For Dodgers, ‘it’s World Series or bust’
Best record in the majors. Best mark at home in the National League. Most home runs in the majors. Best bullpen ERA in the NL. The Dodgers have checked nearly every box on the way to their eighth straight postseason appearance.
Now if they could just do something about that 32-year drought in winning a championship.
“It’s World Series or bust every year,” manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday.
With Mookie Betts in the fold, the Dodgers are poised for a new challenge in the postseason, starting with Game 1 on Wednesday in their best-of-three playoff series against the Brewers.
The Dodgers rolled through the shortened 60-game season with a 43-17 mark (21-9 at home) and slugged 118 homers.
Betts was as good as advertised in his first season with the Dodgers, hitting 16 HRs at the top of the order. He led the team in stolen bases (10).
“With Mookie at the top kind of setting that tone, it just has that trickle down effect,” third baseman Justin Turner said. “Our entire order takes pride in grinding out at-bats and making guys work. We have a lot of guys that can hurt you with one swing.”
The eighth-seeded Brewers take on the Dodgers in the wild-card round, having advanced to their third straight postseason appearance for the first time in franchise history.
The Brewers reached the 2018 NLCS, losing to the Dodgers in seven games. It’s the only other time the teams have met in the postseason. They haven’t faced each other since the 2019 season.
The Dodgers lost back-to-back World Series appearances in 2017 and 2018; they were eliminated in five games by the Nationals in last year’s NLDS.
As good as the Dodgers have been, the Brewers never got above .500 all season and finished with a losing mark of 29-31, getting into the postseason thanks to holding a tiebreaker over the Giants.
Roberts believes the Dodgers can overcome whatever the Brewers throw at them.
“You got to expect anything — the gamesmanship, getting the lineup late or throwing a pitcher for a hitter or going to the ’pen,” he said. “We can sort of combat anything.”
The Dodgers will start righthander Walker Buehler in Game 1 on Wednesday night. He has battled a blister that sent him to the injured list twice in the last month. He reached out to consult former teammate Rich Hill, who has dealt with blisters.
Top Padres prospect in bubble: A frenzied trade deadline, in part, ensured that the Padres wouldn’t need MacKenzie Gore to make his MLB debut during this COVID-19-shortened season.
But he still might or could. Perhaps. Maybe.
The Padres have until Wednesday morning to set their wild-card round roster but Gore — their top prospect and the top pitching prospect in the game — was on the practice field Tuesday at Petco Park in San Diego and in the playoff bubble, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Teams can choose a new set of 28 new players for each round of the postseason, but only from the 40 players included in their postseason bubble. The initial round will take place at Petco Park with subsequent rounds being held in Texas if the Padres advance past the Cardinals.
Like all minor leaguers, the 21-yearold Gore missed an entire year of development when the pandemic canceled the minor league season. He was included in the Padres’ player pool when summer camp opened, but wasn’t called up.
Because Gore, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2017 draft and the No. 3 prospect in MLB.com’s top-100, has only five starts above Class-A ball, his inclusion in the playoff bubble is likely a contingency.