Column: The Dodgers have to get through the Cubs to continue their World Series hunt
As if the Dodgers’ battle to win hearts and make history weren’t difficult enough, here come the cuddly Chicago Cubs.
Waving their homey white “W” flag. Trotting out smirking Bill Murray. Singing their schoolyard victory song. Huddling together around that sickeningly charming ivy.
Four victories from reaching their first World Series in nearly three decades, the Dodgers must first scale America’s sweethearts, and it’s going to be as tricky as it sounds.
It’s expansively rugged Chavez Ravine versus the Friendly Confines. It’s Vin Scully elegantly waving to the crowd versus some celebrity screeching, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.’’ It’s baseball’s most expensive roster versus (sigh) its most huggable one.
The Dodgers and Cubs meet in the seven-game National League Championship Series beginning Saturday afternoon at Dodger Stadium in a rematch clouded with revenge and redemption.
Last season, in this same series, the Cubs defeated the Dodgers in six games en route to winning their first world championship in 108 years.
This season, it’s the Dodgers dealing with the pressure of a drought: 29 years since their last world championship, their last 10 postseason appearances without a title, a record, and autumn failures in each of the last four years.
“We have more expectations for ourselves than I think anyone could put on us,’’ Dodger manager Dave Roberts said, “but we understand what it means to this fan base.’’
Last season, it was the Cubs who clearly had the better team, and partied liked it. The NLCS-clinching celebration in Chicago so clogged the streets around Wrigley Field that the Dodgers were trapped in their cramped clubhouse for nearly an hour listening to the cheers thumping off the concrete above their heads.
All the years we’ve been through … the way we played last year, we know how close we got. … Now, it’s our moment.
— Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen
This season, it’s the Dodgers who finished with the best record in baseball, the Dodgers who won the regular-season series against the Cubs, four games to two, and the Dodgers who cannot forget the pain.
“All the years we’ve been through … the way we played last year, we know how close we got. … Now, it’s our moment,’’ Dodgers reliever Kenley Jansen said.
The Dodgers rebounded from a late-season 1-16 skid to dominate the Arizona Diamondbacks in a three-game sweep of the National League division series.
In those games, the Dodgers trailed only three innings. Their pitching was so collectively strong with Clayton Kershaw, Yu Darvish and Kenley Jansen that All-Star Alex Wood, with a 16-3 record, was never required to pick up a ball. Their offense was so overpowering, they racked the Diamondbacks starting pitchers for 11 runs in 10 1/3 innings. And, oh, yeah, they had so much fun, Yasiel Puig spent most of the series wagging his tongue at his teammates in delight.
“This team is different from our other ones because of our confidence in each other,’’ said veteran Andre Ethier, who has played on all five consecutive division title teams. “There was never a doubt.’’
There continues to be so little doubt that, in the Champagne-soaked clubhouse at Arizona’s Chase Field after the clinching game, visiting Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax said he would be returning on Oct. 24.
Yes, that is the date of Game 1 of the World Series.
“I really believe they’re going to get there,’’ Koufax said. “Why not? This is a very impressive team.’’
Ah, but here come the Cubs. Egads, the Cubs! Again, the Cubs?
“We know it’s going to take a helluva lot to beat us, and that’s a good feeling to have,’’ Cubs team President Theo Epstein said during a recent interview on Chicago’s WSCR radio.
He’s right. After spending more than a century losing battles with destiny, the Cubs now seem to own it.
They flew to Los Angeles Friday on the wings of a nutty 9-8 comeback victory over the Washington Nationals hours earlier in the deciding Game 5 of their division series.
This, after they rebounded from an early-season title hangover to finish with the league’s best record in the second half.
And all this after they came back from a three-games-to-one deficit to win last year’s World Series against the Cleveland Indians.
“I would want to believe that coming into this we have an eagerness about us without an anxiety about us,’’ Cubs manager Joe Maddon said before the playoffs began. And that is exactly how the the Cubs have played.
Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks, the pitchers who combined to hold the Dodgers to three runs in four starts in last year’s NLCS? They’re back.
Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Javier Baez, who combined to drive in 13 runs in that series while each hitting above .300? They’re also back, and, if anything, they seem more determined to turn their three consecutive NLCS appearances into grounds for a dynasty.
“Give our guys credit, man, give our guys credit,’’ Maddon said. “Every last one, there’s a total buy-in among the group.’’
What is different about this series is that the Cubs used 10 different pitchers in the final two desperate playoff games against the Nationals, including all four of their top starters. They will be enduring this first weekend at Dodger Stadium with a depleted staff.
Waiting for those weary Cubs arms is a Dodgers offense resembling the attack that earlier this summer led to 52 wins in 61 games. It is intense and unforgiving. Every plate appearance is a battle. Opposing pitchers are quickly worn down. Against Arizona, Austin Barnes, Logan Forsythe, Justin Turner and Puig all hit better than .400
“They’re locked in right now,’’ Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said of the Dodgers. “They’re grinding down at-bats, waiting for their pitch.”
Throw in a four-deep starting rotation, a middle-relief group that includes a revelation in former starter Kenta Maeda, and baseball’s best closer in Jansen, and the Dodgers are greatly improved from last fall.
“They are different,’’ Maddon acknowledged. “They are better.’’
This group expects to win. “We’re a little older, a little more experienced, a lot of guys with a lot of playoff games under their belt now, and we’ll try to use that to our advantage,’’ said Turner, the Dodgers’ All-Star third baseman.
The Dodgers will enter this series with home-field advantage, pitching advantage, lineup advantage, dugout advantage, almost every possible advantage except the important been-there advantage. The Cubs know how to win a title. At long last, the Dodgers need to prove they can figure that out.
“We all have to attack,’’ Jansen said. “We’ve been talking about this the whole year, about trying to win a championship. … We should take it as our last shot.’’
The heart of that attack will now commence against resilient champions who have spent the last year being serenaded with their victory song everywhere from “Saturday Night Live’’ to an encore of “Hamilton,’’ everyone singing, “Go Cubs Go.’’
You know, it’s time for them to go.
Get more of Bill Plaschke’s work and follow him on Twitter @BillPlaschke
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