All Ball Sports: Walking Wounded Dodgers Aiming for Three-Peat
By Kevin Cody
by Paul Teetor
They did it again.
For the 13th time in the last 14 seasons, the Dodgers won the National League West Thursday night and clinched a spot in the post-season playoffs.
That was step one in the long march to a third straight World Series Title, which has been their stated goal ever since their against-all-odds game 7 World Series victory over the Toronto Blue Jays last fall. They would be the first national League franchise ever to accomplish that feat, while only the Yankees have done it in the American League.
But without first making the playoffs, there can be no World Series crown.
Sophomore outside hitter Lily Vandeweghe led the Mustangs against Redondo with 11 kills, two blocks and two aces on Tuesday, September 22, at Redondo. Photo by Ray Vidal
Thus, there was plenty of cause for a post-game celebration Thursday night among the Dodgers players, who spent their time in the locker room spraying each other with champagne and giddily talking over each other to the many TV cameras roaming the clubhouse.
If the Dodgers can hold off the Atlanta Braves for the second seed in the playoffs — they are currently four games up in the standings with 6 games to play – they can avoid the best-of-3 wild card series and advance straight to the best-of-5 league Divisional Series. If they win there, then they would need to win the best-of-7 league championship series to advance to the World Series against the American League champs, most likely the New York Yankees.
Senior Mustang setter Lerin Rosenthal and Sea Hawk middle blocker Braunwyn Brown battle at the net on Tuesday, September 22, at Redondo. Photo by Ray Vidal
So once again it could well be the Dodgers vs. the Yankees in late October. It doesn’t get any better than that for a fall classic matchup. The Dodgers beat the Yanks in the World Series two years ago to start their WS winning streak, so it would be entirely fitting to make them the victims once again.
But for most of the 2026 season, the Dodgers have had to navigate their roster like a leaking ship plowing through a storm.
The injuries have been too frequent for the average fan to keep track of.
Shoulders. Elbows. Backs. Necks. Knees. Hands. Biceps. Blisters. And now, with October quickly approaching, Blake Snell’s groin is the latest problem to flare up.
In what seems to be an annual ritual, the Dodgers have spent much of their pursuit of baseball history trying to outrun the injured list. The numbers show just how bruised and battered baseball’s most-expensive-team-money-can-buy has been.
There were 11 players on the 60-day injured list and six players on the 10- or 15-day IL. Now comes their attempt to become the first National League franchise to win three consecutive World Series championships.
That attempt will come with some of their biggest stars still fighting through injuries.
The biggest, of course, is superstar Shohei Ohtani, who is still on the 15-day IL with lingering left knee and right biceps issues. Dedicated All Ball readers will recall that a month ago we strongly urged Dodgers management to put Shohei on the injured list and give him time to rest and rehab in preparation for the playoffs.
Much to our shock and dismay, they ignored our pleas. But they finally saw the light when he had a terrible two-week slump at the plate and couldn’t pitch at all. Now we predict he will return with a vengeance for the playoffs, rested, rehabbed and ready to rock like only he can.
But there is no hope now that Shohei will win a third straight National League MVP award – that’s going to Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. But the team goal of a three-peat is much more important than individual goals. Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said this week that Ohtani is “progressing well,” and he expects him to return before the end of the regular season next Sunday, September 27.
And the hits, as they have all season, just keep on coming.
All-Star closer Edwin Diaz has been battling several injuries throughout the season but was activated on Friday after being sidelined since Aug. 18 with neck inflammation. If he can return to the shut-down form he displayed over the last three years for the New York Mets, that will go a long way towards a three-peat.
All-Star center fielder Andy Pages remains on the IL with a fractured left hand, but could be activated during the Dodgers final homestand. No true Dodgers fan could ever forget his leaping save of a ball at the outfield wall in that memorable game 7. And he followed that up with a great first half of the season this year that propelled him to his first All-Star game.
Always injured, fragile-as-hell Tyler Glasnow is back in the starting rotation, but he missed more than three months with lower back spasms before returning in late August. Blake Snell opened the season sidelined by shoulder fatigue and underwent elbow surgery in May and didn’t return until August.
On Wednesday in Cincinnati, he lasted just one inning before he left with groin tightness that forced him from the game. But the decision to remove him from the game was described as “precautionary,” and Snell himself said he expects to make his next scheduled start.
Fire balling second year pitcher Roki Sasaki has been out since August 27 with a blister on his pitching hand, and All-Star catcher Will Smith – the homer-hitting-hero of that memorable game 7 win over the Jays — recently returned after missing nearly three months with neck inflammation. The Dodgers need him at full or near-full strength to have a realistic shot at the three-peat.
With Mookie Betts’ decline over the first half of this year, Smith is the Dodgers second or third best player, depending on where you want to rate the aging Freddie Freeman, who had a good but not great season.
As always, Freeman – and the rest of the Dodgers, for that matter – will be judged on their post-season performance. Anything less than a third straight World Series title will be labeled a failure, whether or not that verdict is fair.
The Dodgers survived six months of baseball’s version of a demolition derby and still won the West. The question now isn’t whether they were good enough to survive the regular season.
The question is whether enough of them will be healthy enough to survive October and bring home a third straight World Series title.
So far, so good in Blake Snell’s bid to make another start before the end of the regular season.
Despite leaving his last outing on Wednesday in Cincinnati after just one inning due to tightness in his left groin, Snell arrived at Dodger Stadium on Friday already feeling better, saying his groin was back up to an “8 out of 10” before heading out for a session of flat-ground catch play in the outfield.
Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts also offered an optimistic outlook on Snell’s status, saying he was “very hopeful” about the left-hander’s chances to get back on the mound before the beginning of the playoffs.
“Happy that we caught it early,” Roberts said of Snell’s injury.
If they do get the three-peat, it will almost surely be because of their stellar pitching rotation, not the offense which struggled mightily in the second half of the season and was the main cause of their 7-game losing streak in mid-August, their worst such streak since2017.
So it’s up to starting pitchers Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Tarik Skubal this season. The team will rise or fall depending on their performance.
It says here they will get it done so Dodgers fans can have warm memories when the game shuts down next season due to a bitter labor-management dispute. These playoffs are the last big-league ball we’re going to see for a long time.
Redondo Football wins, Mira Costa loses
The local prep football teams continued playing the non-league portions of their schedule on Friday night. Redondo knocked off St. Paul of Santa Fe Springs by sprinting out to a 20-0 and then cruising to a 27-7 win that pushed their record to 4-1. The Sea Hawks will play Muir of Pasadena in their final non-league game Friday night.
Mira Costa was crushed by San Juan Hills 63-21 and in the process fell to 0-5 on the no-longer-young season. The Mustangs fell behind by 28-0 in the first quarter and the deficit continued to grow from there. They will take on Culver City Friday night as they try for that still-elusive first victory before playing the Bay League portion of their schedule.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. ER
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