WHAT’S HYPE ABOUT?

After Cubs, Dodgers tangled in two NLCS in a row, June series doesn’t seem so big

What does it all mean? Why, yes, I am going through an existential crisis, but that has nothing to do with my question. Baseball does. Specifically, a baseball season. It stretches from late March to the end of September. It’s 162 games looooooooooong.

The Dodgers came to town Monday, and you know what that means. That’s just it: I don’t know what it means.

I know the Cubs lost to the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series last season. Got beaten badly, in fact. Probably had their cars stolen and sold for parts, too. And I know the Cubs are good again this season, the Dodgers are good again this season and both teams quite possibly will be good right into the playoffs.

But I also know it’s the middle of June, and a three- game series in the middle of June, by definition, means as much as one bug hitting a windshield on a summer drive.

I’m sure there are times when a player or manager, with hindsight in his favor, can look back on a game or a series and say: ‘‘ There. Right there. That’s where everything changed for us.’’’

But Monday, the thermometer was shaking off 100- degree temperatures, heavy rain was on the way and this game and this series seemed to mean no more than any other game or series. Which is to say, not a whole lot. Has the heat finally gotten to me? Or, after three consecutive trips to the NLCS for the Cubs, do I have a bad case of regular- season boredom?

First baseman Anthony Rizzo saw a mob of media types around his locker Monday and immediately asked whether somebody had been traded. No, it was bigger than that. The Dodgers were in town. He didn’t seem to get the significance of the intergalactic battle that was about to take place.

‘‘ We met the last two years in the NLCS, but it’s 2018,’’ he said. ‘‘ It’s not 2016. It’s not 2017. It’s 2018. They’re trying to win their division. We’re trying to win our division.’’

I think this is how most players look at a season. But surely there are times when they view one series as more important than others. That’s human nature, isn’t it? Or, for sanity sake, must they look at a season as one enormous entity?

‘‘ It depends what part of the season it is,’’ left- hander Jon Lester said. ‘‘ I feel like right now, you’re just kind of grinding to get to the All- Star break. Once you get

JAMIE SQUIRE/ GETTY IMAGES ( TOP), CHARLES REX ARBOGAST/ AP The Cubs and Dodgers squared off in the last two NLCS, with the Cubs winning in 2016 ( top) and the Dodgers winning in 2017.