Dodgers’ highs, lows show unpredictability
The Dodgers won 91 of their first 127 games this season before losing 16 of their next 17. Columnist Jay Dunn says, “That’s baseball.”
Today’s question is one I have heard a number of times in the last few days: How can a team win 91 of its first 127 games and then drop 16 of its next 17?
Well, folks, I have more than a half century’s worth of experience observing, analyzing and writing about baseball. So, let me give you the benefit of that experience as I try to explain this. That’s baseball. If you want something deeper than that you won’t find it here. Things happen in baseball. Sometimes there seems to be a plausible explanation. Sometimes they just happen.
On August 25, the Los Angeles Dodgers were 9136 which put them on a pace to challenge the alltime record of 116 wins in a season. They were playing so well they were even being called the Golden State Warriors of baseball.
Then they hit the skids. Their pitching became inconsistent and their hitting was even worse. Over a 17-day stretch their only triumph came the day they slaughtered the San Diego Padres, 1-0.
When it was over their won-loss record had fallen to 92-52. They no longer had a chance to challenge the all-time record. They no longer were being compared to the NBA’s Warriors but they still had the best record in Major League Baseball. They had four more victories than the Washington Nationals, who had already clinched the championship of the squishy-soft Eastern Division. They had four more victories than the Cleveland Indians, who had won 19 in a row and were on their way to stretching the streak to 22.
They were still, very likely, the best team in baseball. What they weren’t, and never had been, was the equivalent of the Golden State Warriors.
The Golden State Warriors were a true juggernaut. Long before the NBA playoffs began it seemed clear that only a major injury could prevent them from winning the NBA championship. It was no surprise that they breezed through the playoffs, winning 16 of 17 games.
There’s no counterpart for that in baseball and never has been. As we approach the playoffs no team, including the Dodgers, looks like an obvious champion waiting to be crowned. Every team in baseball has lost three of five or four of seven several times during the season, and all of them are capable of doing it again in the playoffs. Most of them will, but the one that doesn’t will become the World Champion.
That’s the negative way of stating that any team that qualifies for the playoffs is capable of winning them.
That could be the Houston Astros, a franchise that has existed since 1962 but never won a World Series. It could be the Nationals (formerly the Montreal Expos), who have existed since 1969 but have never even been in a World Series. It could be the Indians, who have won two World Championships in their 117-year history, but none since 1948. It could be the Cubs, who are defending champions but probably don’t think two titles in 109 years makes them a dynasty. It could be the Rockies who have a chance to be the first third-place team to win a World Series. It could be the Red Sox who are trying to prove that the home run is not the decisive weapon everyone else seems to think it is. It could be the Yankees, whose deep bullpen could be decisive in a short series. And, yes, it most certainly could be the Dodgers, a team that hasn’t been to the World Series in 29 years — the longest drought in franchise history.
It could be any of them. Or even none of them.
That’s baseball.