There may be no jinxing the Dodgers this season
Yes, there have been postseason failures, but this seems different
LOS ANGELES — There’s a strange but distinct sound roiling through Dodger Nation these days, one that often appears in direct correlation with the usual thunderous cheers. “Shhhhhh.” Have you heard it? Maybe from one of your friends when you talk about Clayton Kershaw’s dominance? Maybe from someone on Twitter when you trumpet another Justin Turner drive, or Chris Taylor dive, or dugout-dancing high-five? “Shhhhhh.” I’ve heard it. I’ve seen it. I know what it is. And if you’ve endured the last four Dodgers playoff failures, so do you.
It’s hard to completely bathe in the greatness of this summer without fearing the potential wrinkles of October. While your heart is pounding on a triumphantly hot afternoon at Chavez Ravine, your head is warning you to remember chilly nights in St. Louis and Chicago.
You believe that because they are so clearly the best team in the National League — and probably all of baseball — the Dodgers finally could be destined to win their first World Series championship in 29 years. Yet, if you actually say it out loud, somebody who lived through Corey Seager’s failure to cover third base is going to let you have it with a finger pressed firmly on the lips. “Shhhhhh.” The other night, I was tweeting about witnessing the 1988 feel of the Dodgers’ 5-4 comeback victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks — the Dodgers scored four runs in the ninth inning without making an out, for Doc’s sake! — when a reader quickly tweeted back a GIF of Kobe Bryant making one of his famous crowd-quieting motions.
Can’t we all just sit back and unconditionally enjoy this? The answer, apparently, is no.
You want to shout that the Dodgers are on pace for the most wins in Los Angeles history and the best franchise-winning percentage in 64 years. They are winning games by a historically high accumulatedrun differential, winning games with a zillion different lineups, winning all sorts of … “Shhhhhh.” Since the beginning of the wild-card era in 1995, only five times in 22 years has one of the teams with the best record in baseball eventually won the World Series. That is only 23 percent. This is what great statistical minds mean when they say that the playoffs are a crapshoot.
The first round is a five-game nightmare where everything can change with one Daniel Murphy streak to an unoccupied third base. The NL Championship Series is seven games that can pivot on the crack of a Hanley Ramirez rib.
You want to shout that the odds won’t matter because the Dodgers have the greatest October of advantages, a pitching rotation that will include three powerful left-handers in Kershaw, unbeaten Alex Wood and surging Rich Hill. It is tough to imagine any team holding up under the force of three consecutive arms coming at you from different directions and different speeds, always around the strike zone, and always … “Shhhhhh.” Do we trust that Hill will not have a recurrence of either his blisters or his early inconsistency? Do we trust that Wood, who has never started a playoff game, will not suddenly get the willies?
You want to shout, “Don’t forget the Dodgers’ amazing hitting.” Their batting order stretches forever. It’s deep and wide. They can make contact like Turner, drive the ball into the gaps like Seager and Yasmani Grandal, or swing for the fences like Cody Bellinger and Yasiel Puig. They can be steady like Taylor and Logan Forsythe, or smart like Chase Utley. They are never out of a game. They rarely give up plate appearances. They are practitioners of the sort of grinding patience that wins series and can win a ch … “Shhhhhh.” Bellinger has reminded us recently that he is still a kid constantly in need of adjustments, plus he obviously has no postseason experience. In two previous postseasons, Grandal is batting .105, Seager is batting .200 and Joc Pederson is batting .225. Puig has 28 postseason strikeouts in 76 at-bats.
Maybe the team needs to pick up one more veteran right-handed bat? Just one more guy who can come off the bench and leave the park? Just one more?
But then, finally, you shout, “Justin Turner!” And to that, there is no answer. Turner has clearly become this team’s leader, his compelling vault into the All-Star game this week epitomizing not only his Dodgers career. Besides, Turner is batting .357 in three postseasons with 12 RBIs in 18 games.
He can do magic. The Dodgers can do magic. Just listen to Dave Roberts after Thursday’s comeback win against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“It’s the character of the guys. It’s the way we go about playing, 27 outs,” Roberts said. “There’s a lot of character in there. And some very good baseball players too.”
Can’t shush that.