All Ball Sports: World Series puts Dodgers’ Roberts in spotlight
Dodgers lefthander Clayton Kershaw is scheduled to start tonight’s Game 1 of the World Series. Kershaw has also been tapped by Skechers to pitch the opener for the Manhattan Beach shoe company’s new Stretch-Fit Footwear. Photo courtesy of Skechers
After 32 years of playoff failure and fan frustration, it’s going to be different this year.
You can just feel it.
And Manager Dave Roberts feels it too.
“For the Dodgers fans who are here, and the ones who aren’t here, we love you, we’re thinking about you and this year is our year,” Roberts said as he accepted the National League Championship trophy. “This is our year.”
As he spoke, Roberts appeared to have tears coming out of his eyes after his team’s scintillating, exhilarating, nail-biting, white knuckle, truly inspiring 4-3 come-from-behind victory over the Atlanta Braves Sunday night. The win capped off an equally miraculous comeback from a 3-games-to-1 series deficit – the first time that has happened in franchise history.
Roberts’ emotions were overflowing out of relief as much as jubilation. Had the Dodgers lost Sunday’s game he would have been the designated scapegoat for a bunch of sketchy decisions – mostly about pulling struggling pitchers, like Clayton Kershaw in game 4 – too late, after it was already clear that the Braves had them on the ropes.
Then there was his other decision that begged second-guessing for the opposite reason: pulling staff ace Walker Buehler after he pitched six scoreless innings in game six. But that worked out just fine as the beleaguered bullpen gave up a single run in the last three innings of a 3-1 victory that forced game 7.
Despite the media’s constant carping on some truly puzzling moves, Roberts made one absolutely brilliant decision: to pinch hit Kike Hernandez for boom-or-mostly-bust slugger Joc Pederson in the sixth inning of game 7. Hernandez promptly smashed a game-tying solo home run that completely changed the dynamic of the game and super-charged the Dodgers’ wavering confidence. His blast set the stage for Cody Bellinger’s titanic solo home run an inning later that proved to be the winning run.
So now the overarching question remains for so many disappointed-too-often Dodgers fans:
Why should this fall be any different than the past seven autumns, when the Dodgers won the Western Division every year and yet every year failed to win the World Series or sometimes even make it that far.
The answer: because of the addition of the $365 million man, Mookie Betts, who signed a 12-year extension here after being traded from the Red Sox.
Boston fans howled long and loud about losing the 2018 American League MVP, but Sox owner John Henry pleaded poverty and said he simply couldn’t afford what Mookie was sure to get on the open market.
Even though his stats weren’t overwhelming against the Braves – he hit .270 from the all-important lead-off spot — Betts made the three biggest fielding plays in the entire series: a shoe-top, lunging catch of a sinking liner in game 5 and homer-robbing leaps over the outfield wall in both game 6 and game 7.
But beyond the replay-worthy fielding plays that got shown over and over on all the highlight shows, there was just a certain intangible kind of leadership shown by Betts that inspires confidence and raises the level of his teammates.
What had been an unconnected collection of power hitters, specialized utility players and power pitchers over the last seven seasons was transformed by the sparkling personality and connective tissue of Betts’ leadership into a greater-than-its parts team that knew they could rely on each other at the most important times.
Dodger ace Clayton Kershaw pitching Skechers’ new stretch-Fit Footwear. Photo courtesy of Skechers
The World Series between the Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays began Tuesday at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, the same park that hosted the NLCS. Kershaw is scheduled to start game 1, but with his history of back spasms and playoff problems there is no guarantee he’ll actually be out there on the pitcher’s mound until the game starts.
By virtue of having the best record – 43-17 — in MLB’s incredible shrinking season, the Dodgers will be the designated home team in the first two games and in games 6 and 7, should they be needed. Game 2 is Wednesday night, game 3 is Friday night, game 4 Saturday night, game 5 Sunday night, game 6 next Tuesday night and game 7 Wednesday night.
While he couldn’t contain his excitement and enthusiasm in the moments after the game 7 clincher, Robert warned his players and fans that their autumn adventure was not complete.
“The job’s not done,” Roberts said, “and we understand that.”
Historical note: Rick Monday in 1981. Cody Bellinger in 2020.
That’s it. That’s all. That’s the entire list of Dodgers players who have hit a game winning home run in the 7th inning or later of a winner-take-all playoff game.
True Dodgers fans know that it was Monday – best remembered as the Chicago Cub who ran onto the field at Dodger Stadium in 1976 and prevented two protesters from burning an American flag – who earned himself another place in Dodgers history when he hit a two-run pinch hit homer in the ninth inning to win the Dodgers the 1981 National League division series.
