Roger Arrieta
LOS ANGELES—The warm-up is over, it’s time to begin the real season. The Dodgers finished the mandatory 60-game regular season by blanking the Angels 5-0 and are now ready to play in the season that matters.
Los Angeles capped the “almost everyone makes the playoffs” portion of their schedule by owning the best record in MLB, the best pitching staff in MLB, the most home runs in MLB and the most runs scored in MLB – just to name a few categories.
All those numbers are now meaningless once the playoffs start on Wednesday. The goal from the start of spring training in February has always been – World Series champion or nothing. The Dodgers will need to add 13 more wins to their league-best total of 43 in order to hoist their first World Series trophy since 1988.
The final game of the regular season lacked drama, injuries or bizarre circumstances and was pretty much over after the third inning. A.J. Pollock started the 5-0 win with a solo homer to leadoff the first and he finished it with a 2-run blast in the seventh. In between there was another dominant pitching performance from Dustin May and another bagel from the dominant Dodgers’ bullpen.
The win gave LA a 43-17 record for the regular season. It sends them into the postseason on a 4-game winning streak and having won 10 of their last 12 games. At one time, San Diego made an upstart effort at taking the NL West crown away from the Dodgers but LA wound up winning the division by a healthy 6-game margin – the largest of any division winner in the NL.
The Angels finish 2020 with a 26-34 mark and are headed for the fishing boats in Cancún. They haven’t made the playoffs since the 2014 season.
GAME RECAP: It was another starter/bullpen game for the Dodgers in the regular-season finale. Reliever Victor González pitched the first inning and then gave way to starter Dustin May who went 4.0 innings. LA then used four more relievers to record their fifth shutout of the season.
Pollock connected on the game-winning homer on the third pitch of the opening at-bat for LA. He sent his 15th long ball of the year halfway up the stands in left field. The game would remain at 1-0 until the third when the Dodgers scored two runs on no hits and were helped out by a questionable scoring call. Austin Barnes, Joc Pederson and Pollock all earned walks to start the inning. Corey Seager followed with a 4-6-3 double play ball that sent Pederson to third and plated Barnes. Justin Turner pushed home Pederson on the next at-bat when he sent a high fly ball directly into the sun in shallow right field. Angels’ first baseman Jared Walsh went back to his right on the ball and tried to find it in the bright sun but the ball dropped inched from his glove. The play was ruled an error despite the fact that Walsh never touched the ball and he had to fight the worst sun field of any – an early afternoon start at Dodger Stadium. Pederson jogged home with the second run of the inning to make the score 3-0.
Pollock finished off the scoring when he hit his second long ball of the day in the seventh. Pederson singled back up the box to leadoff the inning and then Pollock stayed down on a 3-1 off-speed pitch and smashed it over the center field wall. The 407-foot shot was his 16th of the year and closed the book on the regular-season score line.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS:
HOW SWEEP IT IS: The win on Sunday gave the Dodgers a sweep in both series against the Halos. LA went 3-0 on the road against the Angels on Aug. 14-16 and put up three straight victories over the weekend. The 6-0 record against the Angels marks the first time since 1997 that the Dodgers haven’t lost to the Angels in a season. LA went 4-0 against the Angels in 1997 – the first year that they were known as the Anaheim Angels and the first year of interleague play.
SERIES STUFF: The Dodgers finished the regular season with a 15-1-4 record in series play. Their only series loss came on Sept. 4-6 when they dropped 2-of-3 against Colorado. It was also LA’s fifth sweep of the year.
INTERLEAGUE ASSASINS: Los Angeles finishes 2020 with a 16-4 record against American League teams. That matches the club’s all-time best interleague mark which came in 2017. It is also the best record of any MLB this year in crossover play. The Dodgers have won at least 13 interleague games in five different seasons.
OBSCURE STATS OF THE DAY: The Dodgers finished with an 11-2 record in games played during the day which is the best winning percentage of any MLB team in 2020. LA also led the majors in road wins (22) which is a good omen for the playoffs since every round after the opener will be played away from home in Texas.
ON TRACK A.J.: Pollock’s two dingers tied him for the team lead in HRs this year. Both he and Mookie Betts had 16 long balls which ties them for third in the NL and seventh in all of baseball. Pollock also went 3-for-3 on the day. His three hits are the same number as he had in the previous five games when he went 3-for-17 (.176) and also had two homers. Pollock finished the regular season with a .276/.314/.566 slash line. His 16 homers in the 60-game schedule would factor out to 41 homers in a 162-game slate. His career high for HRs is 21 which he had in 2017 – so you can say he had a pretty good year despite all the troubles to start 2020.
