Los Angeles partied Wednesday night like it hadn’t in 36 years, when Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler struck out his former teammate, Yankees outfielder Alex Verdugo to wrap up the eighth world championship in Los Angeles Dodgers history.
The victory, a 7-6 triumph, embodied the fight of not only the Dodgers franchise, but also its fanbase, which has endured so much since 1988, the last time the team won a championship that wasn’t decided in a shortened season.
Fans of teams other than the Dodgers became synonymous for saying things such as “the Dodgers choke every October” and “the 2020 championship doesn’t count since they didn’t play 162 games”.
The team won 43 games in a 60-game season, and would have been on a pace to win 116 games in a full season; a mark that would have equaled baseball’s most wins in a season, set by the 2001 Seattle Mariners and the 1906 Chicago Cubs. One thing those clubs shared in common – no championship to show for a historic seasons.
With high hopes, fans felt as if it was time to silence the critics after the Dodgers won 106 games in 2021, 111 in 2022 and 100 in 2023.
But then came the postseason, and, all too familiar came the demise of the great Dodgers.
In 2021 the Dodgers did not win the NL West despite winning 106 games. The team fell one win shy of the Giants and were forced to defeat the Cardinals in a wild Wildcard game where Chris Taylor needed to hit a walk-off home run to lift the Dodgers out of that round. NL West champions who? asked the Dodgers as they defeated the Giants in five games before falling in the NLCS to the eventual world champions, the Braves.
Remember the goose game in 2022? If you don’t, there was an actual goose that landed in shallow rightfield during Game 2 of the NLDS between the Dodgers and the Padres. Yes, those Padres with Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis, Jr. More on them in a bit.
Who would have known on that October 12, 2022 evening that everything would flip upside down for the Dodgers. Leading 1-0 in the best-of-5 game series against the Padres, the Dodgers would go on to lose the next six playoff games over the span of two seasons.
This 111-win Dodgers team finished 22 games better than the Padres and completely fell on its face.
It was probably the next season that really stung the most, though, when the Dodgers finished 16 games better than the Diamondbacks, but were swept by a team that would wind up in the World Series.
But things changed over the offseason, and fans couldn’t help but to have some hope and feel different when the Dodgers spent $1 billion on two Japanese megastars, utilityman Shohei Ohtani and starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Yes, $1 billion.
In case you’re wondering, the Dodgers brought in $549 million in 2024 according to Forbes. This is actually down from $581 million in 2023 and $565 million in 2022. However, the value of the franchise sits at an all-time high of $5.5 billion.
You might have heard, but the investment paid off in year one.
Ohtani, 29, hit .310/.390/.646 with a whopping 54 home runs, 130 RBIs and 59 stolen bases, and is arguably the frontrunner to win the MVP award.
While the results weren’t quite the same during the regular season for Yamamoto, 25, his 7-2 record and 3.00 ERA with a 4.77 K:BB ratio warmed up as the team approached the offseason.
Then there was the “supporting cast” of Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernandez, Will Smith, Max Muncy, and a host of other players who would rise up to fill in the gaps as other players would get hurt.
Remember Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Tony Gonsolin, Emmet Sheehan? There are plenty of others, but this team was so banged up for the majority of the season.
Still, it was grit and determination, led by manager Dave Roberts, who by the way is an amazing coach and led this team to a Major League-best 98 wins despite not having a full core of players for months collectively.
No championship season is complete without mentioning the genius of Andrew Friedman, the team’s president of baseball operations. His trade deadline acquisitions of Jack Flaherty, Tommy Edman and Michael Kopech proved to be the final and missing touches to an unforgettable season.
Remember when the Padres were on the verge of knocking the Dodgers out in Game 5 of the NLDS?
A rotation featuring Flaherty, Yamamoto and Buehler was not perfect, but absolutely led fans to believe so along the magical postseason run.
Yamamoto earned his contract a few times in the postseason. He went 2-0 with a 3.86 ERA in four outings. Seems high, but it’s up there thanks to allowing five runs in three innings pitched against the Padres in a 7-5 win in Game 1. His countrymate Ohtani homered to help bring the Dodgers back into a game they trailed 3-0.
But it was Game 5 where Yoshi shined, holding the Padres to the only two hits they’d get that day in five scoreless innings.
