Fittingly, in the middle of election season, Los Angeles’ favorite candidate pushed his opponent past the breaking point.
I’m calling the National League… for the Dodgers.
I’m calling a spot in the World Series… to the Dodgers.
The polls aren’t done yet, but they’re happening, a done deal, a mortal lock, get ready for tickets, plan parties, spread the word, the Dodgers are advancing to their fourth World Series in eight seasons. It’s only a matter of time.
Read more: Dodgers show their offensive prowess by eliminating Mets to take a win away from the World Series
After a 10-2 victory over the New York Mets in Game 4 of the NL Championship Series at Citi Field on Thursday night, the Dodgers had a three-games-to-one lead that is essentially insurmountable.
It’s over. The Mets are as ready as their roasted pitching. They are as ready as their fleeing fan base. They probably shouldn’t have been here at all, and soon they will be gone, in the Dodgers’ rearview mirror, along with the San Diego Padres, postseason victims of a very different Dodgers team.
The World Series beckons soon, whether it’s Friday night here in Game 5 or next week at Dodger Stadium, it’s happening, the Dodgers win another game against a Mets team that’s retired.
All that’s left is the champagne and the madness, and we suspect that will happen Friday with ace Jack Flaherty on the mound and visions of impending greatness in the sky.
“We’re close,” Tommy Edman said. “We can feel it.”
Shohei Ohtani, who homered on Thursday, wants it to happen now.
“We played good baseball yesterday and today in enemy territory, and I would like to connect that to tomorrow,” Ohtani said in Japanese. “I want us to feel like we’ll decide it tomorrow.”
The Dodgers not only advance to the World Series next week, but should be heavy favorites to win it against the inferior New York Yankees or the better-manned Cleveland Guardians.
There hasn’t been a Dodgers team this complete since 2017, and they would have won that World Series if the Houston Astros hadn’t cheated, so hide all the trash cans and let’s go.
How good are these Dodgers? They dominated Thursday night with essentially their “B” team, Freddie Freeman and Gavin Lux out, Chris Taylor playing second base and Edman hitting cleanup.
They won with a second straight impressive performance from division series clincher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, with Ohtani being Ohtani, and everyone else cheering and poking and creating as the Dodgers do.
“At a time like this … so you just have to jump on the roller coaster and enjoy the ride,” said Mookie Betts, who hit a homer among four hits and four RBIs.
And oh yeah, Max Muncy walked three and singled to extend his on-base streak to 12 consecutive plate appearances, a single postseason record.
Think about it. This Muncy guy is setting records and he’s not even one of the top four hitters on the team.
“It’s 0-0 now,” said Muncy, refusing to give in to the hype. “We will show up tomorrow as if it is a 0-0 series. We have to prepare the right way, do everything the right way and play our game. Go out there and try to get a win tomorrow.
The main attraction, of course, is Ohtani, who set the tone in just two pitches in this game when he broke out of his strange recent slump with his first hit in 22 at-bats with the bases empty – and man, what a breakout. It was a 450-foot home run over the right-center fence. The ball officially traveled at 120 miles per hour, but like most of his big hits, it looked like it was going 1,000 miles per hour.
After the Mets briefly tied the game in the bottom of the first inning with a Mark Vientos home run – hey, at least they scored! – the Dodgers quickly figured out a way to break that impasse forever.
It was accomplished in the third inning by an unlikely and expected hero. Edman, batting for only the third time this season, scored Ohtani, who had walked, with a double to left. Then Kiké Hernández, who has been doing this kind of thing all October, knocked off diving shortstop Francisco Lindor’s glove for another run.
Think of something else. The Dodgers spent more than $1 billion on talent acquisition this offseason, but two guys who fueled their fire in one of the biggest games of the season on Thursday were an undervalued acquisition at the trade deadline and a signing during spring training.
Especially impressive is Edman, who could quietly steal the NLCS most valuable player award as he is hitting .412 with seven RBIs.
“I haven’t done much decluttering in my life, and to do it in this setup is pretty crazy,” Edman said. “This is what I’ve always dreamed of. I haven’t had the opportunity to play in a World Series before and to be one game away, we’re really excited.”
After spending his career in St. Louis, Edman has clearly embraced the Dodgers culture.
“[The] What separates this team is just the experience, and I think everyone just has a very calm and cool demeanor,” he said. “The moment is really not too big for anyone. I think having a lot of guys who have been there in big moments definitely helps us to be able to perform when those situations arise.
These situations have abounded in the first four games, and while the Dodgers have indeed gone big, the Mets have shrunk.
Trailing early Thursday, the Mets never really fought back. They loaded the bases with less than two outs in two of the first six innings, but were only able to scratch out one run, including three Mets hitters retired by Evan Phillips and Blake Treinen, leaving three in the sixth.
As the Dodgers piled up the runs – again – the Mets increasingly ran out of the batter’s box with quick swings and offered only minor mound resistance with haphazard pitching.
In the first four games, the Dodgers defeated the Mets 30-9, and it didn’t feel that close. Perhaps even more impressive is that the Dodgers’ hitters have set an LCS record with 31 walks, giving baseball players Goliaths of death with a thousand cuts.
“As we continue to build toward a World Series run, we’ll just ride that wave until we get there,” Phillips said.
Read more: How much for two tickets to a World Series in LA? Thousands, not hundreds
The wave is almost home. It crashes against the rocks of doubt and overwhelms the sands of history.
“We’ve done a good job of putting ourselves in this position,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I like the us-against-the-world attitude that our guys have taken. I think that’s kind of ironic with the Dodgers, but I like that.”
In this equation they are usually the world. But something happened to them last week when the world mocked them after they came one game away from elimination in the NLDS against the San Diego Padres. They found anger. They found a chip. They found each other.
And soon, very soon, they will find the 120th World Series.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
