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They did it and in style. Now it is on to bigger things. I so want to see them in the WS.
I think its fair to say that their peaking right now and have regained the form they had during the regular season when they were steamrolling over opponents. The beauty is that they don't rely on a player or two to carry them, e.g. Kershaw doesn't have his best game, someone or by committee steps up.
The Diamondbacks were a very confident team going into this series having won the season series 11-8 and actually sweeping the Dodgers twice during their last two regular season series meetings. Of course the Dodgers were going through their slump at the time. How they responded in the NLDS has been very impressive.
There is still a lot work to be done though and it only get tougher. With that said, the Dodgers have the mindset and talent to win it all.
The Diamondbacks were a very confident team going into this series having won the season series 11-8 and actually sweeping the Dodgers twice during their last two regular season series meetings. Of course the Dodgers were going through their slump at the time. How they responded in the NLDS has been very impressive.
While it's true the Dodgers were in a historic slump remember that the Dodgers purposely did not pitch Kershaw during both series against the Diamondbacks. Wood & Hill might have been skipped too?
I think that goes to how smart the FO is to know that while the team was doing so bad they still had to be smart about the future games.
The TV commentators need something to talk about to frame the games, so they have decided that winning the wild card game represented "momentum" going into the division series. The non wild card teams were said to lack this momentum since they had the day off while the wild card played, and they also were division winners and had not likely had to play a truly critical game for some time.
The momentum concept has been studied six ways to Sunday. Exhausting efforts were made to detect patterns emerging from previous win/loss streaks. What was concluded in every case was that if momentum actually existed, it cannot be found in the numbers. No game may be safely predicted on the basis of the previous game or series of games.
They dragged out the momentum line again this year for the Diamondbacks..and we all know what happened.
While it's true the Dodgers were in a historic slump remember that the Dodgers purposely did not pitch Kershaw during both series against the Diamondbacks. Wood & Hill might have been skipped too?
I think that goes to how smart the FO is to know that while the team was doing so bad they still had to be smart about the future games.
During the next to last series the Dodger starters were Hill, Ryu and Maeda. Kershaw pitched the following game, a win versus San Diego. After the Padres series they met again with the same starters, Hill, Ryu and Maeda. So that was just how the rotation was at the time. All three got roughed up in the first series. During the last series, it wasn't all on the starters as they fared much better.
Meanwhile the Dodgers wait to see who they will host on Saturday.
Just some thoughts:
Darvish pitched extremely well in game 3, I don't think anyone needs to be told that. He was sharp and seized the moment very well.
Kershaw can't be trusted past 7 innings. Sorry, but our ace has some bad outtings when he gets to the 7th. Luckily we have Maeda and Morrow who can handle things. Morrow did hand over a 3-run homer in Game 2 versus the DBacks but this seemed to be an aberration to how well he's been performing lately.
Taylor and Bellinger really need to see more pitches. I see that when they swing at the first pitch it usually doesn't end well for them.
This team seems to battle every pitch, every out, and puts constant pressure by placing runners on the bases, hopefully they will continue to do this as they seemed almost unstoppable and relentless in the NLDS.
I reckon that now that the Cleveland Indians are out that only increases the odds for the Dodgers for a WS title. A lot of baseball left though.
I was happy to see that too. Plus not that it matters to us Dodgers fans but if the Indians made it there again you'd hear so much about how they were so close last year & have never won a WS. Granted Astros have never won either but not as long of history.
I'm also kind of glad the Nats are out. A lot of people are tired of the Cubs & I'd love some revenge. I also think that the Dodgers have a better chance against the Cubs than Nats.
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