Dodgers, on the way to the two-time championship regardless of their rival in SM
With the recklessness of the statement, the way seems paved for the Dodgers to win the MLB title for the second year in a row.
As the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays go into the final battle tonight for the last available ticket to the World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers do not seem to be worried about the opponent they will face in the Fall Classic.
With all the recklessness that this statement implies, the way seems paved for the ninth Angeleno to win the Major League title for the second consecutive year.
The arguments to make such an assertion are solid. The Dodgers’ starting pitching is intractable, while timely hitting, reliable defense and a top-quality relief team support the Californians’ poster that will surely repeat the championship.
The Los Angeles Dodgers would be the first two-time Major League champions since the three-time champion New York Yankees from 1998-2000. Regardless of whether they face the Seattle Mariners or Toronto Blue Jays, the statistics favor the manager’s team Dave Roberts and do not even rule out that Chávez Ravine’s team will win the championship ring in another sweep, like the one they signed against the Milwaukee Brewers to leave them out of the National League Championship Series.
Pitching occupies a prominent place in baseball and the Dodgers’ starting corps simply does not have an offense that can stand up to winning games. In the National League Championship Series, Dodgers starters had a 0.63 ERA. Throughout the postseason, the California team’s starters boast 81 strikeouts and a poor opposition average of just .132.
The Dodgers have allowed just one run in their last five games, emulating the same 1981 Dodgers and the 1996 Braves who posted five games with one or no runs allowed. If the team’s openers Dave Roberts They walk six rolls, it is very possible that the game will be for the Californians, since they have an 8-0 record every time the starters go through at least six innings in October.
If they face Toronto in the World Series, the Dodgers have a historical dominance of 19-11. The Californians won two of three games last August in Chavez Ravine. The first two contests were won by Blake Snell and Clayton Kershaw, who combined for a run in 16 rolls.
A unique advantage that can be attributed to Toronto is that, if they reach the World Series, they will be the home team to start the match and as a home club, the Blue Jays were the best in the American League, with 54 wins.
Mariners, for their part, are in a Championship Series for the fourth time, and for the first time in their history they are one game away from accessing the World Series. Seattle lost in 1995 against Cleveland, and in 2000 and 2001 against the Yankees.
Dodgers boast 12 consecutive games won against the Mariners (since April 2021). In the dozen games, the overall score greatly favors the Dodgers, 63-24. In fact, the last series was to lower the curtain on the regular season and in it Shohei Ohtani detonated his last home run of this campaign, number 55.
Both Toronto and Seattle are two teams that rely heavily on the home run. In the postseason, both teams have the most home runs, with 19 and 18, respectively (collective leaders). Dodgers starters have only allowed four homers in 92 innings, two against Clayton Kershaw and two against Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
So the Dodgers, with a tight rotation made up of Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani, and an offense that knows how to respond at zero hour from Ohtani himself, who practically beat the Brewers alone in a spectacular Game 4 of the NLCS, with three home runs, three RBIs and a dozen strikeouts, even the Hernández duo (Teóscar and Kiké), look like an indestructible team in October and destined to be the first two-time champion in the last 26 years.
Be careful, according to Major League Baseball statistics, this scenario has occurred in four previous postseason editions (1988, 2006, 2007 and 2012). One of the teams sweeps the Championship Series and the other reaches the World Series in seven games to defeat the team that signed the clean sheet and take the crown of MLB champion. Will this happen with the Mariners or Blue Jays? The numbers are there, but the Dodgers boast too much equipment not to achieve the two-time championship.
It won’t take long to find out.
Information from the Los Angeles Dodgers and Major League Baseball was used in this story.
