At this time last year, the pressure was tangible.
Until October last year DODERS He had a reputation for failures after the season.
This was not an unreasonable difference. In each of the previous two seasons, the team was upset in the League National Division series smaller opponents in San Diamondbek. The fall before that, their defense of the title flashed against the loser of the Atlanta Braves in the series of NL championships. Yes, they won World Series in a 2020 short pandemic season. But besides this, more than three decades have passed since they had the last time won in typical circumstances.
This checkered story weighed them. Their urgency to change it in last year's play -off was an ardent.
“Such a sour taste that you have when you make an early exit from the postson, our guys are tired of this,” manager Dave Roberts He said on the eve of last year's postszon. “So this is another opportunity. I feel this advantage. “
This week, of course, the dooders is faced with another dynamics.
After their memorable run to the championship last year, the team received a monkey from their drought for the title in the midst of it. And although the expectations are still high, with the dooders and their record list for 400 million US dollars in order to start playoffs with the best of three wild cards, starting with Tuesday against Zincinnati Red, questions about the disappointments of last October were scattered.
So, is the pressure of this postsezone felt?
“You would think”, veteran of the third person from the bottom Max Mansi said. “But the pressure will always be there. Especially when you are this team, when you are in Los -Angeles Doders, there are many expectations around you. There is a lot of pressure. ”
Indeed, after the less regular regular season, in which the Dodders won NL West for the 12th time over the past 13 years, but could not ensure farewell in the first round as one of the two best NL play-offs, Dodgers have a new task for them.
Get the disappointment of their campaign with 93 victories. Support the impulse that they built with the 15-5 regular season. And to recreate the despair, which transferred them to Earth promised last fall, since they are trying to become the first repeated MLB champion for 25 years.
“For us, the task does not allow this pressure to be on you and find our rhythm to find what will work for us this year,” Mansi said. “Every year, the team must find their own person when they reach this point. You have a personality during the regular season, and you must find a whole “invalid personality in the postsesone”.
The preferred personality of the dodge for the figures of the teams of this year is opposite to what worked in October last year.
Unlike last year, the team has a healthy and strewn stars initial rotation, entering the playoffs. Also, unlike last year, the KPZ is the main question mark, despite the encouraging end of the regular season.
For a series of wild cards, this means that the team will need great opportunities from the starter of the game 1 Blake SnellStarter of the game 2 Yoshinobu Yamamoto and (if necessary) game 3 starter Shohei Otani -Who is saved for the potential contest of the winner, partly to help manage his bilateral workload.
Ideally, their production should facilitate the burden on the help building, which took 21st place in the Majors of the ERA for a regular season and does not have a clear hierarchy for its most reliable weapons.
“Starting feed is much better” than it was last year, Roberts said on Monday. “This is probably the biggest difference between last year’s team.”
Of course, the dooders now feels better in the KPZ, thanks to the return Rocks SasakiThe redistribution (at least for this series) of Emmett Shihan and Tyler Glaznov from rotation to relief roles, and recent improvements from Blake Trainin and Tanner Scott.
“[We have] Much more confidence than we had a couple of weeks ago, ”Roberts said about the KPZ. – I think this is because these guys showed self -confidence where they throw baseball. I think that last week we saw the guys more about the attack that sets the tone, and not that they are behind or too careful. ”
Dodedes -Conscription Tanner Scott opposes the giants of San Francisco on September 19.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los -Angels Times)
Nevertheless, no one will guess who will perform in the ninth inning or will be caused at times with the highest resolution.
Close, late competitions would be better for the dooders to avoid.
To this end, the continuation of the recent growth of the dodge on a plate will also help. During the gloomy segment, 22-32 from July 4 to September 6, the Dodders took 27th place in order, with all his might, trying to overcome the injuries of several key objects, some of their largest stars and the general absence of consistent performance in situational possibilities. However, during their closure, 20 games on average amounted to NL-the best 5.55 runs for the game after the jumps at the end of the season from Otan and Betts flour, as well as improvements in the team, while hitting the runners in the hamming position.
“Finally, the team begins to shoot at all the cylinders,” Mansi said. “This is what we did not feel throughout the year.”
Doders had good news about the front of the injury during the team training on Monday at the Dodger stadium. Mansi, who missed the last four games of the regular season, fighting with bruises of the legs and what Roberts called the other “common body” is expected to be in the composition. The same thing is Tommy Edman, who did not play in the field from the previous environment from a protracted ankle injury.
The big question remains the catcher Will Smith, who was absent since September 9 with a fracture of his right hand.
On Monday, Roberts said that the team was “inspired” with the recent progress of Smith. Slavger was even able to go live on Monday evening.
“If he can pass today and feel good,” said Roberts, “then it’s a viable thought” that he can be in the last list of 26 people, that the Dorings will have to present on the eve of the game on Tuesday for a series of wild cards.
In any case, the greatest concern of the dodge remains in maintaining their recent level of the game. Erasing in October failures can no longer be motivation. But, like Mansi, Roberts said that the urgency of winning the other world series remains the same.
“I don’t know, it’s easier or harder that we won last year,” Roberts said. “But, frankly, all that excites us is a win this year.”