Bellinger, last season’s National League MVP, now takes his place alongside Monday in Dodgers history.
Ty Lue Takes on toughest job in LA sports
It’s a good thing the LA Clippers gave Ty Lue a 5-year contract this week when he was announced as the Clippers new head coach. He replaces Doc Rivers, who was fired two weeks ago and has already signed on as the new coach of the Philadelphia 76ers.
Lue, who was a Clippers assistant coach the last two seasons, has the toughest job in LA pro sports: heal a fractured team, win a championship or at least get to the NBA Finals in his first year, and do it all knowing that his two biggest stars can leave after this season.
That’s a worst-case scenario that would leave owner Steve “Deep Pockets” Ballmer with no stars, no first-round draft picks for the next five years, and no way of rebuilding a competitive team should Kawhi Leonard and Paul George choose to move on to greener pastures.
It was clear something was seriously wrong with the Clippers when they blew a 3-1 lead over the Denver Nuggets last month in the second round of the playoffs. Nuggets stars Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic are both serious ballers, but that never should have happened to the loaded Clippers, who had been the trendy pick to win it all or to at least wind up in an epic war with the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.
But game 7 against the Nuggets was an embarrassment that got worse and worse as the game wore on. The low-light came when Paul threw up a 3-pointer that hit the side of the backboard during one of his worst games of the season. Kawhi didn’t play much better, but since he couldn’t fire his two stars, Ballmer did the next best thing: he fired Rivers, who had just lost a 3-1 lead for the third time in his career, a dubious record no other NBA coach can match.
In the weeks since that nightmare, it has become clear that the Clippers were split into two factions who couldn’t meld their talents together at the most critical of times.
Last season’s core of Sweet Lou Williams, tough guy Montrezl Harrell, professional pest Patrick Beverly and sharp-shooting Landry Shamet anchored a scrappy, overachieving squad that took two games from the Golden State Warriors in the 2019 playoffs. They seemed ready-made to fit perfectly around Kawhi and George, who would lead them to a championship.
In order to sign Kawhi after he had just led Toronto to an NBA championship and become one of the few players to be named a Finals MVP for two different teams, Clippers management promised him he would be able to take off a game whenever he wanted to rest – the so-called “load management” that has become so trendy – and live in San Diego rather than LA.
Surprise! Some of the old Clippers resented this double standard and felt Kawhi was being given special treatment.
And there was a more subtle problem: Kawhi – and George to a lesser extent – is an introvert who doesn’t try to motivate his teammates with words. His philosophy is that he will do his job and hope the others will follow his example. That didn’t work this year, and now Lue has to convince Kawhi to become more vocal and more of a leader in the LeBron James style, someone willing to challenge his teammates while at the same time letting them know they can climb on his back and he will lead them to the promised land.
Good luck with that Mission Impossible. At this point in his career Kawhi is who he is – a top 5 player — and it’s hard to see him undergoing a personality transplant.
Rams sacked by reality
Ram fans who were excited by the Rams 4-1 start got a much needed dose of reality – and a punch in the face — Sunday night when their team went down meekly to the injury riddled San Francisco 49ers by a not-as-close-as-it-sounds score of 24-16.
The hard truth is that the Rams ran up their 4-1 record against what boxing promoters used to call tomato cans – hapless opponents who start bleeding the moment they’re hit and are incapable of fighting back. All of them, not so coincidentally, were from the league’s worst conference – the NFC East.
Unfortunately, the Rams are in the best conference – the NFC West – and the 49ers are far from the best team in their conference. That would be the 5-0 Seattle Seahawks, who they still have to play twice. Also still on their schedule is a slew of good teams: the 49ers again, Tampa Bay once and Arizona twice. The only gimme game is the pathetic New York Jets, and even that isn’t a guaranteed win.
It was the same old story Sunday: a valiant Rams defense led by lineman Aaron Donald and cornerback Jalen Ramsey was unable to drag the underperforming Rams offense led by Jared Goff –19 of 38 with two TDs and one interception – to a victory. Goff isn’t the worst starting quarterback in the NFL, but he certainly isn’t in the top 15 and that spells long-term troubles for the Rams. As long as he had coach Sean McVay’s futuristic offense handing him great plays to run and superstar running back Todd Gurley to give the ball to, he was a very good system quarterback. But Gurley’s gone to Atlanta, and Goff as a guy who can carry an offense by himself and throw fear into a defense?
Forget about it.
Not happening.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. Follow: @paulteetor