LOS ANGELES — How will the Dodgers respond this time?
For the third consecutive year, Los Angeles has advanced directly to the Serie Divisional being one of the first two seeds in the National League, with the system implemented in 2022 that includes the extra Wild Card round to start the playoffs.
In that first year of that system, the Dodgers were surprised by the Padres – their opponents in the upcoming National League Division Series starting Saturday in Los Angeles – who eliminated the Blues by winning the best-of-five series 3-1. . And in 2023, a weakened Dodgers in their starting pitching were swept by the surprising Diamondbacks, who only won 84 games in the regular season, but made it all the way to the World Series.
Los Angeles has not won a postseason series since winning Game 5 of the 2021 National League Division Series over the Giants. Since then, with almost a week of rest – or perhaps rust – they have lost five of six games in the divisional round, with an aggregate score of 31-21 against them.
So, how is the mentality now in Chávez Ravine to reverse that trend?
“I see it differently,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said this week when touching on the subject. “I don’t want to say that the guys weren’t prepared, or that they weren’t trying hard, or that they didn’t care (in the other series). But there is a different level of intensity, with that bad taste in your mouth when you leave the postseason early.”
Once again, the Dodgers swept the regular season this year, winning the most games in the Major Leagues, 98, and taking their 11th National League West title in the last 12 seasons. With the superstar acquired via free agency, Shohei Ohtani, fully fulfilling his duties as a designated hitter and putting up unprecedented numbers in the Majors, Los Angeles arrives at these playoffs as one of the big favorites.
Although Freddie Freeman and Venezuelan Miguel Rojas are barely recovering from their ailments – the former from a sprained right ankle and the latter from a torn left adductor – the Blues’ lineup is a monster with Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freeman , the Dominican Teóscar Hernández, Max Muncy, Will Smith and several others. They were the Major League leaders in slugging and OPS, second in runs scored and third in home runs, among other departments in which they were among the best.
“We have a very talented group with a lot of playoff experience,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes also said this week. “And our bullpen is a very, very strong component of this team. We will have very good options for each game.”
On paper, despite starting pitching injuries, the Dodgers once again look like a strong candidate to go deep in the postseason. But, returning to the original topic, how are they going to change the story of the last two years, when brave and more in tune teams coming from strong Wild Card Series defeated Los Angeles editions that clearly looked “rusty”?
“I think it’s a little different right now, with us having played incredibly intense games before last weekend against San Diego, fighting until the end,” Gomes said, referring to the penultimate series of the regular season in which the Dodgers achieved finally move away from the Padres in the fight for the West title. “We are increasing the intensity as we get closer to the games. A lot of it has been from the players themselves, with them focusing on team unity and making sure everyone is on the same page. From that point of view, it is a different aspect. They are focused on doing things together this time.
“I think a lot of it has to do with the way we are structuring our practices and being able to use the different technologies that we have. “It’s about making sure we’re fully prepared for what we always see as an increase in fastball velocity and pitching quality in the postseason.”
For his part, Roberts – in his ninth postseason at the helm of the Dodgers, a team he has led to three World Series and the title of the Fall Classic in 2020 – is confident that his troops will know how to start the engines from Game 1 on Saturday at 5:38 local time, 8:38 Eastern.
“We are the team with the best record in baseball. We have a lot to prove,” said the pilot. “Many people have doubted us. I think our guys have embraced that to challenge it and I like that. I like that attitude. I like that hunter mentality on our part.
“The teams that fight the hardest, that compete the hardest, have the most success. And it is like that in all facets of the game.”
A third consecutive elimination in the divisional round is what is most feared in Los Angeles.
2024-10-05 14:25:46