The Dodgers' World Series Nightmare

Joe Ceccarelli

Co-Editor

Bad news, baseball fans: The Dodgers have lost the World Series for the second consecutive year. Last season, the Dodgers seemed to have everything on their side going into Game 7-- they had just tied the series in Game 6 by limiting the potent Houston offense to one run and were playing at their home stadium-- then Yu Darvish took the mound. The Astros’ two first inning runs were all they needed to defeat the Dodgers’ depressed offense. This year, however, LA’s team bested the Brewers in the seventh game of the National League Championship Series and every starter seemed to be firing on all cylinders. Perhaps the Dodgers would have won if they faced off with the 2017 Astros again, but instead they were steamrolled by one of the best teams in recent memory. Much to the Dodgers’ chagrin, the Boston Red Sox entered the series with hot bats, fresh starting pitchers, and home field advantage.

Boston showcased their dominance by easily winning the first two games of the series, but the contests were closer than some Vegas bookies would have expected. The Sox even gave the Dodgers a freebie when Ian Kinsler threw away a routine play in the thirteenth inning of Game 3, but it still took the Dodgers five more innings to produce a run when Nathan Eovaldi was entering his seventh inning of relief. The next night should have been a cakewalk for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles, as Alex Cora, the manager of the Red Sox, chose to pitch Eduardo Rodriguez, who had not started a game in nearly two months. After being shut out for six innings, the Red Sox suddenly remembered how to swing their bats when the Dodgers’ bullpen, exhausted from the eighteen inning marathon the night before, relieved Rich Hill. The Sox resurrected their bats just in time for Halloween, scoring nine runs in three innings to secure the victory. Down 3-1 in the series, Dave Roberts was running out of managerial strategies to try. His most controversial decision, which involved calling in the struggling Ryan Madson with runners on base, backfired miserably in the first two games of the series. To add to the cyclical irony of the Dodgers’ loss, they found themselves in a similar situation to the 2017 World Series. Just like last season, with the Dodgers facing elimination, they put their ace on the mound and prayed they would live to fight another day. In both 2017 and 2018, the Dodgers’ opponents scored two runs in the first inning en route to a 5-1 victory. Manny Machado, who quickly became the MLB’s most disliked player this October, ended the series with an embarrassing swing in a sweet display of poetic justice, with the Red Sox getting revenge on Machado for injuring Boston’s fan favorite second baseman, Dustin Pedroia, last season.

It would be a gross understatement to say Boston’s bullpen struggled during the regular season, but each of Boston’s relievers had a phenomenal performance nearly every time they took the mound in the postseason. Oddly enough, the Red Sox’s stars were dragging the team down while the unsung heroes of the regular season got their turn in the spotlight. Joe Kelly and Steve Pearce were electric with their performances in the World Series, with Pearce eventually being crowned as the series’ MVP. The usually dominant Craig Kimbrel likely sent multiple Boston fans to the hospital due to stress from his abhorrent pitching throughout the postseason. On the offensive side, Boston's 1-4 hitters went hitless in forty-one straight at-bats during Games 3 and 4, yet the eventual victors still outscored the Dodgers 11-9 during those two games. When Xander Bogaerts went to the plate, the scorekeeper could have simply added an automatic out to the scoreboard as Bogaerts mustered just three hits in twenty-two at-bats during the series. He also became the first MLB player to go 0 for 8, in a World Series game. Despite this, Bogaerts still had a better World Series batting average than Matt Kemp, Cody Bellinger, Kiké Hernandez, and Joc Pederson. In fact, only five Dodgers batted over .200 in the series. Mookie Betts had already mentally checked out for the season as well, and was probably thinking about his offseason plans to bowl to his heart’s content, as evidenced by his 0-7 performance in Game 3. While both teams’ stars struggled during the Fall Classic, the Red Sox simply had better reserves and pitching. Whenever Boston's core position players were struggling, players like Steve Pearce, Eduardo Nunez, and even David Price rose to the occasion, with Price shaking off his previous postseason woes by pitching a string of solid outings in the ALCS and World Series.

Did Manny Machado’s boisterous trash-talking jinx the Dodgers, eliminating any chance they had at winning the series? Maybe. Were the Red Sox just a well-oiled machine with more depth than the Marianas Trench and a number of supporting pieces that picked up the slack of their slumping stars? Definitely. In all honesty, the Red Sox were heavily favored coming into the series and continued to be as dominant as they were during the regular season. Love them or hate them, no one can deny that the Red Sox had a phenomenal season and rightfully earned the Commissioner’s Trophy this year. The lovable goofs from Boston will still be the team to beat come springtime, but will likely lose a few key members like Nathan Eovaldi due to free agency and limited salary cap space. Whether they can repeat the success of the 2018 season remains a mystery, however. Hopefully the Sox don’t fall into an 86 year drought like they did after winning the 1918 World Series exactly a century ago.