In failure and in success, the Dodgers have gotten used to the burden of expectation, routinely taking on the role of Goliath, so to speak. Seldom has there been a moment in which you could realistically
claim this team is outmatched, even in past eliminations. Now, as they go down 3-2 in the World Series with a Game 5 defeat at home, the Dodgers didn’t just dig quite a hole for themselves, but whether it should or not be the case, they’ve been outmatched for the better part of this series.
With a quick rewind of recent campaigns, probably the last time that the Dodgers seemed to unquestionably be the inferior team in a playoff series was in 2018, when a pretty underwhelming Dodger team, given this era, ran into the buzzsaw that was the Boston Red Sox. This time around, no matter which way you want to look at it, apart from the actual play on the field during these five games, which is all that matters, there really is no argument to be made that the Dodgers should be outclassed. Toronto could be a better team than most people gave them credit for, and the Dodgers weaknesses might be more impactful than originally thought as well—even then, these losses should be coming/if they should at all, in more competitive games.
At the heart of this issue lies an offense that’s been unable to generate anything, and Game 5 provides a nice opportunity to address that issue with a broader view. For one game, it’d be fairly easy to point to Trey Yesavage having the performance of his life, throwing seven masterful innings of one-run ball against Shohei Ohtani and company. Maybe not to this level, but these things happen in the postseason all the time: the unlikely story of a talented pitcher, who didn’t have the experience or the pedigree, pitching at an incredibly high level in the most crucial spots.
What’s troublesome for Los Angeles is that this isn’t just one random game; if it were, the feelings heading back to Toronto wouldn’t be anywhere this negative. Time and time again in this playoff run, the Dodgers offense has failed to produce at a consistent level in line with not only its regular season production but even the bare minimum of acceptable expectations surrounding this lineup. Starting pitching carried this team, and with that unit dealing with the tiniest bit of adversity, the offense is nowhere to be found.
This ineptitude is a big part of why a 3-2 deficit feels larger right now. Even if Yoshinobu Yamamoto is able to deliver yet another phenomenal outing in Toronto, there’s a massive question mark if the offense will make it count.
It’s a little on the optimistic side of things to expect a dramatic turnaround so late in the postseason, but every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around. Unlike in 2018, the Dodgers aren’t overmatched by this Blue Jays team from a talent standpoint, the farthest thing from it. It’s difficult to expect to see the offense as a whole turn it on all of a sudden, but they don’t even need a slugfest; they just have to do enough to put the Blue Jays pitchers on the defensive. Do what you couldn’t for Shohei Ohtani and Snell in these recent two losses, and give Yamamoto the tiniest bit to work with.
