In those buoyant days of spring, Dodgers fans blithely predicted their star-studded and well-financed team would win, say, 125 games. No major league team had won more than 116 but, if the Dodgers were going to ruin baseball, they would have a damn good time doing it.
Then the season started, and with it the ups and downs, and the injuries and the inconsistencies. The Dodgers won the National League West, of course, but with what they would consider a very modest 93 wins.
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Eventually, far later than their fans expected, they roared. They closed the regular season by winning five of their final six series. They swept the Cincinnati Reds in the wild-card round. They dismissed the Philadelphia Phillies in four games in the division series.
Read more: Plaschke: A wild finish propels the Dodgers into NLCS and past their toughest playoff test
The Dodgers have gone 20-6 over these past five weeks. That is a .769 winning percentage, which over a full season would translate into … 125 victories.
The Dodgers have advanced to baseball’s final four, losing just once in six postseason games. If these are the real Dodgers, the rest of the league appears to be in trouble.
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But what if these are not the real Dodgers? The Dodgers are winning but, as the cliche goes, are they hitting on all cylinders?
“Not yet,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said amid the team’s second champagne celebration in nine days.
Dodgers catcher Will Smith smiled at the question of whether the Dodgers have another gear within them.
“I think there’s another gear,” Smith said. “Look at Shohei.”
Ohtani, the defending most valuable player and the presumed repeat winner, had one hit in 18 at-bats in the division series. He struck out nine times.
He scored a franchise-record and league-leading 146 runs this season, just about one every game. In the four games of the division series, he neither hit a home run or scored a run.
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“He didn’t do much this series,” Smith said. “I expect next series for him to come out and hit like five homers. That’s just who he is.”
The Dodgers’ starters are healthy and effective at the right time. In six postseason games, the Dodgers have five quality starts. They have deployed another starter as a closer and yet another as a setup man, and the rest of their bullpen might charitably be described as a work in progress.
In the four-game division series, they batted .199 with more errors (three) than home runs (two).
Mookie Betts and Tommy Edman each went four for 17, Teoscar Hernández four for 16, Freddie Freeman three for 15, Andy Pages 0 for 15.
“I think we won this series because we pitched really well,” utility player Kiké Hernández said.
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As the players doused one another in celebration, the Dodgers readily gave credit to a Phillies pitching staff that might rate as the best they will face this October. In this series, the Phillies posted a 2.87 earned-run average and the Dodgers posted a 3.32 ERA.
“That’s a great team over there,” Roberts said. “We took every punch that they threw at us.
That said …
“I think that we can be better,” Hernández said. “We didn’t necessarily defend the way we can defend. We didn’t hit the way we can hit. Even though we beat a really, really good team, we can be even better.
“That just speaks volumes about this group. We have gone through so much together. We’re battle-tested, and we’re going to find a way to win a ballgame even when things are not going our way.”
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On Thursday, they advanced to their seventh NLCS in 10 seasons by winning a game in which they did not get an extra-base hit, or a hit with a runner in scoring position. In the regular season, they led the NL in runs and home runs.
Read more: Dodgers defeat Phillies in a wild, instant-classic walk-off to reach the NLCS
On Wednesday, before the Dodgers lost their only game this postseason, third baseman Max Muncy scoffed at the notion the team was hitting on all cylinders.
“I still think there’s another gear in there,” Muncy said. “I don’t think we fully reached where we can be at. And that’s not saying we are, and that’s not saying we aren’t. But I still think there’s a whole other level in there we haven’t reached yet.”
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What would tell you that you’ve reached it?
“I think you would know,” he smiled to a gathering of reporters. There was laughter in the room, and room for his already accomplished team to grow.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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