The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants are facing off in the postseason for the first time in MLB history, and fittingly the National League Division Series has come down to a winner-take-all Game 5.
Both teams have been at the pinnacle of baseball all season, with each winning 109 total games to get to this point. So Dodgers manager Dave Roberts believes it was only natural that the NLDS would go the distance.
“I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this,” Roberts began. “I was hoping we would win in three straight, but I think if you’re talking about baseball, it’s the first time it’s happened with us playing in a postseason series, the way the regular season played out, absolutely it was inevitable. Yeah.”
After the Dodgers won Game 4 to stave of elimination, Roberts pointed out, “This is what baseball wants.
“As I understand, all the series are done and so we’re going to be the only show in town. So if you have a pulse or you’re a sports fan, you better be watching Dodgers-Giants. It’s going to be a great one.”
Roberts also believes the NLDS can also be used as a way to bring in more fans to the game and help shine some light on West Coast baseball.
“I think for me, we talk a lot about the East Coast bias out here on the West Coast, and Yankees-Red Sox,” Roberts said. “I think in any sport, when you’ve got generational rivalries playing a meaningful series, and in this case a very meaningful game, it just brings the old, the new, the rivalry, and all that talk back to life.
“So I think where baseball has kind of gone to playing to the younger players and fanbase, those generational rivalries are kind of the foundation of this sport and what made it America’s Pastime.
“On both ballclubs, there’s tremendous men, tremendous ballplayers, and for us as an industry not to leverage these guys, it’s a missed opportunity. How do you do that? I really don’t know. I just know I have a respect for a lot of these guys playing as ballplayers and men.”
Betts: Urias not fully appreciated outside Dodgers
The Dodgers turn to Julio Urias for Game 5, which is a position the left-hander has been comfortable in as quietly one of the best pitchers in baseball.
But despite Urías’ success, Betts believes he is only now starting to get deserved recognition.
“I think Julio has, for a long time now, been kind of underrated and now people just are giving him his credit,” Betts said after Game 2. “He’s always been really good. I think this year he just was really consistent. I think that’s been the difference.
“Obviously in the postseason he’s always been really good, but throughout the season he’s had his ups and downs, but this year he’s just stayed consistent, one of our best arms.”
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