Twice, Sammy had two strikes on him with a runner on third and less than two outs. One time he grounded to third and brought the runner in. And then he flied out to center and drove in another run. Just by making contact he drove in two crucial runs. I'm not going to say if it was last year he would have struck out.
Nobody can know that.
The overall result can be seen in the NL stats. Equally important, he has drawn 32 walks, only 13 fewer than he drew all of last season. He plays at a high level all the time. Some guys can do that once in a while. Somehow Sammy does that every day.