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Ultimately, a home run by a $4 million utility man was all the Los Angeles Dodgers needed to set up the most expensive National League Championship Series in history.
On one side, the Dodgers and their $327 million payroll. On the other, the New York Mets and their $324 million payroll. In sum, almost one Shohei Ohtani’s worth.
We’re getting ahead of ourselves, but only a little bit. The matchup for the National League Championship Series is set, courtesy of the Dodgers dispatching the San Diego Padres by a 2-0 final in Game 5 of the NLDS on Friday.
For the Dodgers, returning to the NLCS after falling short in the wake of 100-win seasons in 2021, 2022 and 2023 feels akin to an exorcism.
It was indeed the Padres who knocked the Dodgers from the NLDS two years ago, and it seemed like history would repeat itself in the grudge match. The Friars were the hottest team in baseball coming into the playoffs, and they looked the part in putting Los Angeles in a 2-1 hole.
Not a bad comeback for the Dodgers, in other words. But their reward, as it were, is that they now have to take on the other hottest team in baseball.
The Mets won more games than the Dodgers and anyone else after Grimace infamously purpled up the joint at Citi Field in June. That stretch, plus their hard-fought wins over the Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies, have them looking what they darn well should be: One of the best teams money can buy.
If ever there was a recipe for a fun Championship Series, this is it.
The Dodgers Took the Surprise Road to the NLCS
The Dodgers probably should have lost the NLDS, and here’s why: Ohtani didn’t carry them.
A shocker to anyone who’s only aware of his game-tying, tone-setting home run from Game 1, I know. But it’s true. After that game, the same guy who chartered the 50-50 club during the regular season went 2-for-15 without a homer or a stolen base.
The Padres should get credit for this, and there is no doubting the veracity of the game plan to shut Ohtani down. In the regular season, the Dodgers went 42-37 when the soon-to-be three-time MVP neither homered nor stole a base. They went 56-27 otherwise.
And yet, the message in the air right now is that the Dodgers aren’t merely The Shohei Ohtani Show.
Mookie Betts made it known that he is also an MVP in his own right with homers in Games 3 and 4. Will Smith, Max Muncy and Gavin Lux also went yard before Game 5, wherein Teoscar Hernández added his second of the series.
The swing of the game, though, was the one that Enrique Hernández connected on for a go-ahead homer off Yu Darvish in the second:
This is who Hernández is in the playoffs. His 14 postseason home runs outrank even some all-time legends, including Alex Rodriguez, Miguel Cabrera and Chipper Jones.
More broadly, this is who the Dodgers are offensively. No National League team hit more home runs than they did this season, with nine different hitters contributing at least 10 long balls to the final tally of 233.
Of course, the Dodgers did go into the NLDS with question marks. One big one concerned the stability of Freddie Freeman’s sprained right ankle, and that one didn’t exactly get a satisfactory answer.
As to whether the Dodgers have enough pitching, well, different story.
They can feel confident that they have at least one viable starter after what Yoshinobu Yamamoto did in Game 5. This year has generally been a disappointing proof of concept for the Dodgers’ $375 million investment, but he sure looked like an ace in firing five shutout innings.
It’s otherwise time to say something that might actually be a first for modern Dodgers iterations: Dave Roberts and the bullpen are crushing it.
Yamamoto was, after all, the only starter who contributed to the 24-inning scoreless streak with which Dodgers pitchers finished off the series. It was a veritable shindig of shiny stuff, with relievers handling 16 innings and allowing only seven hits and two walks.
“We went through a lot of injuries and a lot of ups and a lot of downs, but we fight, we fight and we keep going—and we’ve got champagne on us right now,” Betts said after Game 5.
Yet lest anyone mistake the Dodgers as the underdog for the NLCS, they’re not that.
Because there is no underdog in this series.
The Mets Took the Clutch Road to the NLCS
If it feels like the Mets should be the underdog in the NLCS, that may be related to their Comeback Kids act.
It’s been running ever since they started a 61-36 romp to the end of the regular season back on June 12. And just when you think it will end, they find new and exciting ways to keep it going.
And by “new and exciting,” what I really mean is “clutch dingers.”
Yet it isn’t so much the clutchness of the Mets offense that should have the Dodgers on guard. There comes a point when clutchness is simply indicative of a really good lineup, and the Mets surely have one of those.
- Through June 11: Dodgers outscore Mets by 64 runs
- After June 11: Dodgers outscore Mets by 10 runs
This is basically a fair offensive fight, in other words, and the biggest advantage on the mound is arguably with the Mets.
As strong as the Dodgers’ Johnny Wholestaff approach is looking right now, they frankly don’t have starting pitchers who can go toe-to-toe with the ones the Mets are bringing to the NLCS. It’s a group that had a 2.71 ERA in September and which has a 2.43 ERA in October.
Major League Baseball Has Already Won the NLCS
Regardless of which team is first to four wins and, thus, punches its ticket to the World Series, at least one entity must be feeling super-duper-happy about the NLCS.
This postseason has already been a television ratings bonanza, and it’s easy to understand why. Ohtani’s playoff debut with the Dodgers would always be must-see TV. It’s otherwise hard to quantify how much sheer drama the games have provided, though it feels as if half of it has come from the Mets.
And now, these forces are ready to collide on the doorstep of the World Series. People will be watching, particularly in the MLB map’s biggest (New York) and second-biggest (Los Angeles) markets.
They’re going to see a show, alright. Call it a hunch.
Heck, call it a guarantee.
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