At that time last year, the pressure was palpable.
Until last October, the Dodgers had the reputation of after-season failures.
It was not an unjustified distinction. During each of the previous two seasons, the team had been upset in the series of the national league division by lower opponents in the Padres of San Diego and Arizona Diamondbacks. The fall before that, their defense of title collapsed against the brave of Aroundog Atlanta in the series of NL championships. Yes, they won a world series in the 2020 season bordered by pandemic. But apart from that, it had done more than three decades since they triumphed in typical circumstances.
This checkered story weighed them. Their urgency to change it during the playoffs last year was fervent.
“This kind of sour taste you have when you have an early outing of the season, our guys are tired,” said manager Dave Roberts on the eve of last year’s qualifiers. “It is therefore another opportunity. I feel this advantage.”
This week, of course, dodgers are faced with another type of dynamic.
After their memorable race towards a championship last year, the team obtained the monkey from its full season title which dried. And although the expectations are still high, the Dodgers and their record list of $ 400 million which takes place to start the playoffs with a round of the best of three Joker from Tuesday against the Reds of Cincinnati, the questions on last October disappointments have dissipated.
So, is the pressure of these qualifying series feel different?
“You might think,” said Max Muncy, a veteran, the third goal player Max Mancy. “But the pressure will always be there. Especially when you are this team, when you are the Los Angeles Dodgers, there are a lot of expectations around you. There is a lot of pressure.”
Indeed, after a disappointing regular season which has seen the Dodgers win the NL West for the 12th time in the past 13 years, but fails to obtain a Bye in the first round as one of the first two seeds of NL qualifying series, the Dodgers have a new task before them.
Erase the frustrations of their 93 victories campaign. Maintain the momentum they built with a finish of 15-5 in the regular season. And recreate the despair that transported them to the Promised Land last fall, while they are trying to become the first repeated MLB champion in 25 years.
“For us, the challenge is not to let this pressure reach you and find our rhythm, to find what will work for us this year,” said Muncy. “Each year, the team must find its identity when it comes to this point. You have an identity during the regular season, and you must find a whole whole identity in the playoffs.”
The favorite identity of Dodgers for this year’s team is as the opposite of what worked last October.
Unlike last year, the team has a healthy and starry starting rotation in the playoffs. Unlike last year, the enclosure of the lifts is a major question mark despite an encouraging end for the regular season.
For the Wild-Card series, this means that the team will need big rounds outside the starter of the match 1 Blake Snell, the starter of the match 2 Yoshinobu Yamamoto and (if necessary) of the starter of the match 3 Shohei Ohtani-which is saved for the potential win-win competition in part to help manage its two-way workload.
Ideally, their production should facilitate the burden of a rescue body which ranked 21st in the era of majors at the time during the regular season, and has no clear hierarchy for its most reliable arms.
“The start of starting is considerably better” than it was last year, said Roberts on Monday. “This is probably the biggest difference between last year’s team.”
Admittedly, the Dodgers feel better in their enclosure at the moment, thanks to the return of Roki Sasaki, the reallocation (at least for this series) of Emmet Sheehan and Tyler Glasnow from the Rotation to the Rotation of Rescue, and recent improvements by Blake Treinen and Tanner Scott.
“”[We have] Much more confidence than there is a few weeks ago, “said Roberts about the enclosure of the lifts.” I think it is because these guys showed confidence in themselves, where they launch baseball. I think that last week, we saw guys more on the attack to set the tone, compared to the pitch behind or to present too cautious. »»
The lift of the Tanner Scott Dodgers delivers against the Giants of San Francisco on September 19.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
However, it is anyone who will guess who will come in the ninth round, or will be called in moments of higher level.
Contests near and late would be the best for dodgers to avoid.
To this end, the continuation of the recent increase in dodgers on the plate would also help. During a dismal section of 22-32 from July 4 to September 6, the Dodgers ranked 27th in the score, find it difficult to overcome injuries with several key parts, the falls of some of their largest stars and a general lack of coherent execution in the location opportunities. During their 20 closing games, however, the programming carried out an average of 5.55 NL points of 5.55 per game behind overvoltages at the end of the season of Ohtani and Mookie Betts, as well as improvements to the team scale while hitting with runners in a score position.
“The team is starting to shoot all cylinders, finally,” said Muncy. “This is something that we didn’t really feel all year round.”
The Dodgers had good news on the injury front during the training of the Monday team at the Dodger Stadium. Muncy, who missed the last four games of the regular season while fighting against leg bruises and what Roberts has described as other “global body” problems, should be aligned. Tommy Edman too, who has not played on the field since last Wednesday, because of a persistent ankle injury.
The big question remains the receiver Will Smith, who has been released since September 9 with a fracture of the right hand.
Roberts said on Monday that the team had been “encouraged” with the recent progress of Smith. The slugger was even able to take bats live on Monday evening.
“If he can go through today and feel good,” said Roberts, “then it is a viable thought” that he could be on the last list of 26 men that the Dodgers will have to submit before Tuesday’s match for the Wild-Card series.
Be that as it may, the biggest concern of Dodgers remains on the maintenance of their recent level of play. Eraser the failures in October in October could no longer be a motivation. But, as Muncy, Roberts said that the urgency of winning another world series remains the same.
“I don’t know if it is easier or more difficult than we won last year,” said Roberts. “But, honestly, all we care is to win this year.”
