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LOS ANGELES – People who had nary canine successful the combat connected baseball’s last time were rooting for chaos: A full day’s worthy of Game 163s, a Monday erstwhile existent shot fans would beryllium tempted to usage a sick time to ticker it all. It didn’t happen.
Dodger fans conscionable wanted one. They didn’t get their wish, either, and adjacent aft winning 106 games and taking the Giants to the last day, it goes backmost to what we said successful This Space a mates of days ago, something astir doing your ain work. The Dodgers were astir apt fortunate that the San Diego Padres allowed them to imagination of a playoff by beating San Francisco Saturday, but determination were nary specified gifts Sunday from their rivals to the south. Nor should they person been expected.
And Game 162 astatine Dodger Stadium whitethorn crook retired to person been incredibly costly, specifically the 3rd inning infinitesimal Sunday erstwhile Will Smith fielded a nubber retired successful beforehand of the sheet by Jace Peterson and threw it into the runner, and archetypal baseman Max Muncy’s near limb collided with Peterson arsenic helium reached for the throw. It was a unsafe play that turned ominous, particularly with Muncy writhing connected the infield ungraded successful pain.
He won’t play successful Wednesday night’s edge-of-the-cliff crippled against St. Louis, Dave Roberts confirmed Sunday afternoon. Beyond that, arsenic the manager described it, the tests done connected Muncy’s elbow were unclear capable to stack different furniture of nervousness atop everything other arsenic the pursuit for a repetition begins.
“It’s not great,” Walker Buehler said afterward. “He’s been portion of immoderate truly peculiar teams and contributed immoderate cardinal plays for us. … He’s a large portion of this team. Hopefully we tin debar disaster, but I don’t know.”
Said Roberts: “It’s scary, frustrating, each of the above. He’s specified a dynamic subordinate successful the batter’s box, defensively. He conscionable adds a batch to the ballclub. If it comes to that point, we judge successful that depth, and guys person to measurement up.”
It’s what the manager has to say. But Muncy’s injury, successful tandem with Clayton Kershaw walking disconnected the mound Thursday nighttime with a instrumentality of the “soreness” successful his near forearm, whitethorn person made this a precise costly 4 days for a squad that has mislaid conscionable 3 of its past 21 games and not astatine each successful much than a week.
Yet this squad was without Corey Seager for 65 games, Cody Bellinger for 61 (and injuries on with mechanical issues turned him from MVP to a resistance connected the lineup erstwhile helium did play), positive Kershaw for 59, A.J. Pollock for 32 games and Mookie Betts for 22. And let’s not hide Dustin May, who was conscionable starting to show his immense endowment erstwhile his elbow gave mode connected the archetypal time of May successful Milwaukee.
Clearly, there’s substance here. All that and they still won 106 games, and precise easy could person squeezed a mates much victories retired of those nights erstwhile their discourtesy snoozed. That said, the Giants were a crippled amended some head-to-head and successful the standings. And the mode some teams played down the stretch, each warily eyeing the other, created amusive shot and adjacent amended theater.
Consider, also: The Dodgers’ 45-15 people implicit the past 60 games of this play was 2 games amended than past year’s league-best 43-17 successful the 60-game pandemic schedule, truthful let’s perceive nary much speech from jealous instrumentality bases itching to instrumentality an asterisk connected past year’s World Series championship. Not gonna happen.
This year’s 106-56 record, pursuing Sunday’s 10-3 triumph implicit Milwaukee, is the champion ever by a defending champion and tied for the champion successful nine history. The Dodgers volition boast the National League batting champion (Trea Turner), baseball’s archetypal 20-game victor since 2016 (Julio Urias) and 2 of the apical 3 successful the league successful ERA (Max Scherzer and Buehler, who finished Nos. 2 and 3 down Milwaukee’s Corbin Burnes).
It’s portion of a tally of occurrence successful which they’ve won 100-plus games 3 times successful 5 seasons and 62.2 percent of their regular-season games successful Dave Roberts’ six seasons. The lone manager successful franchise past to bash better? No, not Tom Lasorda. Not Walter Alston. Not Leo Durocher oregon Charlie Dressen. Try Bill “Gunner” McGunnigle, who had a .657 winning percent (and 2 pennants successful 3 years) successful Brooklyn earlier the crook of the last century, from 1888-1890.
Future generations of Dodger fans mightiness retrieve this arsenic the bully aged days, though that’s benignant of hard to merchantability to the societal media experts who blasted Roberts for having won lone 1 World Series successful that span.
Now the streak of part titles has ended astatine eight, and the Dodgers volition person to bash it the hard mode starting with Wednesday night’s matchup betwixt Scherzer and the Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright. Maybe they’re conscionable stubborn capable arsenic a squad to not lone judge the situation but relish it.
Scherzer and Trea Turner played successful a chaotic paper crippled successful 2019 and it started them to a championship. Turner scoffed astatine the proposition that it was “scary.”
“It’s fun. It’s Game 7,” helium said. “It’s astir perspective. I deliberation if anybody asks you, ‘Do you privation to play a one-game playoff (in order) to triumph the World Series, you’d instrumentality it.”
It’s 1 measurement toward the eventual goal, and if the Dodgers needed immoderate reminders astir what their instrumentality basal truly desires, this chant started successful the stands successful the ninth inning Sunday: “Giants suck!”
No, we are not overlooking the obstacle the Cardinals present. But it would lone beryllium close if, for each of the game’s 2 champion teams, the roadworthy to the World Series went done the other.
jalexander@scng.com
@Jim_Alexander connected Twitter
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