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Dodgers are stacked, but World Series champions aren’t always the best teams
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- TRUE BLUE LA NL playoff standings: Cardinals win 5th straight, move ahead of Braves for top spot
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Dodgers are stacked, but World Series champions aren’t always the best teamsBy Vincent Bonsignore Don Mattingly and Mark Gubicza might seem an unlikely pair to demonstrate how brutally cruel or delightfully surprising baseball can be, but their polar opposite takeaways from the 1985 season provide delicious commentary on how malicious America’s Pastime can be. And proof that the best team doesn’t always win the World Series. More than a decade before he became the Dodgers’ manager, Mattingly played on a dominant New York Yankees club operating in the powerful American League East. The Bronx Bombers rolled to 97 wins behind Mattingly, Dave Winfield, Rickey Henderson and Ron Guidry and had all the necessary ingredients to cook up a world champion. The problem: The Yankees shared the division with the 99-win Toronto Blue Jays, generally regarded as the best team in baseball. Back then, the American and National leagues were each divided into two divisions — unlike the three divisions of today. In addition, the wild card was still nine years from birth, meaning just the four division winners advanced to the playoffs. As opposed to the 10 teams — including four that play one game for the wild-card berth — that now qualify. Bottom line, Mattingly and the Yankees were narrowly aced out of the postseason by the Blue Jays. “To win 97 games and not make the playoffs …” Mattingly said, “that’s tough.” A 14-game winner in 1985, Gubicza, then 23, and the Royals won seven fewer games than the Yankees. But thanks to a soft AL West and winning three of four games against the California Angels in late September, they claimed the division crown and advanced to the postseason. “We just kind of figured out how to win enough key games to sneak in,” said Gubicza, who now does color commentary for the Angels on Fox Sports. Mattingly, on the other hand, went home. “And we owned the Royals that year,” he said. But they had nothing to show for it, other than a comfortable seat on the couch to watch the Royals famously fall behind 3-1 to the Blue Jays in the AL Championship Series and 3-1 to the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Only to remarkably stun all of baseball — not to mention themselves — by coming back each time to be crowned world champions. “To be honest, we probably had no business winning the whole thing that year,” Gubicza said. And let that be a reminder to Dodgers fans sitting back expecting the Boys in Blue to steamroll to a World Series title simply because they’ve been the most dominant team in baseball the past three months. Or that the Dodgers, with their gaudy $216 million payroll, will have an easy sprint to the Fall Classic. Or that the combination of Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Adrian Gonzalez, Hanley Ramirez and Yasiel Puig is too much for the rest of baseball to tame. Because history has shown time and again baseball just doesn’t work that way. Their own 1988 Dodgers are the classic example of when their 94 wins paled in comparison to the 100 wins for the New York Mets and Oakland Athletics’ 104. But it was good enough to win the NL West to advance to the postseason. Once there, they partnered up with the baseball gods and something extraordinary happened. First, they beat the mighty Mets in seven memorable games, using a ninth-inning home run by light-hitting catcher Mike Scioscia off Mets ace Dwight Gooden in the ninth inning of Game 4 to tie the series rather than fall behind 3-1. A day later, they beat New York again to return home to L.A. up three games to two. That set the stage for Orel Hershiser to close the Mets out in Game 7 at Dodger Stadium to advance to the World Series. “As far as we were concerned, the Mets were the best team in baseball,” Scioscia said. In fact, the Mets took 10 of 11 games against the Dodgers during the regular season. “And it probably should have been 11 of 12,” Scioscia said, laughing. “But the 12th game got rained out in New York.” Yet it was the Dodgers moving on to the World Series, not the Mets. There, the Dodgers stunned the powerful A’s with Kirk Gibson’s two-run home run off Dennis Eckersley — the best reliever in baseball at the time — with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to win Game 1 before rolling to the World Series title in five games. “Something magical was going on that year,” Gibson said. That, and Hershiser was pitching out of his mind. “And if you’re looking for that one common denominator, it’s a pitcher just going off on a dominant roll,” said Eric Karros, who was drafted in the sixth round of the 1988 draft by the Dodgers and became NL Rookie of the Year in 1992. “A guy who’s going to start Game 1 and Game 5 and then give you some relief in a Game 7.” In 1985, Kansas City benefited from the pitching of Bret Saberhagen and Danny Jackson, as well as the infamous blown call by umpire Don Denkinger that saved the Royals from elimination in Game 6 of the World Series. Back home in Indiana, Mattingly learned a valuable lesson. “That’s when I kinda figured out baseball doesn’t always come down to who the best team is,” he said. “There’s a whole bunch of other factors that sometimes play into it.” Like the division you play in. Who gets hot at the right time. A pitcher settling into a dominant groove. Unlikely heroes emerging. A timely home run or a curious call by an umpire. Fate and destiny. A well-placed hit or a fan knocking away a foul ball that should have ended an inning. Point being, sometimes striking the right balance between timeliness, luck, intangibles and a dominant pitcher can turn an 83-win regular-season team like the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals into World Series champions. Or deliver 10 wild-card teams to the World Series, five of which claimed world championships. “It’s not always who’s best,” said Karros, now