HE SAID IT: “Getting Covid, having my daughter in the NICU for 128 days and have my wife worrying about my life for me, I think I did aa pretty good job of staying in the moment and just taking things as they come.”—A.J. Pollock on overcoming Covid, the premature birth of his daughter and being able to have the season he had.
OBSCURE STAT OF THE DAY 2: Pollock hit in the leadoff spot for the third time in 2020 and is the only Dodgers’ player to hit in all nine spots in the order. The least amount of games he hit in one spot was the No.9 slot where he batted in just one game.
HE SAID IT: “It’s character. AJ has high character. He is all in for me and his teammates. For him too hit anywhere in the lineup speaks to his character.”—Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts on Pollock’s ability to hit anywhere in the lineup and not have it effect his performance.
HE SAID IT 2: “I didn’t know that. I knew I’ve been all over the lineup. It’s kind of exciting. Put me wherever you want and I can handle it. Wherever Doc wants to put me in the lineup I’ll be fine.”—Pollock, when asked if he knew that he had batted in all nine spots in the order.
WHERE YOU SEE HIM NEXT, NO ONE KNOWS: May came out of the bullpen on Sunday – in what might be a dry-run for the playoffs. But then again it might not. He went 4.0 innings, allowed only two hits and struck out five – including fanning the side in the fourth. May also earned his third win of the year to move his record to 3-1. He lowered his ERA to 2/57 and his WHIP to 1.092. No one knows whether he will start Game 3 in the wild card round or will come out of the bullpen (hopefully it won’t matter after a Dodger sweep).
HE SAID IT 3: “I’m game for anything. As long as I am getting to go out there and compete against anybody I am happy with my role…being in the postseason is something you dream about as a kid.”—May on whether he would like to start or come out of the bullpen for the playoffs.
WHO’S THE KID IN RIGHT FIELD?: Anyone who had Adam Kolarek playing in right field during the season can now head to the window and cash your winning ticket. Dodger fans had to do a double take when there was a No.56 playing in the outfield. With the Dodgers only having four bench players, Roberts wanted to give Seager a rest for the final two frames and moved Kiké Hernández from right field to shortstop to start the eighth. Looking for options, Roberts turned to Kolarek who has been known to play the field. Dodger fans might be able to recall that he played first base in a game last year in Miami on Aug. 13 in a 15-1 LA win.
TEAM LEADERS: And here are your team leaders for the 2020 regular season:
Batting Average – Corey Seager and Justin Turner (.307)
On-Base Average – Will Smith (.401)
Home Runs – Mookie Betts and A.J. Pollock (16)
Slugging Percentage – Seager (.585) – Edwin Ríos had a .645 mark but only had 76 AB
OPS – Smith (.980)
RBI – Seager (41)
Extra-Base Hits – Seager (28)
Total Bases – Seager (124)
Walks – Max Muncy (39)
Wins – Clayton Kershaw (6)
Quality Starts – Clayton Kershaw (6)
Saves – Kenley Jansen (11)
Holds – Blake Treinen (9)
ERA/Starters: Kershaw (2.16)
ERA/Relievers: Adam Kolarek (0.95)
WHIP/Starters: Tony Gonsolin (0.842)
WHIP Relievers; Victor González (0.742)
ON DECK: Make sure to get your heart checked and that you have enough fingernails to bite between now and Wednesday when the “anything can happen” 2020 postseason begins. The Dodgers will face Milwaukee in a best-of-three series beginning on Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. at Dodger Stadium. The Brewers backed into the No.8 seed on Sunday because of losses by the Giants and the Phillies. Milwaukee lost 5-2 to St. Louis on Sunday to finish the regular season at 29-31. They are one of two teams in the 16-team tournament to finish with a record below .500 (Asterisks – 29-31). The Brewers went 5-5 in their final five games of the year and were 14-17 on the road this year. The Brewers finished with a team ERA of 4.16 (6th in the NL) and a WHIP of 1.232 (5th in the NL). On offense, they hit .225 as a team (12th in the NL) and had an OPS of .702 (13th in the NL).
BUETANE, KING KERSHAW AND TBA: Roberts announced before the regular-season finale that the Dodgers will start Walker Buehler on Wednesday in Game 1 and then Clayton Kershaw in Game 2. If there is a Game 3, the starter will be announced later in the week.
THE FINAL WORD: “Guys will come in and workout. Some guys might play in a sim game and take some live at-bats. There will be a lot of pre-series meetings.”—Roberts on the tentative schedule for the players on Monday and Tuesday.
