For a third time in as many playoff series this October, the Los Angeles Dodgers have the luxury of awaiting an opponent who is facing elimination.
The Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies squared off in the National League Wild Card Game for a berth in the Division Series, then the Chicago Cubs and Washington Nationals played to five games for a trip to the NL Championship Series.
Upon eliminating the Cubs in five games to reach the World Series for the first time since 1988, the Dodgers wait for an American League champion to emerge.
The Houston Astros and New York Yankees meet Saturday night for Game 7 of the ALCS. Houston held a 2-0 series lead but dropped each of the three games at Yankee Stadium. The Astros stormed to a win Friday night to force a winner-take-all situation.
Upon looking ahead to the World Series during Friday’s postgame show on FS1, analysts Frank Thomas, Keith Hernandez, David Ortiz and Alex Rodriguez were asked if the Dodgers should be considered the prohibitive favorite.
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Thomas thinks highly of the NL champions but stopped short of calling them the best team still in the playoffs:
“You’ve got to love the Dodgers. They won 104 games this year and they play total team baseball. I really like this team, but at this point I can’t say they’re the best team remaining. All three teams remaining can win the World Series.”
Hernandez echoed a similar sentiment, while sharing what some of his concerns are:
“I agree with Frank. There’s so many intangibles to winning. They’re not a team with an MVP candidate on it. I don’t think Bellinger is going to be in the top five of voting, even though he had a terrific year. They’ve got a Logan Forsythe, Chris Taylor, Kiké Hernandez, they’ve all had career years. It’s the little components in the machine that have made this team work. The common denominator, number one, is their pitching. Their starters and bullpen are the best.”
Ortiz strongly disagreed with Hernandez and Thomas, comparing the Dodgers to NBA juggernaut and defending champion Golden State Warriors:
“You guys are wrong, man. To me, the Dodgers look like the Golden State Warriors from the NBA. They have so many secret weapons to hurt you. They have good pitching, a good bullpen, they have so many thumpers in the lineup. There’s no way this team can be defeated. You saw in the regular season, they had that little downslide and learned from it. Now you watch the playoffs, they look unbeatable. They have everything that you need in the playoffs. The little things, they get it done. The big things, they get it done.”
Rodriguez also raved about the Dodgers but didn’t quite express same view as Ortiz:
“They are the class of baseball. They’ve been tie-ins all summer. When you think about having a No. 1 starter like Clayton Kershaw, a lights-out reliever like Kenley Jansen, for me, what separates them is the acquisition of Yu Darvish. It almost makes them unbeatable. I know they had a little hiccup this summer, I actually think that makes them better, because it humanizes them. It reminded everybody that if they don’t play well, they’re not going to be able to win.”
The Dodgers are 3-8 all-time against the Yankees in the World Series, and have never faced the Astros. The only playoff series between Houston and Los Angeles came in the 1981 Division Series, which the Dodgers won after dropping the first two games at the Astrodome.
