In the two seasons before the Dodgers began this streak (six straight playoff berths and now two pennants), they were a galling example of stars-and-scrubs roster construction. During the divorce of Frank and Jamie McCourt, the team had become a hollow shell of its former self. They had two superstar players—generational talents, really—and nothing else of much value. Clayton Kershaw and Matt Kemp combined for 17.1 WARP in 2011, but the team won 82 games. Kershaw and Kemp combined for 11.1 WARP in 2012, as the 86-win team got out from under the McCourts but continued to wrestle with the ramifications of being so poorly and penuriously run for the previous few years.
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Walker Buehler overthrew occasionally in Game 7, but on the whole his command was good. He sat 98 mph and flirted with 100 mph with his fastball, and had great rise on it. He got just 14 outs, but seven of them came via strikeout, and he didn’t walk a batter. He worked around some hard contact, including three extra-base hits, but the dominance that defined his rookie season was there when the team needed it most. Buehler went 24th overall in the 2015 draft, but he has more WARP than every other pitcher drafted that June, combined.
As he has all season, Dave Roberts facilitated Buehler’s success by handling him proactively. He didn’t let Buehler face Christian Yelich for a third time. The Dodgers have been at the cutting edge of the large-scale changes in baseball over the last half-decade, which have eroded old norms like letting a pitcher battle their way through the fifth inning with a narrow lead in order to qualify for a win. Lifting Buehler after Lorenzo Cain doubled with two outs in the fifth inning was precisely the right move, even if it did mean bringing in an even younger, less experienced hurler to face the likely NL MVP with the tying run in scoring position.
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One of the most surprising moments of the McCourt Era came at the signing deadline after the 2010 draft, when the team lured would-be college quarterback Zach Lee away from LSU with a signing bonus of $5.25 million. Lee was an exceptionally athletic pitcher, but the closer he got to the majors the further he got from the top of prospect lists. He fell off them for good in 2015, and a year later the Dodgers dealt him to Seattle in exchange for Chris Taylor. Lee became a symbol of how far off track the baseball operations staff had gotten. Even when ownership got out of their way, they couldn’t capitalize. Taylor, of course, had a breakout 2017, and has become a symbol of everything the Andrew Friedman-led front office can do that the old guard could not.
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Julio Urias signed in August 2012, just a week before the Adrian Gonzalez trade that began to transform the Dodgers, and less than a week after he turned 16 years old. His road since then has been winding, and there’s no doubt the severe shoulder injury that shelved him for over a year has dimmed his future somewhat. Having worked his way back, though, he showed the team enough to earn a roster spot for this series, and that put him in position to be called upon when the Dodgers needed a huge out against a lethal left-handed hitter.
Truth be told, Yelich won the battle, though it was a good one. Urias threw three good fastballs: two on the inner third, challenging Yelich and getting ahead 0-2, and one up and over the outer portion. It wasn’t quite where Urias would’ve wanted it, but it was far from a cookie. Yelich was ready for it, and he went with it, slicing a drive to the gap in left-center. It could easily have been a double; it was probably hit as well as that pitch can be hit in that count.
The catch Taylor made will go down in postseason history. He had been playing Yelich fairly shallow, and a bit toward the left-field line. Despite the ball being hit only moderately hard, and with some hangtime, Taylor had a long way to go. He broke perfectly on it, tracked it like a more seasoned outfielder than he is, and slid gracefully on the warning track to complete the play. There are dozens of famous playoff homers, but the great playoff catches form a smaller, more compelling class. Dwight Evans’ catch in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, Joe Rudi’s wall-slamming grab in Game 3 in 1972, Al Gionfriddo’s Game 6 robbery of Joe DiMaggio in 1947, and Jim Edmonds’ diving catch in the gap in Game 7 of the 2004 NLCS all have that cache, and Taylor’s should have it, too.
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No right-handed batter (and only two left-handed ones, which certainly makes it more impressive) slugged better than Yasiel Puig on sliders from right-handed pitchers in 2018. Puig slugged .652 against sliders from fellow righties, and .539 on curveballs from them. The puzzle of his reverse platoon splits has vexed onlookers all season, but the only really important thing to know about it is that the quirk doesn’t stem from any weakness against lefties. Puig is just great at crushing breaking stuff from righties, which (in this day and age) is an incredibly valuable skill.
Jeremy Jeffress just isn’t the same right now. He’s not the guy who posted a 59 DRA- and 74c FIP this season, making him one of the half-dozen most valuable relief pitchers in the game. Sometime near the end of September, his splitter started to get away from him, and he’s not as effective when he can rely only on his fastball and knuckle-curve. Jeffress found himself on the mound, his team already down one run, with Puig standing between him and escaping the inning, and what he needed was either the ability to rely on the splitter or command of his fastball. He found neither, getting a whiff on the first pitch but missing low and badly with the 0-1 pitch, setting up the curve that Puig swatted over the center-field fence.
Puig’s homer put the game on ice. His jubilation and exuberance showed what that meant to the Dodgers. They still don’t have a World Series title to show for their six-year run of success, but they now have back-to-back pennants, and they’ve legitimized their dynasty by throwing off their previous track record of collapsing early in the playoffs.
This team doesn’t lean on its stars. It has more of them than the pre-Friedman versions did, but it also has really impressive depth, and many of the players at the center of this team have a swagger and a pride in their achievements that defies the narratives about their previous October showings.
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Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen finishing off the game was predictable. Jansen setting up Kershaw, for the second time in three years in a winner-take-all October game, was a poignant twist. Jansen’s heart problems and inconsistency this season have been a source of constant anxiety for Dodgers fans. Kershaw’s injury issues and the uncertainty around his potential contract opt-out have caused even more agita. Yet, they carved cleanly through the Brewers, finishing off the first Game 7 team pitching performance ever to feature more than 12 strikeouts and no walks.
At the end of it, Kershaw was on the mound—the face of the franchise and its longest-tenured star at the center of the celebration. As far as they’ve come and as much as they’ve changed, Kershaw is still vital to them, and his ability to close out a Championship Series is a meaningful, valuable moment, whether the team completes the dream and beats the Red Sox in the World Series or not.
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