Dodgers not sure if Seager will be ready
The absence of Corey Seager felt so unpronounced in the National League Championship Series, yet his name still resounded through the Dodgers’ celebration late Thursday night.
In the visitors batting cage at Wrigley Field, the players cradled the Warren C. Giles Trophy, the reward for winning the National League pennant, and inverted it like a luge, spilling beer and bubbly on themselves after downing the Cubs in the NLCS to bring the World Series back to Los Angeles for the first time since 1988.
Each member of the team got a turn beneath the suds. As they ran through the assembled roster, they remembered their twotime All-Star shortstop, who was back in Los Angeles, nursing his injured back. Someone shouted his name. A chant began.
“Sea-ger! Sea-ger! Seager!”
The Dodgers upturned the bottles and emptied them on the floor.
“Pour one out for the homie!” veteran outfielder Andre Ethier said.
As the Dodgers prepare for the World Series, which will begin Tuesday at Dodger Stadium, they await to see how Seager responds to treatment. He received a pain-killing epidural injection Oct. 10. Earlier this week, he completed some indoor agility drills, running exercises and played catch. He was slated to swing off a tee Thursday, but manager Dave Roberts was unsure if Seager took part in that activity.
Seager’s availability is one of few question marks for this team. After earning the victory in the clincher Thursday, Clayton Kershaw will start Game 1, likely to be followed by Rich Hill, Yu Darvish and Alex Wood. The composition of the bullpen is unlikely to change. Led by AllStar closer Kenley Jansen, the relievers did not allow the Cubs to score a run in 17 innings.
The Dodgers continue to benefit from their sterling regular season, in which they posted the best record in baseball. In the first round, they swept an Arizona squad disrupted by playing the wild-card game two days earlier. In the second round, the Cubs limped into Los Angeles, having barely survived a five-game brawl with Washington.
Even without Seager, the Dodgers outscored the Cubs 28-8. It was a profoundly one-sided affair, especially considering Chicago’s championship pedigree. The Dodgers made sure the Cubs served only one season as the champions of baseball, and they did it without the hitter many consider their best.
Losing Seager, who sprained his lower back on a slide in the final game of the first round, could have derailed the Dodgers against Chicago. Seager hit 22 homers during the regular season, with a .295 batting average and an .854 onbase-plusslugging percentage. In the first-round sweep over Arizona, Seager reached base at a .467 clip.
It would be a stretch to say Seager’s injury galvanized the Dodgers. They reacted with a collective shrug — not out of disdain toward their talented teammate, but out of their belief in their organizational depth. No one player, the group believed, would decide their fate.
The five games against the Cubs bore that out. Called into emergency duty at shortstop, Charlie Culberson batted .455 with a pair of doubles and a series of nifty defensive plays. The Dodgers did not skip a beat.
“It’s hard to put to words to it, because at this level, it’s hard to understand the type of depth we have,” Wood said.
“You don’t see that. We just won in five games without Corey Seager, the best shortstop on the freakin’ planet. It’s just one of those things where it’s about the next guy up.”