Take absolutely nothing for granted.
Truth be told, though, it is looking awfully good for the Dodgers, who now have a 3-1 lead in the National League Championship Series after bludgeoning the New York Mets 10-2 on Thursday night at Citi Field. The team that wasn’t supposed to have enough starting pitching to survive the postseason crucible has scored 40 runs in six games after being on the verge of elimination Oct. 9 in San Diego, including 9, 8 and 10 in their three victories over New York.
But the Mets didn’t get to this point without plenty of fight. They were 61-36 from June 12 on, rallied in the ninth inning to punch their ticket in the first game of the makeup doubleheader in Atlanta on the final day, scored four runs in the ninth of Game 3 of the Wild Card series to stun Milwaukee, and scored six runs in the last two innings of Game 1 of the Division Series against Philadelphia.
In other words, they’re scary in their resilience.
All of that said, Dodgers fan, your optimism is not unwarranted. Jack Flaherty, who delivered an ace-like performance (two hits over seven innings with six strikeouts) in Game 1 against the Mets, is expected to take the mound today on regular rest. And while president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes didn’t anticipate at the trading deadline that Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw wouldn’t be available for the postseason, Flaherty was the big catch at the deadline. How big, we may be about to find out.
Now the hometown guy from Harvard-Westlake has a chance to pitch the Dodgers back into the World Series, and how great a story would that be?
Oh, and if Roberts wants to remind his guys of the ability to wipe out a 3-1 deficit, there’s this: It’s been done 14 times in the LCS or World Series, out of 195 best-of-7 series — yes, counting the 2004 Red Sox. The last team to do so? The 2020 Dodgers, who were down 3-1 to Atlanta in the COVID-necessitated neutral site NLCS in Arlington, Texas, won the final three from the Braves and won the World Series in six against Tampa Bay.
That comeback isn’t the only reason to bring that up as motivational fodder. Kiké Hernández noted in a postgame TV interview after Wednesday night’s Game 3 that those champs never got to enjoy the appropriate celebration through the streets of L.A.
“I won a World Series and I didn’t have a parade. A parade is all I want,” he said. And if T-shirts aren’t already being sold with those words, someone’s not doing their job.
The formula has worked so far, dating to what was a bullpen game out of desperation in San Diego that turned into an 8-0 victory that not only kept the Dodgers alive but may have kick-started their offense. An era in which relief pitching has become the dominant factor in the postseason seems ideal for a team that leans heavily on its bullpen anyway, and those relievers still seem to have something in the tank.
This may be new, foreign territory for Dodgers fans who have become accustomed to weird and unhappy events in October. Here’s some advice: Enjoy it. Savor it. These Dodgers have the best player in baseball, and Shohei Ohtani started the party in Game 4 with a 422-foot drive into the stands in right-center on the second pitch of the game. (In other words, with nobody on base.) He went on to walk three times and score each time.
“I just know there was a stretch there for, like, two or three at-bats (that) I don’t think he even saw a pitch remotely close, which I understand,” Mookie Betts said. “But it’s going to be tough to just walk him all the time.”
No kidding, especially on a night that Betts has four hits, including a homer and a double, with four RBIs and three runs scored. These Dodgers had 12 hits without Freddie Freeman, given the day off — not kicking and screaming, as Roberts described it, but probably grudgingly — to rest his sore ankle.
He’ll almost certainly be in the lineup for Game 5. And again, it’s not a sure thing. But the champagne will be chilled, and there’s a good chance it’ll be spilled.
Hmmm, maybe that should go on a T-shirt, too.
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