ARLINGTON, Texas — Alex Wood has seen these Dodgers from both sides.
The left-hander made his postseason debut with the Atlanta Braves in the 2013 National League Division Series against the Dodgers. And now he has pitched for the Dodgers in five of the past six postseasons, watching last year’s early exit with sympathy from a distance.
He has a pretty good read on a team that played its 56th postseason game in the past five years (the 75th in the past eight) on Thursday night. When you play that many important games, they can’t all carry the same weight.
“I think one of the hard things for this team and this organization is you get so used to – you win the division every year, you make a deep run in the postseason a lot of years, you have a lot of guys who have a lot of experience in these types of games. That’s great,” Wood said before Game 4 of this NL Championship Series. “But you can also start to become a little stagnant a little bit – at least speaking for myself – passion-wise or that ability to get up for a big series or a big game when things like this have become almost expected and normal.
“So they (the Braves) punched us in the face those first two games. Seeing how we came back in the ninth inning of that second game and how we came out in the first inning yesterday, I mean, it was one of the cooler games I’ve been a part of in my career at any level. It was a lot of fun to watch and hopefully we’ll come out and do the same thing tonight.”
The “punched” analogy was the same one Mookie Betts used to describe the Dodgers’ loss in the first game of an important series in San Diego in mid-September. The Dodgers followed that one with 10 wins in the final 12 games of the regular season and postseason series sweeps of the Milwaukee Brewers and Padres.
“I think these first two games with the Braves was a little different than the San Diego series, I think, as far as the talent level on the playing field,” Wood said. “The Padres are a great team. They have a lot of talented players. But they’re still young, where the Braves – they’re starting to piece it all together. They’re a little short in the starting rotation because of injuries and things like that. But they’ve got a great core and MVP-caliber players in Freddie (Freeman), (Ronald) Acuña and those guys.
“They match up really well with us. And they came out and did their thing the first two days. You kind of show up to the park for Game 3 yesterday and, alright, we’ve got to strap it on, put our game face on and play our best game. If not, we’re going to be out of here quick. It was nice to see those guys step up to the plate and from the first pitch the energy was there, the passion was there, the do-or-die was there.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he appreciated Wood’s perspective. But he emphasized the expectations that are his team’s constant companion in October.
“I think I mentioned it the other day – we’ve earned that bull’s-eye or that expectation as an organization. I think that’s something to be proud of,” Roberts said. “I expect our guys, regardless of circumstance or opponent, to play a certain brand of baseball. So I expect the intensity to be the same every night. That’s obviously maybe unrealistic at times. But during the postseason certainly (it’s) not a big ask.”
GAME 5 STARTER
Before Thursday’s Game 4, Roberts was asked if he could provide some clarity on who will start Game 5 for the Dodgers.
“I would if I could,” he said. “I think right now we’re trying to win tonight. I’m not going to say all hands on deck. But I’m just not prepared to say who’s going to start Game 5.”Roberts also would not say if Dustin May would be available to pitch in relief behind Game 4 starter Clayton Kershaw. But May was not in the group of pitchers that trooped out to the bullpen early in the game.
With May lined up for Game 5, Game 1 starter Walker Buehler would be available for a potential Game 6 on regular rest.
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