After spending over $1 billion in the offseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers put together their World Series run only to be left for dead.
The team with the best record in the regular season was essentially the underdog in the opening round of the playoffs against the club just down the freeway in the San Diego Padres.
When the Dodgers fell behind 2–1 in the National League Division Series, their season obit was almost written.
Then the Dodgers showed they were more than just star power and a higher tax bracket when they finished the postseason with 10 wins in their last 13 games on the strength of a deep bullpen, midseason additions, and everyday bench players like playoff savant Kike. Became a postseason starter. Hernandez.
Now, the question is not whether the Dodgers can win it again, but how many titles lie ahead.
lasting effects after Dodgers rally for improbable 7-6 win over New York Yankees The reason Wednesday won their eighth all-time World Series title was because they won it not with flash, but with patience. They won because of the contributions of the entire roster, not just a top-heavy group of MVP winners.
Consider that Los Angeles went into the postseason with only three starters they could rely on. The list of unavailable pitchers included Tyler Glasnow, Bobby Miller, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, Emmitt Sheehan and standout rookie Gavin Stone.
Mookie Betts (hand) and Max Muncy (oblique) each missed three months. Freddie Freeman had challenges in the sophomore season including a broken finger, health issues for his young son and a badly sprained ankle just before the postseason began.
Freeman won World Series MVP anyway with a home run in each of the first four games.
Walker Buehler finally returned in May after two years away after a second Tommy John surgery. Then due to hip injury he could not play for two months. He started and won Game 3 against the Yankees and earned a save in Game 5 to win the championship.
Buehler can move on as a free agent, while right-hander Jack Flaherty, outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, utility man Kiké Hernandez and right-handed reliever Blake Treinen are also prime free agents. But the MVP lineup core will return to make the Dodgers a prohibitive favorite as is the case in the futures wagers.
Perhaps the context of sports betting is a delicate topic. The Dodgers’ season looked as if it might be derailed when it had barely begun. During the schedule-opening series against the San Diego Padres in South Korea, Shohei Ohtani was embroiled in a sports-betting controversy involving his friend and interpreter.
An MLB investigation cleared Ohtani of involvement, and the $700 million man went on to have one of the best seasons in MLB history with 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases. And then Ohtani also joined the injured list when he Partially dislocated shoulder in Game 2 World Series.
Ohtani was only 2-for-19 (.105) in the World Series, but the Dodgers got the best of the Yankees thanks to Freeman and a wild five-run rally in the fifth inning of Game 5, when the Yankees committed three defensive miscues, or The four count scored Teoscar Hernandez’s two-run game-tying fly-ball double that landed untouched on the warning track.
“It’s hard to win a championship no matter what kind of team you have.” Roberts said“It’s tough, and there’s a reason there hasn’t been a repeat champion since the Yankees did it (from 1998-2000). It clearly states the difficulty, the playoff format, all that stuff.
“I’m going to live in the moment, and I’m going to enjoy it to the fullest. I’m sure there’s no asterisk on it.”
Roberts, with one of the best managing jobs in his nine seasons with the Dodgers, was as much a reason for the title as anyone else. He had some of the best talent in baseball to work with, and yet he still needed to work hard to bring home the trophy.
In his first career postseason appearance, Ohtani will walk away with a championship ring. In the coming days, he will be awarded his third MVP award and his first in the National League. And he would return to pitching the following season; For another reason, the Dodgers will be in prime position to repeat as champions.
“I think we were able to get through the regular season because of the strength of this team, this organization,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “And postseason success is pretty similar to what we were able to achieve during the regular season. Again the strength of organization. “I feel extremely honored to be a part of it.”