager Dave Roberts. They will play either the Milwaukee Brewers on the road or the Chicago Cubs in LA beginning on Monday.

“It was just pure chaos,” said Tommy Edman who started the winning rally with a one-out single then watched his pinch-runner, Hyeseong Kim, score the winning run.

“Pure joy. A little bit of laughter because I wasn’t sure what happened,” said Max Muncy, running to third during the blooper reel that decided the game. “The way everyone was standing around I thought it was a foul ball at first. But then it just turned into pure joy. I looked over at Andy (Pages) and he’s upset about a broken bat at first and then he realizes, ‘Oh, I just won the game.’”

It was more like the Phillies lost the game.

There is no free runner on second to start extra innings in the postseason so the Dodgers needed singles by Edman and Muncy to get things started in the 11th against against Phillies reliever Orion Kerkering. Kike’ Hernandez drew a walk to load the bases with two outs and bring up Pages.

Roberts had pinch-hit for Pages in Game 3 and dropped him to ninth in the order for Game 4, a reaction to a slump that grew to 1 for 24 in the postseason. Kerkering got an 0-and-1 sinker in on Pages’ hands, breaking his bat.

The ball skipped back to Kerkering who fumbled it off his foot, kicking it a few feet away. Panic set in. With catcher JT Realmuto pointing towards first base – “he would have been out,” Dodgers first base coach Chris Woodward said of a play on Pages – Kerkering fired the ball home.

“I ran for my life. I just ran as hard as I could,” Kim said through his interpreter.

Kerkering’s throw was high and wide of the mark, not even close. Allowing Kim to score the series-clinching run.

“Once the pressure got to me, I just thought there’s a faster throw to JT, a little quicker throw than trying to cross-body it to Bryce (Harper at first base),” Kerkering explained later. “So just a horse(bleep) throw.

“It’s baseball. (Stuff) happens.”

Stuff exploded out of the Dodgers’ dugout with stunned looks on the faces of several players.

“It’s one of those things that it’s a PFP, a pitcher’s fielding practice. He’s done it a thousand times,” Roberts said. ”And right there he was so focused, I’m sure, on just getting the hitter and just sort of forgot the outs and the situation.”

Pages saw Kerkering’s bobble and kept running.

“Then I looked back and I saw that he threw home and I just thought, ‘No, he threw the game away,’” Pages said in Spanish.

Even before its tragi-comic ending Game 4 had enough October theater to require the extra-large tub of popcorn.

A scoreless duel between starters Tyler Glasnow and Cristopher Sanchez segued into late-inning tension. The Dodgers turned to their bullpen savior, Roki Sasaki, for three perfect innings in relief. With their backs to the wall, Phillies manager Rob Thomson tried to get an eight-out save from his closer, Jhoan Duran, then, a day after using two starters (Aaron Nola and Ranger Suarez) to stay alive, he used two more, bringing Jesus Luzardo (presumably their Game 5 starter) on in relief.

Glasnow held the Phillies scoreless for six innings but came out after just 83 pitches due to cramping. Emmet Sheehan followed and gave up the game’s first run in the top of the seventh.

The Dodgers chased Sanchez from the game in the bottom of the seventh when a walk of Alex Call and a single by Kike’ Hernandez put two runners on with one out. Thomson started pushing chips to the middle of the table when he went to his closer.

Duran got one out when Pages bounced to first. The runners advanced, giving Thomson another decision to make — should he use the open base to intentionally walk Ohtani? Despite Ohtani’s 1 for 18 slump in this series, Thomson opted to walk him and load the bases for Betts.

B0etts worked the count full, fouling off a 101.1 mph fastball to get there then taking a 101.4 mph fastball high for ball four to force in the tying run.

The game stayed tied as Sasaki faced nine batters and retired them all. Then Alex Vesia stranded a runner at second in the 11th.

“You’re talking about one of the great all-time appearances out of the ‘pen that I can remember,” Roberts gushed of Sasaki. “Certainly given where he started this year, what he is as a starting pitcher, to go out there and not only go one inning, two innings and then three innings, and to do what he did gave us a huge boost.

“We’re starting to see something really special in him, and that’s why he was courted so hard in the offseason. But what he’s done now on the biggest of stages, he’s just scratching the surface.”

All of that was just setting the stage for the crazy finish.

“I would much rather have seen a line drive in the gap or something,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said. “That’s just pressure. It’s pressure on them. It’s pressure on us as well. He (Pages) did a good job of just moving the ball. You don’t want to strike out there. Make them make a play. Keep pressure on them. And they didn’t make the play.”