Is there anything to discuss today besides Shohei Ohtani? Talk about waking a sleeping giant. Ohtani almost makes this look easy, and it’s hard to remember that this incredible skill didn’t happen by chance—Ohtani built himself this way over years and years of single-minded dedication. Makes you wonder what you can do if you really commit to something (honestly, I’m just hoping I can commit to waking up on time every day, never mind break records on a weekly basis…).
Anyways, the answer to that initial
question, shockingly, is yes.
As Rowan Kavner at Fox Sports reminds us, the Dodgers’ starting pitching absolutely showed up to play this series. Blake Snell faced the minimum over eight innings in his start, Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw a complete game (the first postseason pitcher to do so in eight years), and Tyler Glasnow threw nearly six innings with only one run allowed. All told, the Dodgers’ rotation combined for a 0.63 ERA with 35 strikeouts in the NLCS.
Those numbers are unbelievable, especially for a team whose pitching has been a liability in so many seasons before. It’s like the front office finally got fed up with fielding the same questions over and over and finally said “Ok, you want us to fix this? Fine.” And then shut those questions down hard, thank goodness.
And it’s not like this pitching staff was up against a low-quality offense. The Brewers won more regular-season games than any other team this season, thanks in large part to smart at-bats and speedy base running that put pressure on pitchers and forced their counts up. What they lacked in star power, they made up for in consistently impactful appearances by Christian Yelich, William Contreras, Brice Turang, and Jackson Chourio, who were largely shut down in the NLCS.
Compare that to the Dodgers, who had seven different players drive in at least one run, six score at least one run, and eight draw at least one walk, according to Houston Mitchell at the Los Angeles Times.
So, while it looks like Ohtani is doing it all by himself, remember—even without his three homers, the Dodgers would have won Game 4 (though those 10 strikeouts sure helped, too). It’s a team sport, and this Dodgers team is showing us all how it’s done.
