It’s time for the Los Angeles Dodgers to finally bring back a championship to Los Angeles.
No more excuses, it has to be this year.
It has been a long, gut-wrenching 31 years since the boys in blue last hoisted the commissioner’s World Series trophy. This year’s squad must be the team to break the cycle of capturing seven straight National League West titles without winning the world series.
After the season ended how it did last year, winning 106 games, it put me in a dark, miserable state of mind for days on end.
The series loss to the Washington Nationals was debatably worse than the 2017 World Series loss to those cheaters in Houston.
Beating the Nationals in four of six games in the 2019 regular season, the Dodgers lost the divisional round series to Washington in five games. Seeing them lose in the first round hurt so bad I did not bother watching the rest of the postseason.
Seeing the shot of Clayton Kershaw hanging his head in the dugout after giving up two late inning home runs hurt my soul. His postseason demons will sadly always be a part of his legacy.
In last year’s divisional matchup with the Nationals, Kershaw was brought into the game in the seventh inning to protect a two-run lead. In the eighth, Kershaw gave up back-to-back bombs, swinging all the momentum Washington’s way.
As the Dodgers hold the best record in the national league weeks away from postseason October baseball, I am once again aboard the Dodgers hype train. With the deepest lineup in the league, there are no more excuses for the Dodgers to not be the last ones standing.
The Dodgers have mashed opposing pitching, hitting a league-high 79 home runs. In August, the Dodgers broke the record for most home runs hit in a month with 57. They have also scored the second most runs in the league, with 236. Only the San Diego Padres have scored more runs.
Los Angeles has four of the top 30 players batting for average on the team. Corey Seager and Mookie Betts are scorching hot hitting atop the Dodgers lineup.
Seager is reminding everyone why he is the top shortstop in baseball batting .331. Betts is slated to be a front-runner for National League MVP, hitting 13 homers while driving in 31 RBIs.
Another key contributor to the Dodgers’ success in this shortened season has been outfielder AJ Pollock. Pollock presents a consistent bat in the order. While facing left-handed pitching, Pollack is hitting a team high .359.
As the offense is putting runs on the board, the Dodgers’ pitchers are keeping runs off of it.
The Dodgers pitching staff has a combined ERA of 2.88, second lowest behind the Cleveland Indians.
If the Dodgers want to make a deep postseason run, they’ll have to keep their bullpen consistent nightly. With the regular season only being 60 games, their arms should be fresh to carry them late into October.
Even though the pitching has been solid, the bullpen is the Dodgers’ weak suit as of this moment.
With Kenley Jansen no longer being the lights-out closer he once was, I don’t assume he is going to have a clean inning anymore. He’s been solid as of late, but he needs to perform once the playoffs begin.
The Dodgers can be the best team in the regular season and win an eighth straight division title, but if they come short of winning the world series for the third time in the four years, the pain will return.