LOS ANGELES — Less than 24 hours later, it’s still incomprehensible. How did this team, playing like this, do THAT? The Dodgers are World Champions, and I couldn’t be happier, but this has got to be the unlikeliest of title runs in franchise history.
If the Dodgers had come in with all guns blazing, and pitched as well as they had in the first three rounds of the playoffs, it would be great. But it would also be understandable. How do you defeat that rotation when it’s pitching at its best? You don’t. And if the bats had awakened and the offense had played as it had all year, it would be great. But it would also be undertandable. What chance do you have against a team full of MVPs and future Hall-of-Famers? None.
But NEITHER of those two things happened, and the Dodgers won anyway. Consider these facts. In this World Series, Toronto bested the Dodgers in almost every statistical category. Just look:
- Runs: 34-26, Toronto
- Hits: 75-53, Toronto
- AVG: .269-.203 Toronto
- OBP: .347-.294 Toronto
- SLG: .398-.364 Toronto
- OPS: .745-.658 Toronto
In fact the only offensive categories in which the Dodgers had an advantage over the Jays was in home runs (11-8) and walks (33-28), although most of that advantage in walks was just that ridiculous Game Three with the five intentional passes for Shohei.
What about pitching, you say? Surely the Dodgers must have outpitched the Jays on their way to the crown. Well…
- ERA: 3.21-3.95, Toronto
- ROTATION ERA: 3.35-4.76, Toronto
- WHIP: 1.18-1.41, Toronto
- SO: 72-64, Toronto
- AVG AGAINST: .203-.269 Toronto
The only meaningful stat in which the Dodgers had an advantage was in bullpen ERA (I know, right?), where LA posted a 2.97, which was just slightly better than Toronto’s 3.06.
So given all those statistical headwinds, why are your Dodgers back-to-back champs? Well, it’s true that Shohei Ohtani went off, but his brilliance was confined to a couple of games. There were plenty of 0-fers in there, too. Take out Game Three, and it’s a pretty pedestrian series: 5-for-22, 1 HR, 5 RBI. All of the other Dodgers performed significantly below their season statistics. Even hero Will Smith, who had a solid series, posted a slightly lower OPS in the Fall Classic (.886) than he did in the regular season (.901). Others were downright bad: Freddie, Mookie, Kiké, Tommy Edman all were on the struggle bus the whole series. And don’t even get me started on Andy Pages.
So the question remains, how in the world did this happen? And I think we all know the answer to that one: Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Without the otherworldly performances from Yamamoto, who won three of the Dodgers’ four games, the Dodgers would have been beaten pretty handily by this tough Jays’ lineup. So as you’re replaying the series in your head in the coming weeks, think of the big hits. Those are important, for sure. Think of that insane catch in centerfield by Andy Pages to save the season. Think of Miggy Ro hitting a homer and then cutting down the winning run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth.
But you also have to think of Yoshi. 17.2 IP, 10 H 2 ER, 1.02 ERA, 0.69 WHIP. And the last outing on zero days rest after throwing 96 pitches. No player can single-handedly win a World Series. But that was as close as we’re likely to see in our lifetime.
And that, Dodger fans, is what just happened.
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