Dodgers back in the World Series for 3rd time in 4 years

Cody Bellinger

The Los Angeles Dodgers lost the 2017 World Series to the Houston Astros, and they lost the 2018 World Series to the Boston Red Sox. 

Will the third time be the charm?

The Dodgers are National League pennant winners for the third time in four years, after they beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-3, on Sunday in Game 7 of the NL Championship Series.

Los Angeles was down 3-2 after five innings, but it tied the game in the sixth on Enrique Hernandez's pinch-hit solo home run off A.J. Minter. The Dodgers went ahead to stay in the bottom of the seventh, when center fielder Cody Bellinger homered off Chris Martin.

Both Hernandez and Bellinger homered on 2-2 pitches to cap off eight-pitch battles.

The big defensive play, not surprisingly, came from right fielder Mookie Betts, who robbed Atlanta's Freddie Freeman of a solo home run in the top of the fifth inning. If that ball gets out, the Braves go ahead 4-2, and who knows how that changes the game and the strategy moving forward?

Interestingly, the Dodgers won this game without using longtime ace Clayton Kershaw, or longtime closer Kenley Jansen. Los Angeles used five pitchers, none of whom worked more than three innings: Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Blake Treinen, Brusdar Graterol and Julio Urias.

There aren't any household names among those five pitchers, but that list shows the depth of the Dodgers, and it's shows the diverse way in which Los Angeles built its team.

May and Gonsolin were drafted and developed by the Dodgers; both are products of the 2016 draft class. Treinen was a free-agent acquisition. He was coming off a down year with Oakland in 2019, but he found new life with the Dodgers. Graterol was acquired from the Minnesota Twins in a three-team blockbuster last offseason -- the same deal that brought Betts to Los Angeles and had the Dodgers sending pitcher Kenta Maeda to Minnesota.

And Urias was signed as an international free agent out of Mexico at age 16. Now 24 years old, the left-hander finished the game Sunday with three perfect innings. Frankly, it would have been foolish for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to go to Jansen, although the veteran right-hander was warming up in the bullpen when the game ended.

Urias was cruising, and there was absolutely no reason to believe he couldn't protect that one-run lead. Protect it he did, and now we'll see how the Dodgers fare against the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series.

The Rays are making their first World Series appearance since 2008, when they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies. The Dodgers are attempting to win the World Series for the first time since 1988, a remarkable drought when you consider the overall success of the organization.

Los Angeles will turn to Kershaw in Game 1 on Tuesday night. Tampa Bay will counter with right-hander Tyler Glasnow.

Rocco Baldelli, Mike Shildt win Manager of the Year awards

Mike Shildt

Some things never change: The Manager of the Year awards always go to guys who made the playoffs with a team the media didn't expect to be in the postseason.

Here in 2019, Rocco Baldelli of the Minnesota Twins and Mike Shildt of the St. Louis Cardinals won the awards in their respective leagues.

Everyone, including me, thought the Cleveland Indians would win the AL Central this season. They did not. Baldelli, who was in his first year with the Twins, led the team to 101 wins and a 23-game improvement. When the playoffs rolled around, it was the same old Minnesota -- the Twins got swept in the first round by the New York Yankees.

But that regular-season performance was enough for Baldelli to edge New York's Aaron Boone in the AL Manager of the Year balloting. Both men received 13 first-place votes, but Baldelli was second on 13 ballots, while Boone was second on only nine.

Tampa Bay's Kevin Cash got three first-place votes and finish third. Oakland's Bob Melvin finished fourth, and Houston's A.J. Hinch got one first-place vote and finished fifth.

In the National League, Shildt got the nod for leading the Cardinals to 91 wins and an NL Central title. I actually was not surprised by St. Louis' success -- I picked them to win that division.

I just kept that opinion mostly quiet, because I live in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, and any White Sox fan who dares to question the greatness of the Cubs is subject to tar and feathering around here.

Most of the media had the Cubs winning the NL Central, too, even though the Brewers were the defending champions.

The Cubs, of course, were the mid-80s-win-total team I expected them to be. They finished third behind the Cardinals and Brewers, who won a wild card spot in the NL.

The respective managers of those two teams, Shildt and Milwaukee's Craig Counsell, finished 1-2 in the Manager of the Year balloting for "surprisingly" doing better than the Cubs.

Shildt got 10 first-place votes and 14 second-place votes to win the honor, while Counsell got 13 first-place votes, but only six second-place votes. Brian Snitker of the Atlanta Braves earned three first-place votes and finished third. Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers got four first-place votes and finished fourth.

Dodgers stick with their plan, force Game 7

Rich Hill

For the second year in a row and third time in four years, the World Series is going seven games.

The Los Angeles Dodgers forced a decisive game Tuesday with a 3-1 victory over the Houston Astros in Game 6.

Game 7 is Wednesday night. Yu Darvish gets the start for Los Angeles. Lance McCullers will be on the mound for Houston.

Give the Dodgers credit: They are smarter than me, and they stuck with the plan that has made them successful throughout the season and playoffs. They don't like to allow their starters to go through a lineup more than two times, and they are standing by that belief. I thought they needed six innings from starter Rich Hill to win Game 6. They didn't. I was wrong.

Hill was effective, giving them 4.2 innings of one-run ball, but when he got in trouble in the fifth, manager Dave Roberts quickly went to the bullpen.

I didn't think Brandon Morrow had anything left in the tank after his poor performance in Game 5, but he got the biggest out of the game in the top of the fifth inning. He entered with the Dodgers trailing, 1-0. The Astros had the bases loaded with two outs, and Game 5 hero Alex Bregman was at the plate.

Morrow retired Bregman on a routine grounder to shortstop to keep it a one-run game, and the right-hander went on to record the first two outs of the sixth inning, as well.

The Dodgers broke through with two runs in the bottom of the sixth off Justin Verlander, highlighted by an RBI double by Chris Taylor and a sacrifice fly by Corey Seager. They added a third run in the seventh when Joc Pederson homered off Joe Musgrove.

This time, the Los Angeles bullpen was up to the task of protecting a lead, and much to my surprise, the Dodgers used Kenley Jansen for a six-out save. Jansen retired every batter he faced the final two innings, with three strikeouts, and he needed only 19 pitches to get the job done.

I figured Jansen would be good for only three outs in Game 6, but with that efficiency, he worked two innings with ease. It could be key that he kept his pitch count low in closing out Tuesday's game, in the likely event he'll be needed in the late innings of Game 7.

We'll see what Darvish can provide for the Dodgers. He was terrible in Game 3, getting knocked out in the second inning. The leash will be short in Game 7, of course, but that's especially true knowing Clayton Kershaw should be available to relieve at some point.

As for the Astros, they missed a big chance to close it out with their best guy on the mound in Game 6. Now, they'll have to piece the pitching together in Game 7, starting with McCullers. Will we see Dallas Keuchel in relief in Game 7? Probably.

Would Verlander come back for an inning after throwing 93 pitches Tuesday? Doubt it, but you never know. Charlie Morton, Houston's Game 4 starter, might be called upon to work in relief as well.

I'm guessing the Astros are going to need a big offensive night in order to win. In Houston's three victories in this series, it has scored 25 runs. In its three losses, it has scored four runs.

The Dodgers have won two 3-1 games in this series. They have had the advantage in the pitchers' duels. The Astros are at an advantage when the game becomes a slugfest.