MLB Playoff Takeaways: World Series

Photo by Godofredo Vasquez from the Associated Press

It feels like that baseball season just simply flew by.

Maybe it’s because this was the year I got married, and it feels like everything flows by quickly when you get married, but still.

Regardless, congratulations to the Dodgers for winning the World Series, and let’s discuss how the series played out.

Dodgers defeat Yankees 4-1

Los Angeles Dodgers

Baseball is a marathon, and then in the postseason it becomes a sprint.

It’s important to always remember that.

Because when the Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani this offseason, as well as Tyler Glasnow, everyone pretty much handed the World Series trophy to the Dodgers.

It felt inevitable.

But how the season played out was anything of the sort.

They struggled. They got hurt. Two of their key starters were out for the rest of the season, and they were barely ahead of the Padres in the division.

But then, baseball becomes a sprint.

And the stars shown in Los Angeles.

Mookie Betts. Freddie Freeman. Shohei Ohtani was excellent before he got hurt, and then he was awful, but who cares? Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler were back to help the pitching.

When baseball becomes a sprint, it helps to have superstars.

And it really helps to have their superstars perform.

And that brings us to the Yankees.

New York Yankees

History will look back on this series as an easy 5 game series win for the Dodgers.

But that is not how history should look at this.

The Yankees had a very real chance to be on the flight back to LA today not only still in the series, but up 3-2 with a chance to win one more and win it all.

Instead, they’re at home.

Why?

Aaron Judge disappeared in the first three games of the series.

Aaron Boone pulled Gerrit Cole out of game 1 after only 88 pitches, and intentionally walked Mookie Betts which led to a Freddie Freeman walk off grand slam, pitched to by a guy in Nestor Cortes who hadn’t pitched in 5 weeks.

That got the Yankees into a 3-0 hole, but they started to pull out of it.

Judge got hot. Cole was dealing again. The Yankees were up 5-0 in game 5.

And then, it all fell apart again.

A Judge error. Gerrit Cole simply forgetting what to do as a pitcher in the field. A catcher interference to load up the bases with a 6-5 lead.

All in all, it was a perfect microcosm of the Yankees season.

They were very, very good, and then they got super sloppy and almost blew it before finally figuring it out again.

That looked to be the case once more.

And then the tides turned back.