The Los Angeles Dodgers are just one win away from returning to the World Series. Just like that. Three games into the NLCS. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
After the regular season that the Dodgers had, the postseason has been relatively stress-free. Yes, there have been some bullpen snafus, and a relative lack of offense, but overall, there has just been incredible pitching from all teams involved and the Dodgers continue to end up on top.
Of course this is what this team was built for. The big bad monsters
we’ve talked about previously. The team ruining baseball. Whatever. I have sat through too many soul-crushing playoff games to care about any of that narrative right now.
This is fun playoff baseball! What a concept.
So, we find ourselves at Game 4, in which the Dodgers can complete a sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers and move on to the World Series. And if they complete that task, it will be behind Shohei Ohtani on the mound.
Ohtani has not been a big part of the playoffs so far. He has only pitched in one game. Game 1 of the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies. He allowed three earned runs in six innings of work, but even though they were ‘earned’ runs, the defense didn’t help him out at all. Regardless, after that he zoned in, and struck out nine Phillies on the way to the team win.
Shohei will look to continue the Dodgers’ pitching dominance in this series, and the playoffs as a whole. So far, the Brewers have a .101 batting average as a team against the Dodgers. They have scored one run per game. They have just nine hits total, with four of them being for extra bases, and one homer. For the pitching staff that spent way too much time on the injury list this season, they are healthy and peaking at the exact right time.
The Dodgers, and Ohtani specifically, also haven’t been a juggernaut at the plate. But they’re doing enough to get it done, and from players up and down the lineup. So far it hasn’t mattered that Ohtani hasn’t hit his stride there yet.
But that’s why you build an all-around solid team, so that when one of your stars isn’t shining as brightly as he should be, the others can step up and keep the whole thing moving in the right direction. Too many times in past postseasons has the whole thing depended on one guy or only three pitchers to get 11 wins. Now’s it a lovely full team effort.
The Dodgers may not win tonight, and that’s ok. Last season there were times when the team had to ‘punt’ the game to be in a better situation for the next. The Dodgers have only had to do that once, not unironically, on the back of Clayton Kershaw, the victim of so many past postseason wrongs. They may lose tonight, but in no way am I worried that the Brewers will somehow win three more games before the Dodgers win one.
NLCS Game 4 info
- Teams: No. 3 seed Dodgers vs. No. 1 seed Brewers
- Los Angeles leads best-of-7 series, 3-0
- Ballpark: Dodger Stadium
- Start time: 5:38 p.m. PT
- TV: TBS (Brian Anderson, Jeff Francoeur, Ron Darling)
- National radio: ESPN Radio (Jon Sciambi, Doug Glanville)
- Local English radio: AM 570 (Stephen Nelson, Rick Monday)
- Local Spanish radio: KTNQ 1020 AM (Pepe Yñiguez, José Mota, Luis Cruz)