NEW YORK – The Los Angeles Dodgers roster has not been lacking in tremendous talent since they last won the World Series in 2020. In fact, they continued to add in recent years, spending money in the stratosphere of billions of dollars this past offseason. But while LA has been one of, if not the most talented MLB team on paper for a while now, something was missing. In their twelve straight trips to the postseason, the Dodgers often lacked any kind of grit or power to push them over the top.
However, this season and postseason, the 2024 Dodgers have shown time and time again that they are not the same team. They are stronger, stronger, better, and that’s why they are now World Series champions.
“They’re just a special group of guys,” first baseman and Dodgers World Series MVP Freddie Freeman said after the team captured the title with a 7-6 victory on Wednesday in Game 5.
New York had momentum coming off their huge win in Game 4. And after the Bronx Bombers built a 5-0 lead in the third inning on Wednesday, it looked like the Dodgers would head back to LA for Game 6. No team has ever gone 3-0 in a World Series and then gone on to a Game 6, so the Dodgers were on the verge of an unfavorable history and a lot of pressure. With LA’s offense against Yankees ace Gerrit Cole and the bullpen needing 23 outs after starter Jack Flaherty lasted just 1⅓ innings the night after a designated bullpen game, the battle was uphill.
This wasn’t the first time in October that the Dodgers found their backs against the wall without momentum on their side. They were tested and ready for this moment.
When they were eliminated in the NLDS against the Padres in a hostile environment at Petco Park, the Dodgers needed a similar decision. When few thought they had enough to fight back, they did – and not only forced a win-or-go-home Game 5. but also winning to advance to the NLCS.
And when the Dodgers needed to be resilient in World Series Game 5, they were able to play to their strength again. LA’s offense woke up in the fifth inning, thanks in large part to some terrible Yankees defense that loaded the bases. With back-to-back two-out RBI singles from Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers narrowed the deficit to 5-3. Then Teoscar Hernández delivered the big blow, crushing a two-run double into the left-field gap to score Betts and Freeman and tie the game at 5.
“Gerrit threw the ball great,” Freeman said. “He still threw the ball great all the time. When Mookie came up and hit the squibber and was able to knock it out, you could just feel the excitement. … I got one there, and I was able to foul it and see another next pitch and, luckily, hit the ball up the middle.” And then the honor goes to Teo. Straight-to-right against Gerrit Cole is a very difficult at bat to hit into the gap like he does.
“When you get extra outs and you take advantage of those types of games, it’s huge. If we want to even it out again, you can just feel the momentum coming.”
Within minutes, the momentum that seemed to have deserted the Dodgers was back on their side. They carried that into the eighth, when they scored twice to take their first lead of the game against Yankees closer Luke Weaver, who owned the Dodgers in Game 4 and had been virtually untouchable all postseason.
What made the Dodgers the best team in baseball this year on their way to their second World Series title in five years wasn’t just that they had more talent than other teams (although they did). Most years, the team with the best baseball record doesn’t win the World Series; that only happened twice in the previous ten seasons.
No, these Dodgers were simply stronger than the 29 other teams. And from the start of the season, it seemed like nothing would stop them from their ultimate goal. Every roadblock, distraction, inconvenience and injury was tackled head-on. At many points LA could have unraveled, but this team would not be denied in the quest for greatness.
When the team started the season in South Korea against the Padres, it was a bombshell. Prized free-agent acquisition Shohei Ohtani became embroiled in a federal gambling investigation by his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara. But through increased media attention, speculation and FBI investigation, Ohtani and the Dodgers never missed a beat. The Dodgers’ $700 million man had that too one of the best seasons in baseball history and will win the NL MVP in a few weeks.
“We were able to get through the regular season, I think, because of the strength of this team, this organization,” Ohtani said after the Dodgers’ win in Game 5. “And postseason success is very similar to how we made it happen during the regular season.”
“If you’re going to support a teammate in his freshman year, like we did, to help him have the best season of all time, I think, that’s pretty special,” Freeman said.
“(Winning the World Series) took a little longer than I expected and I hope to do it every year.”
Shohei Ohtani shares his emotions after winning his first World Series championship. pic.twitter.com/3HKQpGLjYj
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) October 31, 2024
Then there were the injuries that plagued the Dodgers from the start of the season until the end of the World Series, most notably Ohtani who remained in the lineup despite a shoulder injury. Losing a player of Mookie Betts’ caliber for two months would be enough to throw the best teams off their game. Now try to add a full rotation – including Clayton Kershaw, Gavin Stone, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, Tyler Glasnow and River Ryan – to the injured list. Regardless, the Dodgers finished the regular season with 98 wins.
“We’ve been through a lot, but I will say we still had the best record in baseball this year,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It wasn’t easy, but our guys fought every day and played the right way, played to win.”
“We’ve been through a number of things this year and it’s something that definitely made it more challenging,” Dodgers president Andrew Friedman said. “But it’s also been, I think, very rewarding for our scouts, our player development staff and our major league coaching staff, because of the number of guys that have stepped up and contributed and played a big role in where we are today to stand.
“It’s difficult. It’s hard to get to this point. It’s hard to resist things that can come up over the course of a season.”
Cut to October, and Freeman’s sprained right ankle limited him in the first two rounds of the playoffs, a short-handed rotation did its best to keep things going, and the bullpen was running on fumes. But when the Dodgers did their best, there it was. The team even got surprise contributions from the likes of Walker Buehler, who, after a rocky return from injury this season, pitched five shutout innings in Game 3 and closed out the decisive Game 5, recording his first career save. in what might have been his final appearance as a Dodgerand leaves an impression in LA that will last a lifetime.
That 2020 championship wasn’t far from Buehler’s mind during the Dodgers’ postgame celebration. He had clearly grown tired of hearing some delegitimize that pandemic-shortened season.
“Everyone is talking about 2020. But they can’t say much about it now,” he said.
Now it’s the Dodgers back at the top of the baseball world. It’s a stark contrast to where they were a year ago, when they were embarrassed by the Arizona Diamondbacks in a sweep in the NLDS. Unlike that team, this group of Dodgers believed the whole was greater than the sum of its parts – even with so many expensive parts. All 26 players, the coaches, the manager and the front office believed they couldn’t be beaten.
“One thing is we just kept going,” Roberts said. “Even in the postseason, I don’t think anyone picked us. I don’t think they would have picked us to leave the first series. For us to go out there and fight, scratch and claw and win 11 games in October, that’s an honor for our guys.”