LOS ANGELES — At the end of it all, Dave Roberts lingered by the mound. He spread his arms out wide and looked to the sky, unable to believe what he’d just seen.

It took Herculean efforts to bring the Los Angeles Dodgers to this point, where the manager watched an unthinkable sequence. Andy Pages, amid a miserable month, shattered his bat while hitting a ground ball back to the pitcher. Orion Kerkering, the last man standing, could not handle it cleanly, flinging one final throw errantly toward the backstop.

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Hyeseong Kim, getting his first taste of the postseason in a madhouse game, scampered home from third, joining the mass of bodies in pure elation while Kerkering remained frozen, hands on his knees.

“A classic, instant classic game,” Roberts said. The manager has endured enough nights like this to age him a decade. But he hadn’t seen a finish like this.

The Dodgers outlasted the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 in 11 innings Thursday in a game that lasted long enough for shadows to turn into cotton candy skies and an unthinkable night. It did not make sense. It was brilliant and ugly baseball. By virtue of this 3-1 series win, the Dodgers are going back to the National League Championship Series.

The Dodgers react to the frantic finish that propelled them to an 11th-inning victory and a trip to the NLCS.