This is a bit long-winded but not as long as it originally was…thank you for your support! A truly GREAT World Series. To the Blue Jays, you were a tremendous team through this and could have easily won!
I’ve never been as surprised, elated, and sad at an outcome as the Dodgers winning the World Series this year. The Blue Jays totally outplayed the Dodgers in offense and pitching. The Dodgers just seemed to get the big hits exactly when they needed them and huge defensive plays when they needed them. I never felt as surprised about winning, but I also felt bad for the Blue Jays and their fans at the same time. No one deserved to lose.
I’ve been a fan for 48 years, from Ron Cey and Steve Garvey to Clayton Kershaw and Mookie Betts. I’ve never seen them in a more competitive World Series than this one. The Dodgers have not hit since they played the Reds in the Wildcard series. Since then, they have won based on starting pitching. They have been blown out in a few games, but the ones they won have been close. Plus, their bullpen has been terrible except for a few relievers. Last year, they won because of their bullpen. The positive that I liked out of Dave Roberts this year is “gut over data” managing. If a pitcher has a hot hand or a hitter is hitting well, he leaves them in sometimes, no matter what the sabermetric book says.
I’m probably harder on the Dodgers than anyone else. I am NOT a trash talker because I see too many weaknesses in the Dodgers, and I am not like that. So when this series switched back to Toronto, down 3 games to 2, no one could convince me they had much of a chance. Yamamoto pitching on Friday gave me hope, but when they took him out in the 6th…I thought that was it. Well, they manage to pull that off. Before that game, I made a post that congratulated the Blue Jays and their fans. It’s still in my draft folder.
Saturday’s game was just incredible. More drama than a soap opera. In the top of the 9th inning, I thought…there is no reason to hang your head…what a series! I was thinking, as Miguel Rojas was up to bat, why didn’t Roberts pinch-hit for him? Boy, was I wrong! After he hit the homerun, I thought, ok, now they have to hold them! Rojas then made a great play in the bottom of the 9th and threw out the winning run at home. So many chances by BOTH teams to score throughout the game, and they couldn’t. Then the 11th, and Will Smith was up to bat. I don’t know why, but I had a great feeling. He was one of the few Dodgers that was actually hitting….he hit that ball and I thought it was a warning track very high out…nope, it went over and after another dramatic inning…in the bottom of the 11th the Dodgers hung on to win barely with the tying run on third.
Here is that play at home when Will Smith lifted and then placed his foot on home plate. That was the winning run in the 9th…so so close.
The unsung Dodgers who are not the big stars WERE the stars through the playoffs. None hit great, but they hit when it counted the most! Kike Hernandez, Tommy Edmans, Miguel Rojas, Max Muncy, Will Smith, and pitchers Emmet Sheehan, Justin Wrobleski, Roki Sasaki and the game 3 hero Will Klein.
Yamamoto did great. I loved the fact that he tipped his hat to Vlad in the 11th. It was like watching a 1970s or 80s pitcher. Give me the ball, coach, I want to pitch. Max Scherzer is very much like that as well. Yamamoto refused to come out of game 7 after pitching game 6. I just want to say I’m thankful to this Dodger team, and I’m totally impressed by what the Blue Jays accomplished. They could have easily won this series. This series opened a lot of eyes to what the Blue Jays have going on, and it should help them in the future.
Since I started to follow the Dodgers in 1977, they have never won back-to-back World Series titles. Plus, they are the first National League team to win back-to-back titles since the 1975 and 1976 Reds almost 50 years ago! The last team to do it was the American League Yankees.
…
