LOS ANGELES — The scope of ambition for the Los Angeles Dodgers extends well beyond a one-off championship, sustainable competitive windows and dynastic runs.
“My ultimate, kind of big picture goal is that when we are done, that we’re able to look back and say that was the golden era of Dodgers baseball, and that is an incredibly high bar to even say that,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said before the World Series began. “That’s where my focus is.”
That vision is instructive as this Fall Classic clash against the New York Yankees continues to unfold, with the Dodgers taking a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven across the continent to the Bronx after Saturday’s 4-2 victory.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the $325-million side-dish to Shohei Ohtani’s $700-million main course during Friedman’s billion-dollar plus off-season, pinned Game 2 under his thumb over 6.1 innings of one-hit, one-run ball, while back-to-back homers in the third inning by Teoscar Hernandez and Freddie Freeman, whose walk-off slam in the opener immediately gave this series a signature moment, seized control of the contest.
A major Dodgers worry emerged at the end of the seventh when Ohtani was caught stealing to end the inning and suffered what manager Dave Roberts said was a left shoulder subluxation, or partial dislocation, when his left hand hit the ground as he slid into the bag. Ohtani stayed down for an extended period, eventually coming off the field holding his left arm at 90 degrees, amid stunned silence from a Dodger Stadium crowd of 52,725.
“The strength was great. The range of motion good. So we’re encouraged,” Roberts said of the initial testing on the superstar who’s headed for an MRI sometime Sunday. “Obviously I can’t speculate … once we get the scans, we’ll know more. Again, with the strength, the range of motion good, that’s certainly a positive.”
Asked about the possibility of playing without Ohtani, Roberts quickly shot that down, saying, “I’m not there … I’m expecting him to be in the lineup.”
His status will be of keen interest not only to the Dodgers but to the Yankees, whose fate in this series suddenly hinges on their Legion of Doom trio in the batting order doing damage in Monday’s Game 3 against Walker Buehler, and on Clarke Schmidt containing a deeper Dodgers lineup.
Manager Aaron Boone pointed to a too-little, too-late rally in the ninth as something to build on and while he fell back on the “it’s a long series” cliche, he also acknowledged that, “we need to make it a long series now.”
“We won’t flinch,” he added. “We’ve just got to keep at it.”
Commissioner Rob Manfred sounded like he was counting on that during a brief chat with writers before the game, saying that figuring out where the Tampa Bay Rays will play in 2025 will be a focus “once we get past Game 7 — and we’re going to have seven,” an assertion that may not age well at this pace.
Seven games of Dodgers-Yankees is, of course, what Major League Baseball wants more than anything after ending up with this glamour-market showdown. Manfred sees “this matchup as an opportunity to amplify everything we’ve been working on for the last few years. Focus on the players, trying to grow the game into a more national product, international growth, young people and when you get a stage like this, it’s an opportunity to take a step forward.”
Unsaid there is that a World Series featuring lesser markets — Kansas City-Milwaukee let’s say, although the Toronto Blue Jays and their outside the U.S.-complications make for a singular give-and-take in jewel events — are, at best, time to hold ground.
What that means for the wider industry is up for debate, but at a time when the Dodgers are pursuing domination at a level few can match, it’s worth wondering who might be able to stop them.
Already they’re in a run of 12 straight years in the post-season, winning the National League West all but once. That season, they still won 106 games in 2021, one fewer than the San Francisco Giants.
The randomness inherent to the playoffs means they’ve only won one title during that time — beating the Rays in the Texas pandemic bubble in 2020 — but the depth they’ve assembled this year has allowed them to thrive in spite of injuries that should have submarined them.
So, if Ohtani misses any games in the World Series, well the Dodgers have been there, done that.
“We were battling throughout the year with a lot of injuries,” said Hernandez. “First was the starting pitching and then Mookie (Betts) and then Freddie. And hopefully not Ohtani in this case. It’s not going to be a good feeling, but if he can’t go on Monday, we just have to keep doing the thing we’ve been doing for the past couple weeks.”
Tommy Edman, their long-time trade target finally acquired at this summer’s deadline, opened the scoring in the second with his second homer of the playoffs, turning on a 95.4 m.p.h. Carlos Rodon fastball and launching it 355 feet to left.
The only hit off Yamamoto came in the third, when Juan Soto hammered a middle-down sinker at 95.2 m.p.h. 386 feet to right to tie the score.
But the Dodgers went right back at Rodon in the bottom half when Mookie Betts ripped a one-out single before Teoscar Hernandez slashed a 98 m.p.h. up-and-away heater 392 feet to right-centre. And then, with the fans chanting “Freddie, Freddie,” Freeman followed by hammering a 96.9 m.p.h heater up and in to right-centre for a 4-1 edge.
It’s the 19th time teammates have gone back-to-back in the World Series.
“You don’t want that to happen when you score one and the other team comes back and scores to tie the game, or scores more than one run, but we just have to keep pushing,” said Hernandez. “That’s what we put in our minds. It doesn’t matter how many they score, we can score, and we know that. You just go, fight your at-bat, try to get on base for the guy behind you.”
Edman followed with another double and promptly stole third, prompting first baseman Anthony Rizzo to make a mound visit to settle his pitcher down. Kiké Hernández lined out to left on the next pitch to end the inning but the damage had been done.
The pitching held from there until the ninth, when Blake Treinen gave up an one-out RBI single to Giancarlo Stanton, Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with another base hit and Rizzo was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Treinen rallied to strike out Anthony Volpe before lefty Alex Vesia came on to get Jose Trevino, hitting for Austin Wells, the Dodgers now two wins away from adding another championship to Friedman’s burgeoning golden era.