From a big picture standpoint, it’s hard to say the Dodgers were adversity-free this year. Playing baseball during a pandemic does create strains that are unthinkable in normal circumstances.
But from a purely baseball standpoint, it wasn’t until this past week that they were truly forced to dig deep.
Some – many, actually – wondered if the Dodgers had it in themselves after falling behind 3-1 to Atlanta in the National League Championship Series, following a regular season in which they easily handled the regionalized 60-game schedule and then sailed through the first two rounds of the expanded playoffs.
We got some answers the last few days. And maybe it’s an indication that their third World Series appearance in four years might be more productive than the first two were.
They had a pitching staff that was running on fumes by Game 7, but so did the Atlanta Braves. And a roster that had showed its talent during the regular year revealed its toughness in the three-game winning streak that eliminated the Braves, punctuated with Sunday night’s clinching 4-3 victory.
They trailed 2-0 and then 3-2 on Sunday night, after the plan of starting Dustin May to match up against the top of the Braves’ lineup and then going with Tony Gonsolin for bulk innings blew up in their faces.
But third baseman Justin Turner turned an unorthodox double play (5-2-5-6, if you were scoring) that blew up a Braves rally in the fourth. Right fielder Mookie Betts made his nightly web gem, this time robbing a home run from Freddie Freeman in the fifth. And Kiké Hernández in the sixth and Cody Bellinger in the seventh worked eight-pitch at-bats and ended them with home runs, sending the Dodgers to an appointment with the Tampa Bay Rays.
“From the moment that we were able to put a season together, once they figured out the COVID thing, everybody was expecting us to get to the World Series,” Hernández said. “We were expecting to get to the World Series. And up to the point where we got down 3-1 in this series, we hadn’t really gone through any adversity at all during the season.
“So that was the one thing, that it was time to get it done. And it was not just going through adversity, but kind of like you got nothing to lose. They’re the ones who have something to lose. They’ve got a 3-1 lead. They shouldn’t lose this series.”
Betts agreed.
“All season we’ve been controlling games, controlling series and whatnot, but it seemed like we were getting handled a little bit early on,” he said. “We were able to get hold of everything, get hold of ourselves and start to fight back. And it just shows you what kind of group, what kind of guys we have. We’re never gonna give up. Nothing’s gonna be easy. We’ll strike fast before you even think about it.
“And that’s what we did.”
There were moments early on Sunday night when it seemed like Dave Roberts, Andrew Friedman and the other deep thinkers in the Dodgers’ front office might have overthought themselves right out of this series, starting when May threw nine straight balls to start the game. Roberts had begun tinkering late in the regular season with the concept of using an opener to create favorable matchups before handing it over to a “bulk” pitcher. The 3-4-5 spots in the Dodgers’ rotation, then, were often TBAs.
One of the pitchers who filled those roles turned out to be the final man on the mound when the pennant was decided. Julio Urías, who had thrown 101 pitches in Wednesday’s 15-3 rout of the Braves in Game 3, pitched three perfect innings on Sunday night, the left-hander’s mix of 94-96 mph four-seamers and changeups baffling the Braves, after Blake Treinen and Brusdar Graterol had provided the bridge.
That Urías was on the mound at the end was appropriate. You want someone who has been through the highs and lows since coming to the major leagues as a rookie phenom in 2016? He’s it.
Thus, Roberts said, there was no thought of turning the ninth inning over to anyone else. Urías only needed 10 pitches to navigate it and start the celebration.
“Julio is very talented,” Roberts said. “He’s very smart. And he’s very tough.
“We’ve kind of handled him over the last four years with kid gloves, trying to build him up and put him in different roles, some that he hasn’t really liked and appreciated, which I totally get. But when it comes down to it, he just wants to pitch, wants to compete and wants to help the Dodgers win. And I think as far as tonight, all that stuff, it was his moment. I trust him. He was throwing the baseball well. And I wanted him to finish that game.”So now the Dodgers face the Tampa Bay Rays, Friedman’s current team squaring off with his former organization. It’s a World Series that could redefine even the modern parameters of what’s considered unorthodox strategy. (Those folks who already don’t get baseball as it’s played in 2020? It will drive them crazy.)
But the ambition in the Dodgers’ clubhouse hasn’t changed, and the job isn’t done.
“The goal wasn’t to get to the World Series,” Hernández said. “The goal is to win the World Series.”
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