LOS ANGELES, CA — The Dodgers have the best record in baseball this season, and are the favorites going into the World Series. Yet, they have had so many season-ending injuries to their once fantastic pitching staff, both starters and relievers. It is a testament to their potent and consistent offense and why they are where they are right now.
It took until the latter part of the season for them to finally get a good back end of the bullpen. That missing part of the puzzle kept them from winning 110 games. The loss of quality starters made them look to their minor leagues for quick call-ups that sometimes worked and at other times were a disaster.
LA’s manager Dave Roberts will have a tough task in handling his pitching staff vs. the Yankees in the 2024 World Series – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
Los Angeles had to rely on bullpen games, and again, sometimes it worked, and other times it didn’t. When you start a guy like Michael Kopech to get you out of the first inning in a bullpen game, you lose him in the late innings when you need a stopper. What do these analytical scriptwriters think that the top of the order will only bat in the first inning? If the Dodgers believe they will win with seven pitchers over nine innings by a score of 9-5, two or three times, they need to sit on a couch with one of the many psychiatrists here in LA.
Yankees and Dodgers meet in Game 1 of the World Series – Friday night at 8:08 PM ET/5:08 PM PT – Image Credit: Emma Sharon/Latino Sports
Everyone talks about the top of the Dodger lineup, but it needs the middle to bottom to get on, and that they have done. Their top four in the lineup have been monsters.
Soon-to-be NL MVP Shohei Ohtani, who is looking at his third MVP, former MVPs Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, plus Dominican slugger Teooscar Hernández, have been the biggest run producers I have seen, one through four in a lineup in a long time.
Teoscar Hernández, one of four Dominicans in this year’s World Series (Juan Soto, Luis Gil, Jasson Domínguez, and Hernández) – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
The Yankee pitchers will have to work hard to figure them out. But there are some holes in that group. Freeman is still recovering from an ankle sprain and has not been the former MVP & All-Star of the past. Betts has caught fire after a slow start in the NLDS. Hernández has been clutch and provides more power to an already top-four in the lineup. And then, there is Mr. Baseball, Sho-time Ohtani. He has had an interesting postseason. Driving in runs whenever runners are on base and going 0-22 when no one was on base. The Yankees are looking at that for sure.
The $700 million man Shohei Ohtani made three appearances at Yankee Stadium this past June in a weekend series – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
He is also a lifetime .136 hitter in Yankee Stadium. It is an amazing fact because Yankee Stadium is a left-handed hitter’s dream park to hit in.
So the question becomes, who will be the big guns? The top four or the middle to bottom of the lineup? Will the passing of Fernando Valenzuela impact this Dodger club to go out and win it all for him? It certainly will get the crowds of 52,000 plus going, which will be an intimidating factor in the games played in LA.
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