a commentator for Fox. “It’s who’s the hottest and who the luckiest is for that last month of the season.” Record-wise, the 2006 Cardinals were the 13th-best team in baseball. In fact, five teams that didn’t qualify for the playoffs had better records than the Cardinals, who went 12-17 in September and didn’t win their division until the final day of the regular season. Yet they got hot at the perfect time, getting unlikely pitching performances from Jeff Weaver, Jeff Suppan and Anthony Reyes throughout the postseason, a clutch home run from Yadier Molina and a bases-clearing triple from Scott Spiezio in the NLCS to upend the 97-win New York Mets before rolling over the 95-win Detroit Tigers to take the World Series. “That’s what makes baseball so unique,” Gubicza said. “Because you just never know who’s going to get on that unexplainable roll or just piece together enough timely wins or whose going to get those out-of-nowhere clutch performances by guys you don’t expect.” And it’s what separates baseball from the NBA, where the best regular-season team typically wins the title — see Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant and the Lakers or LeBron James and the Miami Heat — or the NFL, where the Super Bowl champion is usually the most dominant regular-season team. “It’s getting hot, it’s getting lucky, and sometimes it’s something crazy happening out of nowhere,” Karros said. Like Steve Bartman leaning in front of Chicago Cubs left fielder Moises Alou to deflect away a catchable foul ball in the eighth inning of Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS between the Cubs and Florida Marlins. If Alou makes that catch, the Cubs are four outs from their first World Series since 1945. Instead, the wild-card Marlins rallied for eight runs in the inning to win 8-3 before winning the series a day later to reach the World Series. There, they rode the pitching of Josh Beckett to upend the heavily favored Yankees to claim their second World Series championship. “There’s so many variables involved,” said Karros, who was playing first base for the Cubs that season. “Sometimes things just turn on a dime, and all of a sudden all the momentum shifts to one team. It’s unexplainable, but it happens.” But just as likely, a hero we never expected might emerge over the next month or so and the unlikeliest team of all could walk off with the World Series. TRUE BLUE LA NL playoff standings: Cardinals win 5th straight, move ahead of Braves for top spot By Eric Stephen he Cardinals won their fifth straight game on Saturday and inched closer to claiming the top spot in the National League. We will find out on Sunday whether St. Louis or Atlanta is the No. 1 seed, with the No. 2 seed hosting the Dodgers beginning on Thursday. Here are Saturday's relevant results.
Cardinals 6, Cubs 2: Soon-to-be NL Cy Young runner-up Adam Wainwright pitched scoreless ball into the sixth inning, leading St. Louis to a fifth straight win and a one-game lead over the Braves. Pirates 8, Reds 3: Pittsburgh hit six home runs, including one by old friend Andrew Lambo, to win in Cincinnati again and clinched the top wild card spot over the Reds. Sunday's series finale is now meaningless, but the NL wild card game between these same two teams will be held on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh at 5:07 p.m. PT. Phillies 5, Braves 4: Jonathan Papelbon nearly blew a 5-1 lead in the ninth inning, but Philadelphia held on to push Atlanta one game back of St. Louis with one game to play.
The Braves hold the tiebreaker over the Cardinals by winning four of their seven head-to-head games during the regular season. St. Louis clinches the No. 1 seed with either a win over Chicago or a loss by Atlanta to Philadelphia. The Braves need both a Cubs win and to beat the Phillies in order to claim the top spot. The Dodgers will open the NLDS on the road against the No. 2 seed beginning on Thursday. The regular season's final day finds two meaningful National League games (all times PT):
Zack Greinke joins Clayton Kershaw for 1-2 punch By Eric Stephen LOS ANGELES -- Just as Clayton Kershaw did on Friday night, Zack Greinke did on Saturday. Both Dodgers ended their seasons with typically excellent performances. Greinke took the loss on Saturday, though he allowed just one run in six innings to the Rockies. But more importantly, the dynamic duo look primed and ready to go when the Dodgers open their NLDS on Thursday and Friday on the road, in either Atlanta or St. Louis. "It was pretty good. I'm executing my pitches pretty well," Greinke said after the game. "It could be worse, that's for sure." Greinke finished his season at 15-4 with a 2.63 ERA in 28 starts, with 148 strikeouts and 46 walks, a strikeout-to-walk ratio of well north of three. It is arguably his best season since winning the American League Cy Young Award in 2009, and he was asked to compare the two campaigns. "I was more consistent that year. I didn't have any spots where I pitched bad, like this year. I had about a month where it was ugly," Greinke said. "Kersh had no bad stretches, and that's what you have to do." That combination of Greinke and Kershaw gives the Dodgers hope in any playoff series. Even though they will open the NLDS on the road, manager Don Mattingly feels confident with Kershaw and Greinke leading the pitching staff and opening the series. "[Greinke] gives us that 1-2 punch with Clayton. It gives us two guys that, when those guys take the ball, you feel like you're going to win. It's pretty much quality start after quality start," Mattingly said. "That's just confidence for our club, with two guys that pretty much know they're getting fairly deep into the game. "It should be an easy one. We'll see." -Zack Greinke, asked if Clayton Kershaw will win the National League Cy Young Award "When you get to them it's kind of a day off for most of your bullpen. And if you get them back-to-back there's a pretty good chance your bullpen will get some rest. It allows us to plan easier." Greinke allowed 19 runs over his final 16 starts, putting up a 1.58 ERA while averaging 6.80 innings per start.
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