The story of the 2024 season might be a bullpen that was scrutinized quite often. Though, that bullpen has been targeted so much since the last days the Dodgers had an elite closer in Eric Gagne.
What was former closer Kenley Jansen thinking last night as his former teammates won a ring?
Do you think he was dancing the “Freddie” all night?
Probably not with the way fans treated him.
A collective consisting of Evan Phillips, Daniel Hudson, Blake Treinen, Alex Vesia, Brusdar Graterol, Kopech, Anthony Banda and Ben Casparius became the unit to solidify not only Game 5 against the Padres, but the entire postseason run.
I said more on Machado and Tatis later. OK, fine – how about Machado going 0-7 as the Dodgers outscored the Padres 10-0 to climb back from a 2-1 series deficit to win the series. Tatis got a double in Game 4, but was 1-8 collectively and disappeared after a blistering start that saw him hit three home runs in two games.
Enough about the brown and yellow colors that belong in a bathroom.
We’ve got to thank these Dodgers pitchers for rising up when it counted and mattered.
Don’t forget the “other guys” either, though. These are the names that filled in some time for the Dodgers while they healed up throughout the season.
Let’s give thanks to all these guys. Remember James Outman, Cavan Biggio, Nick Ahmed, Amed Rosario, Taylor Trammell, Elieser Hernandez, Eduardo Salazar, Nick Ramirez, Nabil Crismatt, Gus Varland, James Paxton, J.P. Feyereisen, Kyle Hurt, Ryan Yarbrough, River Ryan, Justin Wrobleski. Thank them all.
While the Dodgers cruised to offense, let’s thank Andy Pages for keeping the hope alive when it seemed there might not be much of it.
How about Edman? The NLCS MVP silently reminded fans that he too was important. How about a five-game streak from the end of the NLCS to the beginning of the World Series with two hits? He homered in two of those games, driving in four of the Dodgers’ 10 runs in the deciding Game 6 victory to send the team to the ‘ship.
Ohtani didn’t do a whole lot in the World Series, other than injure his shoulder; but he didn’t need to.
The Dodgers and Yankees renewed their rivalry for a 12th time in the Fall Classic. Just like in their previous meeting in 1981, the Dodgers celebrated a championship at Yankee Stadium in style.
Enter Freddie Freeman.
Game 1, wow.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone decided to intentionally walk Mookie Betts to load the bases in the 10th inning, leading 3-2 with two outs in the game. Where had we heard this story before?
Game on the line and a hobbled player comes to the plate.
The future World Series MVP squared up a Nestor Cortes offering and sent it very near to the spot Kirk Gibson smacked a Dennis Eckersley home run in 1988, recording the first-ever walk-off grand slam in 120 World Series matchups. If every World Series was a sweep (not even close), there would be 480 games. Let’s guess there have been 600 games. That’s 0.001 percent of World Series games all time. First time ever.
He would homer in four of the first five games and drive in a World Series record 12 runs.
Almost as memorable was the fight the team displayed on Wednesday night, August 30, when it clawed back down 5-0 and took advantage of Aaron Judge dropping a routine flyball, and also of no Yankee player covering first base. It’s these extra opportunities that allowed a Teoscar Hernandez to slug a double and tie the game up at 5 runs apiece.
No home runs were needed, but before you knew it, it was 7-6, and Buehler struck out Verdugo, his former teammate. Before I wrap up, don’t forget, Verdugo was traded in 2020 to the Red Sox for Mookie Betts. Yes.
Buehler wrapped up the 8th championship in Dodgers history, and the team will finally get its parade Friday morning.
Queue the most Kike Hernandez dance you possibly can.
Thank Kike so very much too, because October Kike powered this team to where it’s at; but let’s be most thankful to Kike Hernandez for going live on the air and reminding the world that this team all season “didn’t give a f***”.
Now they are World Champions, silenced the doubters and can party on ahead like it’s 2024.
This team is going to be even better next year, by the way. ESPN Bet says the Dodgers have +400 odds to win the World Championship, and +225 to win the National League in 2025. This ahead of the Yankees (+700) and Braves (+750; +450).
Go celebrate, Dodger fans! Your Dodgers are once again World Champions of the world and nobody can say or do anything about it!
