LOS ANGELES -- While there remains some question about the ability of love to conquer all, there is now evidence that it can conquer the National League.
The Dodgers will open the World Series on Friday against the American League champion New York Yankees, but only because they were able to take down an upstart wild-card team in the NL Championship Series.
In a matchup that was all too familiar of recent playoff disasters, the Dodgers showed they were not only paying attention to the reasons they were unable to get past recent lower-seeded teams, they had a legitimate plan to do something about it.
That the plan relied on bonding, trust and a willingness to sacrifice for the good of others, while creating three champagne celebrations in 24 days, all in their home clubhouse, seems like something out of a fable.
“Like I said before, I have never been around a group of guys who I love or care about more,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said to the team late Sunday night as anticipation hung in the air while he aggravated a bottle of champagne in his right hand. “Four more wins. Work to be done. Let’s go.”
And with that, corks popped as the Dodgers created a carbonated alcohol weather system in their cramped quarters under the stands along the third-base side as the vapors alone impacted the senses.
Instead of repeating those unexpected series defeats like 2019 against the Washington Nationals, 2022 against the San Diego Padres and 2023 to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers have moved forward by conducting what appeared to be a company enrichment retreat once the regular season ended.
It wasn’t as if the Dodgers had taken postseasons of recent years for granted, they just came to the conclusion that there was a higher level of symbiosis that was needed. Treat the postseason with the care and respect it needs and it will take care of you.
What has played out so far is a NLDS where the Dodgers pulled off victories over the Padres in consecutive elimination games to advance before winning the NLCS against the Mets with some of the best extended offense of the season.
The Dodgers eliminated the Mets while their starting rotation was in tatters. They moved on to their fourth World Series in eight years, with half of their starting infield watching most of the proceedings. In the case of shortstop Miguel Rojas, he didn’t play in the series at all.
The Dodgers needed to be at their best in the NLCS so they were proactive about it during the five-day gap between the end of the regular season and the start of the NLDS.
“This year was very player driven,” Dodgers infielder Max Muncy said. “In the past couple of years, we waited around for the organization to tell us what to do. They tried to do certain things, they tried to up the intensity.
“This year, all of us as players who have been here said, ‘Hey, no. This is what we’re doing. We’re changing things up.’”
What the veteran players decided was to look at the time off as a legitimate reward and not something they needed to overcome.
“So the biggest thing we did was that we were here, as a group at the stadium, seven to eight hours a day,” Muncy said. “Maybe we weren’t out on the field, but we were here seven to eight hours a day, as a group, hanging out, getting closer, having fun, having good food, just talking about what we wanted to. That brought us closer together as a group.”
If an eight-hour work day doesn’t seem like much of commitment, this is a group that spends more than 150 days away from home each year, counting spring training. And the actual workouts during the bye week were no more than two hours each day.
The plan was inspired by the 2020 postseason, when the Dodgers were sequestered in a hotel for a month and a half because of the pandemic and went on to win the World Series.
And the unselfishness was partly motivated by this year’s bullpen, that has been void of roles. Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips and Michael Kopech are the high-leverage guys but even they have pitched all over the nine-inning map.
Kopech alone has pitched in the first, third, fifth and eighth innings in the postseason so far.
“I think (Rojas) said it best,” Kopech said. “We have a lot of confidence on this team. We have a lot of talent on this team. We don’t have a lot of egos.
“To go out there and pick one another up, pass the baton, have each guy do the job they’re going to do, trust in this lineup that they’re going to get some runs and just be able to keep rolling is huge. To be a part of that is special.”
Love one another. The Dodgers are showing what it can do.
“We’re going to the World Series,” Phillips said, when asked the benefit of playing with no concern for personal accolades. “I think that’s what it comes down to."