‘These guys did everything right’: What Los Angeles media had to say after the World Series
One writer compared the Dodgers to the Buffalo Bills of the early '90s.
The World Series aftermath was predictably different in Los Angeles than it was in Boston. Just ask local sports personality Petros Papadakis.
“You don’t want to hear those ‘chowds’ laughing at you, Fred?” Papadakis asked co-host Fred Roggin in a faux Boston accent on NBC Los Angeles. “They’re all going to go by the ‘packie,’ drink a ‘sixer’ by the Charles.”
Obviously, given that it was the Red Sox who won the championship in five games, the reaction from media covering the Dodgers would carry a far more somber tone.
Still, the consensus was generally that the better team won.
“These guys did everything right,” former Dodger Jerry Hairston Jr. said about Boston.
“They ran into a team that was just as talented, but I think [also] just as polished, maybe more polished, when execution came into play,” Hairston said of what Los Angeles encountered against Boston. “You have to be able to put the ball in play with runners in scoring position. We talked about it all season long. You saw a team do that, and they continued to do that in this series. And that’s why [the Red Sox] are going home as World Series champions.”
.@TheRealJHair, @OrelHershiser & @realnedcolletti recap the 2018 #WorldSeries. pic.twitter.com/jAZ01Ddjtd
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) October 29, 2018
Blake Richardson of The Los Angeles Times described how the Red Sox were underdogs despite their 108-win regular season:
They were talented, yes. The Red Sox asserted themselves in the 108-win regular season as the best team in baseball, with powerful batters throughout the lineup, exceptional starters and a bullpen that proved in the postseason it was built to be tested.
But any less effort and the Red Sox wouldn’t be here. They were picked to lose to the Yankees, then to the Astros, but instead went undefeated on the road to reach the World Series.
One reason for Los Angeles being overmatched against Boston was the general superiority of the American League. Mark Whicker of the Los Angeles Daily News compared it to the Buffalo Bills of the early 1990s, who lost four straight Super Bowls.
“Like the Bills, the Dodgers came from an inferior conference,” Whicker wrote. “The National League did not have as many threadbare teams, or as many that weren’t trying, as the American League did. But the Red Sox had to eliminate two 100-win opponents (Houston and the Yankees) in their road to the World Series. They led this series 3-1 with virtually nothing from Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez. That ominous cloud emptied when Betts and Martinez homered off Clayton Kershaw in what became a title-clinching 5-1 victory.”
“The Dodgers have taken you to the driveway of a championship,” Whicker concluded. “That last yard is the longest.”
The focus has already shifted to what could prove an eventful offseason for the Dodgers.
“Seven Dodgers became free agents Monday morning,” noted Bill Plunkett, also with the Daily News. “Catcher Yasmani Grandal, pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu, shortstop/third baseman Manny Machado, second baseman Brian Dozier and relief pitchers Ryan Madson, John Axford and Daniel Hudson.”
Still, the main offseason watch remains around starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who can opt out of his contract and become a free agent before the end of the week. So far, Kershaw hasn’t revealed what his decision might be. But, as the Times’s Jorge Castillo explained, it’s a likely bet that he’s back in Dodger blue in 2019:
Kershaw’s playoff disappointment is impossible to ignore — he has a 4.32 ERA in 152 playoff innings — but he has remained a top-tier starting pitcher, provides unquantifiable value in the clubhouse, and has served as the franchise’s face for a decade. He has been to seven All-Star games. He has won three Cy Young Awards. He has been selected most valuable player. A Series title is all that has eluded him. Envisioning him vying for one somewhere else is difficult.
And the status of manager Dave Roberts is potentially up in the air too, despite guiding the Dodgers to two straight National League pennants.
“The man is not under contract for next season, but he did not speak Sunday night like a man who feared losing his job,” wrote Pedro Moura of The Athletic. “Roberts said his plan is to manage the Dodgers in 2019.”
