Well-rested Dodgers welcome weary Cubs
When the Chicago Cubs began their NL Division Series clincher in Washington on Thursday night, the Los Angeles Dodgers watched it on their stadium video boards during an upbeat team workout in Chavez Ravine.
By the time Wade Davis got the final out in Chicago’s 277minute victory, the Dodgers were long gone home. They all could have been fast asleep by the time the Cubs’ plane left Washington on its 10-hour delayed trip across the country, only arriving midmorning Friday.
Whether the rested, hungry Dodgers can use these advantages in any meaningful way against the possibly bedraggled World Series champions will be decided when they get together to play for the NL pennant again.
“The Cubs are the defending world champs, so there’s a lot to be said for having been there and done that,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s virtually the same group.”
The Cubs and Dodgers are back for a rematch of last season’s NL Championship Series when Los Angeles ace Clayton Kershaw takes the mound for Game 1 on Saturday night, but these well-loved powerhouses’ circumstances are somewhat reversed.
After the Cubs finished far ahead of the Dodgers in the regular-season standings last year to earn homefield advantage, Los Angeles won 18 more games than the Cubs this year. Chicago had to sweat through a marathon series against the Nationals to reach the NLCS — the same route taken by the Dodgers in 2016.
And after four straight failures to win the pennant with high-priced NL West championship teams, the Dodgers have the confidence of a 104win campaign heading into a chance to get back at the Cubs, who eliminated them in six games last October.
As the whole world knows, Chicago ended its 108-year championship drought last fall. The Cubs are in their third straight NLCS, their reputation as lovable losers thoroughly buried.
The Dodgers’ World Series drought is a paltry 28 years, but it looms large in Los Angeles.
“It does help when you’re the winningest team for that current year, and we’ve showed how good we can be when we play our type of baseball,” said Roberts, whose team swept Arizona in the NLDS. “We’re a confident group, and understand that we still have a lot of work to do.” Nationals wrap-up: This is nothing new for the Washington Nationals: enjoy the euphoria of an NL East title, then the disappointment of a Division Series exit.
Once again, this time by virtue of a 9-8 defeat in the deciding game against the visiting Cubs, the Nationals head into the offseason knowing they’ve still never won a playoff series.
As always, there are important questions to ask and answer, the biggest being whether manager Dusty Baker will be back. Baker’s contract expires at the conclusion of this season, his second in Washington and 22nd as a skipper in the big leagues.
Dating to spring training, he has made clear his desire for a new deal, but the Nationals refused to negotiate until season’s end. Baker’s teams in Washington have won two division titles — they were 97-65 in 2017, finishing 20 games out in front — and finished with two one-run Game 5 setbacks at Nationals Park.
“It really hurts,” Baker said, “to lose like that.”