The Dodgers 2024 Victory Vindicates Their 2020 Title

And other postseason thoughts…

The Los Angeles Dodgers have received a lot of criticism for their early playoffs exits in recent years, and much of it was deserved:

2023: 100-62, Lost to ARI 3-0 NLDS

2022: 111-51, Lost to SDP 3-1 NLDS

2021: 106-56, Lost to ATL 4-2 NLCS

The 2020 short-season title was an easy target for critics on a great accomplishment: 60-game season, no fans until the World Series (played at a neutral site in Texas, no less). The part that gets left out is that there was by no means a fluky champion that season. What the Dodgers accomplished, from start to finish, in those 3 ½ months was no joke. They had a .717 winning percentage in the regular season. They received no advantage via the bye from being the one-seed because eight teams made the playoffs in each league for that one season, requiring them to win four playoff series. They swept the #8 seed Brewers and #4 seed Padres as well. They beat the #2 seed Braves in seven games in the NLCS, and then faced the #1 team from the American League in the Tampa Bay Rays, who they beat in six games in the World Series. They faced the toughest path from start to finish in the playoffs, but their title was met with an asterisk by many.

It was easy to see during the on-field interviews, moments after Wednesday night’s Game Five ended, that this criticism had stuck with them.

First, Mookie Betts spoke about being “super excited” to finally get a real parade in LA. Betts’s game-winning RBI in the finale helped shake off the postseason criticism he’s received. Walker Buehler said, “For me personally, huge, two years off, two surgeries, it’s a lot. For our organization, we deserve this. We’ve been playing really good baseball for a lot of years, and [pottymouth stuff] 2020 and whatever, but they can’t say a whole lot about it now.”

Finally, Blake Treinen: “My first year we were very blessed to have a World Series in Texas. There’s been a lot of people that want to discredit 2020… it’s so great to see the guys who are still here from then… being able to finally silence the critics on this.”

Neither Buehler nor Treinen were asked about anything other than this game and this specific season by Tom Verducci and Ken Rosenthal, but they still brought up 2020. It’s hard to blame them when their crowning achievement was considered fake and they weren’t banging trash cans or anything. After a convincing five game win over the New York Yankees, Dave Roberts’s Dodgers now have two titles in five years. As Kevin Garnett said in 2008, “What you gon’ say now? What can you say now?”

The Padres were becoming a trendy pick entering the playoffs to win the National League and went up 2 games to 1 against the Dodgers, who were forced to throw a bullpen game in Game 4 against the Padres’s Dylan Cease. The staff was without ace Tyler Glasnow, stud rookie Gavin Stone, future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw, and several other pitchers who were expected to contribute this season. Betts homered to open the game, the Dodgers jumped on Cease for an 8-0 victory and never looked back.

Other jumbled thoughts from the playoffs:

• John Smoltz spent much of the series preaching the difference in fundamentals between the two teams, which was most glaring in the fifth inning of Game 5, when three unspeakable Yankee defensive miscues led to five unearned runs. Throughout the series, the Dodgers beat out a few bang-bang plays at first to keep innings alive. Meanwhile, Jazz Chisholm narrowly avoided being thrown out at second base on a tag-up while Juan Soto crossed home plate with, at the time, the go-ahead run in the late innings. Not worth the risk.

Smoltz emphasized how clear the mismatch was from a coaching perspective without calling the managers out directly. At one point, he continued on for multiple innings on the topic and I couldn’t get enough of it. Nothing will stick with me more than Aaron Boone bringing Nestor Cortes, a starting pitcher, in to face three future Hall of Famers with runners on base in extra innings, having not pitched in THIRTY SEVEN DAYS. Talent can only get you so far when you have to win playoff games outside of the AL Central.

• I’ll never get over pitchers who can throw on their “side day,” which is with one day of rest, and retain good “stuff” like Buehler did to close out the finale. Granted, his adrenaline was probably higher than usual, but in getting his first career save Buehler made the Yankees look downright foolish. I wondered if Buehler would sign a one-year “prove it” deal this offseason and be a candidate for the Red Sox, but he may have earned a long-term deal with his performances late in the postseason.

The narrative last year regarding the higher seeds losing in the divisional series proved to be silly this season with the Yankees, Dodgers, and Guardians all advancing to the championship series. Having a bye, the ability to line up your pitching staff, and subsequent series on your home field will always be preferred.

In terms of the time off between series, MLB finally tried to do the right thing by moving the World Series up three days, to begin on Tuesday if both LCS series went 5 games or fewer. However, the NLCS, the earlier of the two series, went to six games and we had to sit through four days without baseball waiting for Game 1 last Friday, which (thankfully) gave Nestor Cortes a few extra days of rest.

• A year ago, I posted the combined innings to include postseason workload of some notable starters from the 2023 playoffs. Taking a look at their output in 2024, both with innings pitched and ERA:

Fangraphs

Gallen and Kelly of the Diamondbacks both were unable to hold up for the ’24 season, Strider couldn’t get through April without needing surgery, and Verlander is nearing the end of his career. Jordan Montgomery had a disastrous season and is now opting in to his ’25 contract in Arizona despite the owner pleading with him not to.

Wheeler, Nola, Valdez, and Lopez are all certified aces who have proven capable of handling the workload.

2024 did not have as many glaring innings counts but there are a couple to monitor:

Fangraphs

Skubal is a big-bodied pitcher, but there was talk in August about shutting him down early because he was at a high workload post-surgery. Instead, the Tigers made a playoff run and his workload increased. I have my concerns about him in ’25. Manaea will opt out and cash in on his big season in free agency, and could be the Montgomery of next season after throwing 200 innings. Flaherty, King, Severino, and Quintana are all free agents as well.

Fangraphs

A few of the relievers stuck out to me. Weaver was a great story in ’24 but the Yankees really rode him down the stretch. Holmes is a free agent and looked pretty awful the entire second half. Cade Smith was a stud but pitched in a combined 83 games, after a max of 47 appearances in the minors.

• Seeing the Dodgers deploy Ryan Brasier to face the heart of the order in the eighth inning of Game 3, escaping without issue, was truly surreal. Hard to think of a more infuriating discrepancy between two teams as Brasier’s 2023.

Fangraphs

• When Dodger Stadium plays “I Love LA” by Randy Newman after wins, it’s hard not to think of the baseball montage in Naked Gun. Leslie Nielsen, after singing the national anthem as Enrico Pallazzo, finding his way behind home plate as the umpire moonwalking during strike three calls, frisking the ballplayers, and cleaning home plate with a vacuum. Nonetheless, Pallazzo was better behind the plate in that montage than Mark Carlson was in Game 3. Thankfully, Freddie Freeman was not attacked by a lion on his trip around the bases while the song blared during his walk-off grand slam.

• The premeditated behavior of the two clowns who mugged Mookie Betts down the right field line is far worse than that of Jeffrey Maier or Steve Bartman, who made split-second instinctive decisions. The incident on Tuesday night reminded me of when a WWE referee turns his back on the action and someone gives a (scripted!) cheap shot and then acts like nothing happened. Thankfully, we had a right field umpire who was able to step in and make their first call since 1949.
• Finally, a happy retirement to Bob Costas, after 44 years of announcing baseball. While we will all certainly miss Bob’s voice, his jet-black toupee signed a contract extension through the 2027 season.