NEW YORK — The Los Angeles Dodgers’ roster hasn’t been void of immense talent since they last won the World Series in 2020. In fact, they continued to add in recent years, spending in the billion-dollar stratosphere this past offseason. But while L.A. has been one of, if not the most talented MLB team on paper for a while, something was missing. Through their 12 straight trips to the postseason, the Dodgers often lacked a certain kind of grit or toughness to push them over the top.
Time and time again this season and postseason, however, the 2024 Dodgers showed that they are not that same team. They are stronger, tougher, better, and that’s why they are now World Series champions.
“It’s just a special group of guys,” Dodgers first baseman and World Series MVP Freddie Freeman said after the team clinched the title with a 7-6 victory on Wednesday in Game 5.
New York had momentum coming out of their blowout victory in Game 4. And after the Bronx Bombers built a 5-0 lead by the third inning Wednesday, it appeared that the Dodgers would be heading back to L.A. for Game 6. No team has ever gone up 3-0 in a World Series and then been pushed to a Game 6, so the Dodgers were on the verge of some inauspicious history and a whole lot of pressure. With L.A.’s offense sputtering against Yankees ace Gerrit Cole and the bullpen needing to get 23 outs after starter Jack Flaherty lasted just 1⅓ innings the night after a designated bullpen game, the uphill battle was steep.
This was hardly the first time this October that the Dodgers have had their backs against the wall, with momentum not on their side. They were battle-tested and ready for this moment.
When facing elimination in the NLDS against the Padres in a hostile environment at Petco Park, the Dodgers needed a similar resolve. When few thought they had enough to fight back, they did — not only forcing a win-or-go-home Game 5 but also winning it to advance to the NLCS.
And when the Dodgers needed to be resilient in World Series Game 5, they were able to tap into their toughness once again. L.A.’s offense woke up in the fifth inning, thanks in large part to some horrendous defense by the Yankees to load the bases. With back-to-back two-out RBI singles by Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers cut the deficit to 5-3. Then Teoscar Hernández delivered the big blow, crushing a two-run double into the left-field gap to score Betts and Freeman and tie the game at 5.
“Gerrit was throwing the ball great,” Freeman said. “He still threw the ball great the whole time. When Mookie came up and hit the squibber and was able to beat it out, you could just feel the excitement. … I got one right there, and I was able to foul it off and see another next pitch and, thankfully, hit the ball up the middle. And then credit to Teo. Right-on-right against Gerrit Cole is a very tough at-bat to put into the gap like he did.
“When you’re given extra outs and you capitalize in that kind of game, that’s huge. For us to get it back to even, you could just feel the momentum just coming along.”
In a matter of minutes, the momentum that seemed to have abandoned the Dodgers was back on their side. They carried that into the eighth, when they scored twice to take their first lead of the game against Yankees closer Luke Weaver, who owned the Dodgers in Game 4 and had been virtually unhittable all postseason.
What made the Dodgers the best team in baseball this year, en route to their second World Series title in five years, was not just that they had more talent than other teams (though they did). Most years, the team with the best record in baseball does not win the World Series; that happened only twice in the 10 seasons before this one.
No, these Dodgers were simply tougher than the 29 other teams. And it seemed like from the beginning of the season, nothing would deter them from their ultimate goal. Every roadblock, distraction, inconvenience and injury, they faced it head-on. At many points, L.A. could have unraveled, but this team would not be denied on the quest for greatness.
When the team began the season in South Korea against the Padres, it was hit with a bombshell. Prized free-agent acquisition Shohei Ohtani was caught up in a federal gambling investigation at the hands of his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara. Yet through the increased media attention, speculation and FBI investigation, Ohtani and the Dodgers never missed a beat. The Dodgers’ $700 million man went on to have one of the best seasons in baseball history and will win the NL MVP in a few weeks.
“We were able to get through the regular season, I think, because of the strength of this team, this organization,” Ohtani said following the Dodgers’ Game 5 victory. “And the success of the postseason is very similar to how we were able to pull it off during the regular season.”
“When you start supporting a teammate in his first year, like we did, for him to go out there and have the greatest season, I think, of all time — pretty special,” Freeman said.
“[Winning the World Series] took a little bit longer than I expected and I hope to be able to do this every year.”
Shohei Ohtani shares his emotions after winning his first World Series championship. pic.twitter.com/3HKQpGLjYj
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) October 31, 2024
Then there were the injuries, which plagued the Dodgers from the start of the season through the end of the World Series, most notably to Ohtani who remained in the lineup despite a shoulder injury. Losing a player the caliber of Mookie Betts for two months would be enough to knock the best of teams off their game. Now try adding an entire rotation — including Clayton Kershaw, Gavin Stone, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, Tyler Glasnow and River Ryan — on the injured list. No matter, the Dodgers finished the regular season with 98 wins.
“We did go through a lot, but I’ll say we still had the best record in all of baseball this year,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It wasn’t easy, but our guys fought and played every day the right way, played to win.”
“We have had a number of things go on this year, and it’s something that certainly made it more challenging,” Dodgers president Andrew Friedman said. “But it’s also been really rewarding, I think, to our scouts, our player development staff, our major-league coaching staff for the number of guys who have come up and contributed and played a big part in where we are right now.
“It’s hard. It’s hard to get to this point. It’s hard to withstand things that can go on during the course of a season.”
Cut to October, and Freeman’s sprained right ankle limited him in the first two rounds of the playoffs, a short-handed rotation was doing its best to keep things rolling, and the bullpen was running on fumes. Yet when the Dodgers needed their best, it was there. The team even got surprise contributions from the likes of Walker Buehler, who, after a rocky return from injury this season, pitched 5 shutout innings in Game 3 and closed the clinching Game 5, recording his first career save in what might’ve been his final appearance as a Dodger, leaving an impression in L.A. that will last a lifetime.
That 2020 championship wasn’t far from Buehler’s mind in the Dodgers’ postgame celebration. He clearly had gotten tired of hearing some delegitimize that pandemic-shortened season.
“Everyone talks s*** about 2020. But there’s not much they can say about it now,” he said.
Now, the Dodgers are back on top of the baseball world. It’s a stark contrast from where they were just a year ago, when they got embarrassed by the Arizona Diamondbacks in a sweep in the NLDS. Unlike that team, this group of Dodgers believed that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts — even with so many expensive parts. All 26 players, the coaches, the manager and the front office believed they couldn’t be beaten.
“One thing is that we just kept going,” Roberts said. “Even in the postseason, I don’t think anyone had us picked. I don’t think they had us picked to get out of the first series. For us to go out there and fight and scratch and claw and win 11 games in October, that’s a credit to our guys.”
