World Series hangover? Dodgers feel battle-tested for October

Phoenix – They were not dogpile on the mound. They were lively but relatively reserved in a shower of abbreviated club champagne.

It was undoubtedly a moment of celebration for the Dodgers, winning their title of 12th division in the last 13 years with an 8-0 victory against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday.

But it was also accompanied by moments of internal reflection. About a regular season that has posed challenges each turn. About a six -month slog in which frustration and adversity were on every street corner.

“It was a difficult year,” said third goal player Max Mancy.

Dodgers Roki Sasaki, on the left; Shohei Ohtani, center left; Hyeseong Kim, center right; And Yoshinobu Yamamoto, on the right, famous after having won the title of the National League against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Chase Field on Thursday.

(Darryl Webb / Associated Press)

“It is not the most fluid of the rides to get here,” added Freddie Feeman.

The reasons why are numerous, injuries at the start of the season in the rotation to a prolonged rise in the second half of the range to a chain of enclosure of the lifts which brought the division race unexpectedly.

Through all of this, however, has executed a common thread.

Although there is no universal consensus on the veracity of a so-called “wooden mouth of the World Series”, some members of the team recognized the unique obstacles that were made as champions.

There is physical toll. Mental exhaustion. The threat of complacency and stagnant satisfaction.

In their attempt to win a second consecutive world series this year – something that no team has accomplished since the three Peat of New York Yankees from 1998-2000 – Dodgers at various times seemed to fight everyone.

“Baseball is different from any other sport,” said manager Dave Roberts. “The psyche part, the battle of attrition, everything that matters. There are probably many reasons why [repeating as World Series champions] has not been done since the Yankees did [from 1998-2000]. But that’s something we are trying to do. We have the opportunity to make history. It was not easy. But that is one of them.

The question now: Have the regular season’s obstacles accumulated them for another championship race? Or will it prove to be a campaign which, in some respects, was unhappy from the start?

“It was as difficult as we crossed it,” said Roberts, in the middle of the celebration of the clubhouse on Thursday. “But the old adage – iron sharpens iron. I think we are better for adversity … I am excited about what will happen.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts addresses the team in the locker room after beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-0 to win the West title of the National League at Chase Field on Thursday.

(Chris Coduto / Getty Images)

The conversation of the WORLD Series Wood Gueule followed the dodgers since they reported spring training. It turned slowly in a way that is both obvious and small.

Start with the enclosure of the lifts, where each impact lift that returned from the winning team last year has regressed in its performance, spent time away with an injury, or in several cases endured both after the heavy workload that they experienced in the playoffs last year.

“I think it would probably try to go wrong if we said it had nothing to do with that,” said the right to the eliminatory series Michael Kopech, which was limited to 14 appearances this year and will start the playoffs on the list of injuries with a knee problem. “But at the same time, that’s what we are all signing up. Any team that was in the position we were last year would have done the same.”

“There is probably mental fatigue and physics [carry] Finished, “resolved his right -handed compatriot Blake Treinen.” But to say that it is an effect all year round, I don’t know. I think that you are in apologies and reasons is a dangerous thing. »»

The lift enclosure pointed out elsewhere to explain its difficulties throughout the season. As Treinen noted, “at the end of the day, we are paid to manage” the burden of rebounding everything that happened in the previous fall.

The Dodgers also tried to alleviate these factors, strengthening the group with veteran signatures of Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates. But while they collapsed, the unit as a whole suffered from one calamity after another. The more spiral they have, the more difficult it has become for speculation on the effects after the effects of last October.

“You are not trying to rely on IF and Maybes and it could be and it could not be,” said Treinen. “We just have a job, and it was weird [this year]. “”

On the other side of the ball, the dodgers treated a different dynamic following the triumph of last year. For an offense generally based on a disciplined daily approach and the ability to work on quality bits, there were long periods of the season in which this edge would seek apparently. When the coherent execution on the plate looked like a troubled task.

“This is not an excuse, but we started last year very early, we played until November, then this year, we started again early,” said field player Miguel Rojas, not only quoting the Grind of Dodgers to pass the last playoff series but also their two international trips to Japan and South Korea in the last 18 months.

“We are human beings. And sometimes you get tired, especially mentally. You have a lot in your life, and your year. It’s not easy to be locked up every time. ”

This was particularly obvious during the slide of the team’s second half, when a common contrast could be established between the Dodgers and their upset opponents.

“When you are reigning champions … We have certainly obtained everyone’s best shot this year,” said Muncy.

The Dodgers, Third Base, Max Muncy, are injured while labeling Chicago White Sox Michael A. Taylor, who tried to steal the third, on July 2 at the Dodger Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

And, too often, the dodgers had trouble evoking the matching intensity.

“This is part of what we have registered, but it takes a tax,” said Roberts. “It is difficult to do your best when you know that other teams bring their best … you try to highlight each match, April is just as important as September and October. It is in theory. But it is difficult to do it in practice.”

Add the fact that “When you do playing in the playoffs each year, it has an impact on the guys’ body. And this year, I think you saw him more than ever, ”noted Muncy, who missed time with knee and oblique injuries.

Despite all this, of course, the dodgers have always struck in what has become an almost annual tradition on Thursday evening. They pulverized bottles and smoked cigars during a celebration of division clubhouse. They sprayed Shohei Ohtani with all kinds of liquid songs and “MVP”. They transformed the lining into plastic soaked in alcohol on the ground into a slip and a slide for the members of their training and support staff.

“It never seems old,” said Freeman behind champagne sliding ski glasses.

“It’s always the best feeling in the world,” added a shirtless Kershaw Kershaw.

In the middle of the scene, however, was also a professional understanding.

Winning the division was what the dodgers always expected to accomplish.

Repeating as champions of the World Series and overcoming all the effects of the wooden mouth that has followed them so far, remains the ultimate challenge.

“We were tested in combat,” said Muncy, supervising the ups and downs of this year as construction blocks to rely in the playoffs.

“What I think is quite revealing is,” [with] Everything we have experienced, this team has remained connected, “said Roberts.

The path to come is still not easy. The team will have to take the long road until October – starting with a round of the best of the three jokers next week, rather than a review to the division series.

But lately, they have seen signs that their hangover could lie down, winning 12 of the 17 games behind a more coherent offense, a dominant increase in the starting rotation and an enclosure that obtains new reinforcements from Kershaw, Roki Sasaki and (probably from the playoffs) Emmet Sheeehan.

“Yes, we have won the division,” said Roberts. “But in addition to that, more importantly, we play good baseball.”

The objective is now to maintain this momentum, to embrace the lessons that this regular season has provided and to avoid other traps which have triggered so many champions in previous reigning before them.

After all, winning consecutive global series may not be easy. But this year, they would like to give him another test.

“It’s more about playing for each other, trusting,” said Roberts. “The rest will take care of himself.”