Bouncer up the middle. Betts to the bag – over to first! To beat the champ, you gotta knock ‘em out! The Dodgers stand tall and win back to back titles!
-Joe Davis, Rogers Centre, November 2, 2025
So go the best-laid plans of mice and men, as the Dodgers flop in Game 2 of the NLCS, going into a 0-2 hole.
From a game where everything went to plan except winning, to a game basically handwrapped for the taking before the bottom fell out in dispiriting fashion, using Davis’ iconic call, the Dodgers suffered
the indignity of a standing eight count in the second round of this bout.
The team has had its figurative bell rung as it returns to its own corner for round 3. Now the Dodgers have to climb out of a hole they have largely dug for themselves.
The good news is that the last time to dig themselves out of a 0-2 LCS hole was the 2025 Toronto Blue Jays in last year’s ALCS. The bad news is that those Blue Jays were the gooberiest goobers to ever goober, which are adjectives that are so far away from this iteration of the Dodgers, they might as well be antonyms.
Still, stranger things have happened.
Plenty of ink will be spilled on the lack of performance from Shohei Ohtani, the one-man argument to bring full ABS to Major League Baseball by Will Smith, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto having his worst postseason start since his debut against the San Diego Padres in Game 1 of the NLDS in 2024, and that will be done by others.
To quote the famous Bob Dylan song, it’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.
If Milwaukee had to have Game 1, the Dodgers needed Game 2, if only to keep themselves from now facing the specter of being eliminated in front of their home fans at Dodger Stadium.
The math is pretty simple
Respectfully, I disagree with Max Muncy’s assessment of the NLCS: yes, there is a lot of series left, provided that the Dodgers actually start playing better and winning.
The Dodgers need to win four of the next five games in order to have the opportunity to defend their title for a second time, either against Tampa or Cleveland.
The Dodgers need to win at least two of the next three home games in order to earn a trip back to Milwaukee to try and do something they haven’t done all year: win in Milwaukee without Adric present. And before anyone asks, no, I have zero desire or budget to revisit Milwaukee in 2026.
If the team fails at this first hurdle, the streak of teams other than the Dodgers celebrating a championship at Dodger Stadium will continue, as the 1963 champions were the only team to clinch at Dodger Stadium. Yes, the 2020 title would have been a clinch of a title at home, but alas, everyone was quarantined due to COVID, with the series at Globe Life Field in Arlington, TX.
The last person to have this miserable a time in Milwaukee was David Vassegh in August 2022. As a fellow Slide Bro, I will now abstain from posting or linking to the footage you are now likely thinking of. Thankfully, no bones were broken this visit, as the Bernie’s Slide Experience is closed for the offseason.
There are no bad ideas right now, except standing pat
The Dodgers’ offense, regardless of how Mookie Betts would define it, has been a slog to watch this NLCS. Unless the plan is to stand pat and/or go down quietly, the time to brainstorm ideas and try to jumpstart a comeback is here.
The Brewers have turned the tables and taken the Dodgers’ best pitchers in stride. It’s not panic if things are actually growing dire. Speaking of dire, let’s address Shohei Ohtani’s contributions, or lack thereof, since Denver in August.
I have rightfully castigated the Dodgers’ handling of Shohei Ohtani in 2026. At this point, rehashing what was done and hasn’t been done is beating a dead horse.
As a weird happenstance of history, as things have turned out, I have been present for Ohtani’s final regular-season home runs in 2025 and 2026. Neat.
The problem with the latter is that the final home run in ‘26 was on August 18th in Denver.
Katie Woo and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic broke the story that the Dodgers were debating sitting Ohtani for Game 3 of the NLCS, while providing the following analysis:
Still, given [Ohtani’s] poor performance and questionable health, the possibility of sitting Ohtani should be on the table. Ohtani spent roughly two weeks on the injured list with left knee and right biceps pain before the end of the regular season. Before the postseason began, he said that although he did not feel 100 percent, he felt better than he did before the IL stint and was optimistic he’d be able to play through his ailments.
“I haven’t been able to get a good grasp of the root cause of all this,” Ohtani said ahead of the NLDS, through team interpreter Will Ireton. “I think that process is going to happen during the offseason when I’m going to have a little bit more time to be able to address it. But as of now, it’s something I’m just going to have to manage.”
The Dodgers have given Ohtani plenty of leash to do just that but can no longer ignore the glaring hole in the heart of the order. With their season closing in, the Dodgers must consider all options. That includes sitting Ohtani.
[Emphasis added.]
While I am generally skeptical of swing analytics as a panacea when folks are struggling, there is a key difference between Ohtani and his teammate Will Smith, who has also been a non-factor offensively this October: Smith doesn’t look like he is in physical distress while batting.
No one is asking, mockingly or otherwise, whether Smith has forgotten how to play baseball. I don’t think Ohtani has forgotten; I just think he’s that hurt.
Yes, one might be tempted to think that Ohtani is one at-bat from going on a hot streak. I sure did.
In the first nine games of the postseason last year, Ohtani had a woeful slash line of .158/.273/.368 with 2 HR, 3B, 6 RBI, and 6 BB to 17 K, while being smothered by the Philadelphia Phillies’ gamut of left-handed pitchers.
Yes, Ohtani had the greatest postseason game ever in 2025 NLCS Game 4, and if one were to exclude it from last year’s tournament, he had a slash line of .275/.431/.575, 3 HR, 3 2B, 5 RBI, 11 BB compared to 10 K.
Unlike last year, Ohtani was basically healthy but running out of gas on the mound. Here, I think the check on Ohtani’s injuries has finally come due and, if I were in a position to give counsel, it would be to not take a half measure when a full measure is due.
Ohtani didn’t roll his ankle or do something that can be mended in 24 hours. At this point, you either sit him in favor of either Josue De Paula or Teoscar Hernandez in the DH spot depending on the pitcher, or you openly ask him whether it is time to replace him on the roster, with Commissioner approval.
Yes, if there was an approved roster change, you would lose Ohtani for the World Series. Yes, if you did it carelessly, you would risk alienating your franchise cornerstone.
No one is guaranteed a tomorrow
Here’s the problem. As of now, there is no World Series; there is only tomorrow and the next day. The day after that isn’t even guaranteed unless the Dodgers win a game in this series.
There is now a non-zero chance that Tarik Skubal has pitched his final game as a Dodger.
There is now a non-zero chance that Yoshinobu Yamamoto has pitched his final game of the year.
Win Game 3, and you guarantee another day with Skubal. Win two games, and you both guarantee another day with Yamamoto and a return trip to Milwaukee. Do otherwise and go into the long offseason wondering “what if?”
