After a 6-2 win in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series on Friday night, the Seattle Mariners are one win away from clinching the first pennant in the franchise’s 49-season history and becoming the latest team to make their World Series debut.
That of course means the Toronto Blue Jays are two wins away from completing an emotional comeback that would give them the club’s first American League crown since 1993.
And the reward for ending decades of heartbreak? Come Friday, all the Mariners or Blue Jays have to do is find a way to topple the seemingly unbeatable Los Angeles Dodgers while serving as the last line of defense against the work stoppage to end all work stoppages. Better enjoy this Toronto champagne celebration, no matter which locker room it takes place in!
The Dodgers will be well-rested for the World Series and in the midst of a historic run after completing their progression up the National League bracket by completing a four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers with a 5-1 victory Friday.
Shohei Ohtani pitched six-plus scoreless innings and hit three home runs in the clincher, and as great as that was, the Dodgers were in position to win the pennant after he did virtually nothing this month (at least by his standards). The two-way unicorn entered Friday hitting .158 with two homers and six RBIs while allowing three runs in six innings in his only start in the NL Division Series on October 4.
Yet the Dodgers are 8-1 in the postseason while only trailing nine innings in their wins. Los Angeles has been fueled by a returning rotation that has combined for a 1.64 ERA with an 83/21 strikeout-to-score ratio over 66 innings.
Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto were particularly dominant in the NLCS, when they put on the Ohtani show by allowing two runs in 22 2/3 innings with 25 strikeouts and just four walks in the first three games.
Of the Dodgers’ four starters, only Yamamoto pitched at least 100 innings in the regular season. Ohtani continued his gradual recovery from a second Tommy John surgery while Glasnow and Snell combined for 29 starts while recovering from arm injuries.
That’s 21 more starts than the Dodgers got from rookie Roki Sasaki, who suffered a right shoulder injury in May but proved to be the club’s closest to the postseason.
It’s the scenario we envisioned that could spell doom for the rest of the Dodgers’ opponents this month and for a sport whose executives are salivating over the prospect of player lockouts and trying to implement a salary cap after the 2026 season.
But don’t blame the Dodgers for building a team with the gifts baseball’s less competitive owners gave them and finding the best way to win within the parameters presented.
Mookie Betts was offered by John Henry, who decided he would rather waste the goodwill generated by briefly turning the Red Sox into a juggernaut by playing with his football, hockey and racing toys.
The Braves, who generated more than $600 million in revenue in 2024, decided not to re-sign Hall of Fame first baseman Freddie Freeman after helping him win the World Series in 2021. Arte Moreno, not content with making sure Mike Trout never played a meaningful game after his age-23 season, wasted the first six years of the Ohtani’s career, pushing a routine-oriented player who certainly didn’t seem to care about his status as a first baseman. the center of the Angels’ universe on the other side of town.
But none of these owners will look in the mirror and realize their role in building the Dodgers machine. And Bud Selig and, especially, Rob Manfred are not capable of the introspection necessary to see how continued playoff expansion has made the regular season almost meaningless.
The Dodgers have been an easy punchline when they followed 100-win seasons with first-round exits in 2019, 2022 and 2023. So they played with their food this season, won 93 games mostly on muscle memory and focused entirely on preparing for October.
So far, so good. Good luck, Mariners or Blue Jays. You’ll need it next week – and in 2027, so will we.
