The Dodgers are back in the World Series, and while the development may seem familiar to all and sundry, it proved far from a certainty given their complicated journey. Their stacked roster and status as favorites notwithstanding, they had to come from behind in the National League Championship Series; in fact, they even had to overcome a deficit in the low-scoring rubber match to claim the pennant. And for all their Game Seven heroics, they still required the Braves to suffer from fundamental base-running miscues in order to survive.
The Dodgers don’t care, though. Despite their evident underachievement in recent memory, they believe they’re due. No, scratch that; they believe they’re overdue. If nothing else, they deserve the breaks to be going their way for once in the face of the Astros’ broad-daylight snatching of the Commissioner’s Trophy in 2017. And in forging just the eighth comeback from a one-three LCS deficit in the annals of Major League Baseball, they needed everything to go right for them in the last three outings.
The do-or-die set-to the other day was particularly nerve-racking. The Dodgers fell behind early off a creaky showing by opener Dustin May on the mound. They then appeared to be en route to yet another disappointing finish when the Braves had two runners in scoring position with no outs in the fourth inning — that is, until they managed to luck into a 5-2-5-2-5-6 double play that dramatically shifted momentum to their side. After the fortunate turn of events, they banked on such notables as Cody Bellinger, Mookie Betts, Kenley Jansen, and Kike Hernandez, to turn seemingly imminent defeat to victory.
The Dodgers celebrated Bellinger’s home run on the seventh, so much so that he dislocated his shoulder in so doing. With a lot of baseball still left to play, it could have wound up hurting them. That it didn’t was due in large measure to Jansen’s outstanding mastery of mechanics. And with the Braves unable to find an answer, the moment was finally theirs. The World Series is up next, and they’re confident the third time’s the charm.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
