THOUGHTS | THE LOS ANGELES DODGERS GO BACK-TO-BACK!

The thing about me is that I’m both a sports blogger and a diehard fan. If I don’t write about the Boston Celtics, the UST Growling Tigers, Gilas Pilipinas, or a random PBA team I’ve chosen as “my team” for the conference, it’s because I’m scared I’ll jinx them. I am ridiculously superstitious.

Another quirk: if I watch a game live, the team I support usually loses.

Yup.

With that in mind, you can understand why I waited for the World Series to finish before writing anything about the Los Angeles Dodgers. It’s also why I stopped watching Game 7 before the bottom of the ninth. Between innings six to eight, I was literally taking a bath, checking the TV only for updates. I never saw Miguel Rojas’ home run or Will Smith’s clutch shot in the 11th. I also missed Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Andy Pages, Kiké Hernandez, Max Muncy, Mookie Betts, and Rojas doing their thing, as well as the attempts of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Alejandro Kirk, Daulton Varsho, and Addison Barger.

I have a Dodgers shrine in front of my study table, and I realize I need to expand it now. I already have three Funko Pops of the MVP trio, but I now feel like I should start collecting cards of the other Dodgers stars as well.

Shohei Ohtani may be the biggest thing in baseball right now, but my sports heart belongs to Freddie Freeman. Game 3 to Game 7 was the wildest emotional ride of my short baseball-fandom life. What I loved most about Game 7 is that it didn’t drag on for six hours like Game 3.

The only downside is that the clincher happened in Toronto. Sure, there were Dodgers fans in the stadium, but championships always feel more special in front of the home crowd.

I had doubts about Yamamoto because of his rookie season, but he was incredible in this series. He even exposed Toronto’s managerial approach. The Blue Jays spammed their pitchers early to throw off the Dodgers’ batting rhythm, and while it worked at times, they needed their offense to keep scoring to support it. They did take leads, and it even gave them three wins, but once the games stretched beyond nine innings, the plan collapsed. Two Dodgers victories happened in extras, when Toronto had already burned through its top arms. Their defense was not built like Guerrero Jr., and the Dodgers are a super team with the luxury of having either Blake Snell or Yamamoto closing.

This wasn’t like the 2024 Yankees meltdown. Toronto had a real plan to beat the Dodgers. It just came down to a mix of luck and resources. They committed to their pitching rotation strategy, and it worked for three games, including one where they stunned the Dodgers at home. Even Game 3, which L.A. won, drained them enough to fall behind 2-3.

I hope Mookie Betts regains the muscle mass he lost because he didn’t look like his old self. And honestly, luck still played a role. Without unexpected heroes like Rojas, Will Klein, and even Clayton Kershaw, Toronto could have ended this in five. The Dodgers literally had guys sacrificing their bodies for bases.

Again, Toronto’s pitcher-spam strategy backfired at the wrong time. In Game 3, Eric Lauer had to push almost a full inning. In Game 7, Trey Yesavage basically grew up under a microscope. He’s talented, but he was a kid fighting giants on the biggest stage. He reminded me of Roki Sasaki: composed most of the time but still human enough to look rattled in moments.

Ohtani deserves his hype...

... but Yamamoto is the consensus MVP. He went deep in Game 2, dominated in Game 6, and delivered the knockout in Game 7. What a turnaround from his previous World Series outing.

I’ll keep following the Dodgers in 2026. Hopefully, we get the same ending.