The Dodgers baseball team left New York City for Los Angeles after the 1957 season, but the Dodgers — a.k.a. the Democrat politicos old enough to play on the original team — returned to Brooklyn Thursday night for a night of exaggeration, weaseling and lies.

In the ninth Democrat debate, the rhetoric between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders grew sharper as each candidate covered the bases to prove their liberal bonafides. The two candidates bunted on the question on gun control — situational rhetoric to appeal to the crowd. Clinton denied that she blamed guns sold in Vermont for NYC’s crime rate after moderator Wolf Blitzer fact-checked her to say only 1.2% of guns recovered in NYC originated from Vermont. Meanwhile, Sanders reversed his original call on the field regarding whether the families of the Sandy Hook victims have the right to sue gun manufacturers. Previously, he said they had no such right. But after a judge granted the ability for the suit to proceed, the socialist batted from the other side of the plate.

Sanders came out and swung hard at Clinton’s connections and donations from Wall Street, accusing her of having bad judgment. The grizzled socialist was trying to make up for the embarrassment of the New York Daily News endorsing his rival days before. “Subjected to meaningful scrutiny for the first time, the senator from Vermont proved utterly unprepared for the Oval Office while confirming that the central thrusts of his campaign are politically impossible,” the Daily News wrote. Clinton used that endorsement as another grounder to highlight her pragmatic experience.

After such a bitter game, sports announcers political commentators like James Taranto wondered if the smack talk in the Democrat dugout has gotten so contentious that the party will split between veteran Clinton supporters and young socialists. Sanders’ wife, Jane Sanders, said the couple will vote for Clinton if she advances to the playoffs. But Sanders’ supporters — who were looking for the political revolution Sanders keeps dreaming about — may take their ball and go home.