The world according to Jim:
• I think we’ve figured out the Dodgers’ cheat code for October baseball. (And, readers of a certain age, don’t jump to conclusions. That term doesn’t mean what you may think it means. I’ll explain.)
The Dodgers’ secret weapon, in a sense, turned out to be marshaling their resources to make sure they had what they needed at the most important time of the year. Starting pitchers Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow and closer/folk hero Roki Sasaki were nurtured through injuries during the regular season, and those resets probably helped each be at his best by the most important point of the season. …
• For those still puzzled by the term, the Oxford English Dictionary defines “cheat code” as a “sequence of characters or movements with a controller which may be entered in a (video) game in order for the player to access hidden features, or to gain some advantage beyond normal gameplay.”
Draw your own conclusions. …
• Seventeen different pitchers started the Dodgers’ 162 regular-season games. A good number of those were openers, as manager Dave Roberts tried to navigate his way through a summer in which three of his projected starters – Glasnow, Snell and Sasaki – each spent multiple months on the injured list. Clayton Kershaw and Emmet Sheehan made 22 and 12 starts, respectively, and Dustin May was 6-7 with a 4.85 ERA in 18 starts when the Dodgers traded him to Boston at the deadline. …
• Ohtani, in his return from elbow surgery, didn’t make his first start until June 16, and Roberts carefully managed his workload – one inning each in his first two appearances, slowly working up to two, then three, then four, then five. He didn’t get through six, and indeed into the seventh, until his final regular-season start Sept. 23 at Arizona. …
• Friday’s six-plus inning, two-hit, 10-strikeout performance, combined with his three home runs that traveled 1,342 feet by Statcast measurement, almost certainly made Ohtani’s the greatest individual performance in postseason history. And still, Roberts changed pitchers after William Contreras singled on his 100th pitch of the night. …
• By the way, how do you think Angels owner Arte Moreno is feeling this weekend? …
• Snell went on the injured list in April with shoulder inflammation and did not make it back to a major-league mound until Aug. 2. His ERA in nine starts after his return was 2.40, and he gave up one run and struck out 28 in 19 innings over his last three starts. Clearly, he’s not only continued that momentum into the postseason but doubled down. …
• Glasnow had inflammation in his right shoulder and went on the IL in late April, and he didn’t return until early July. Since he also missed the 2024 postseason with an elbow issue, there may have been some concern over just how dependable he might be. But he, too, established some momentum late in the season, and his postseason ERA in two starts and a relief appearance is 0.68. …
• Sasaki went on the IL with right shoulder impingement in May. He was convinced to try relief pitching during his rehab – temporarily, since he still considers himself a starter. But with this type of performance, how do you take him out of the bullpen next spring? …
• Today’s quiz, a two-parter: Jose Quintana, Chad Patrick and Trevor Megill gave up Ohtani’s three home runs Friday night, with Patrick serving up the 469-foot bomb in the fourth that left the yard. Part I: How many of the seven players who have hit a ball out of Dodger Stadium can you name without peeking?
And Part II: Dodgers Chris Taylor (in 2021) and Kiké Hernández (in 2017) also had three-homer games in the postseason. What former Dodger performed the feat for another team?
• What? You thought I’d make Reggie Jackson’s power surge in Game 6 of the Dodgers-Yankees World Series in1977 part of the quiz? Nope. …
• It shouldn’t have escaped notice that the opposing managers in this NLCS, Roberts and Pat Murphy, were men who were passed over for the Padres’ permanent managerial position by San Diego baseball boss A.J. Preller, nor should it be surprising that the Padres are again looking for a new manager after Mike Shildt stepped away last week.
It’s also worth noting that, as reported by Kevin Acee in our sibling publication, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the creative tension resulting from Shildt’s management style – specifically complaints from those who worked with him in San Diego – led to Shildt’s decision to leave. Shildt cited “a frustration with the stress and the inability to please everybody.” …
• And maybe this is even more frustrating to the Padres’ faithful: After knocking out the Dodgers in the NL Division Series in 2022, San Diego seemed to have slain the dragon that had frustrated it so many times, as club chairman Peter Seidler put it. But Seidler passed away in November of 2023. San Diego missed the postseason that year, was knocked out by the Dodgers last fall and was eliminated by the Cubs in the Wild Card series this time.
San Diego still hasn’t had a parade for the Padres, unless you count the one after the 1998 World Series loss to the Yankees that was partly celebration and partly a campaign for what would become Petco Park. Meanwhile, the Dodgers could have their second straight ride through the streets of L.A. in the next couple of weeks. Think Padres fans are getting a little restless? …
• Quiz answer I: Ohtani and Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber have done it this month alone (and the latter wasn’t nearly as impactful as I thought it might be). Before that, Fernando Tatis Jr. of the Padres did so in 2021, Giancarlo Stanton of the Marlins in 2015, Mark McGwire of the Cardinals in 1999, Mike Piazza – then with the Dodgers – in 1997, and Willie Stargell of the Pirates twice, in 1973 and ’69.
Ronald Acuña Jr. also hit one out of the park during the 2022 Home Run Derby at Dodger Stadium, but if that counts so should the one Shohei hit in batting practice Wednesday. …
• Quiz answer II: Adrian Beltre, the guy the Frank McCourt’s Dodgers should never have let get away after a career year in 2004. The Hall of Fame third baseman hit three homers for Texas in an AL Division Series-clinching victory over Tampa Bay in 2011, two off Jeremy Hellickson and another off Matt Moore.
jalexander@scng.com