With confetti at his toes, a drink in his hand and a smile of equal components aid and elation planted on his face, Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy gave the query of the evening solely a cursory thought.
Had the Dodgers cemented a dynasty?
“I assume so,” he mentioned.
Over the past six seasons, Muncy had been one in all six Dodgers gamers to have a hand in all three of their current World Collection championships. He had turn into one of many faces of a crew that elevated itself to historic all-time heights.
However when the subject of the membership’s legacy got here up, as he stood on the sphere within the wake of the Dodgers’ Recreation 7 thrill journey in Toronto on Saturday evening, the 35-year-old veteran’s thoughts was occupied by one other thought. The pleasure he felt emanated from a special supply.
“The factor that I’m most pleased with is the tradition that now we have created,” he mentioned. “I hope that’s what’s talked about essentially the most.”
Within the public discourse, after all, it received’t be.
These Dodgers, with their star-studded roster and record-setting $415 million payroll and long-established status as big-spending villains who may be ruining baseball, have solely additional fueled debates concerning the monetary inequities of the game.
With a labor battle looming subsequent yr, they are going to be was a proxy — the prime instance, critics will argue, of what’s flawed with the one main skilled sports activities league in North America and not using a laborious wage cap.
A few of these issues shall be justified (the Dodgers are spending at ranges MLB has by no means earlier than seen, and nicely past most of their competitors). Others shall be exaggerated (they’re additionally spending inside the league’s guidelines, and re-investing revenues again into their roster at a better share than virtually all different franchises).
The gamers themselves, nonetheless, actually couldn’t care much less.
Cash, in any case, might need given them the expertise to win back-to-back World Collection. However it took one thing else to assist them get to, and particularly conquer, the psychological and bodily check they confronted in Saturday’s Recreation 7.
“Once you come to the Dodgers, and also you placed on that Dodgers uniform, it’s all about, ‘How do you do what you’ll want to do to win the sport? How do you assist the crew win the sport?’” Muncy mentioned, his hoarse voice starting to crack. “I severely can’t put into phrases how a lot it means to me that we’ve created one thing that’s that particular. that everybody is aware of about now.”
Dodgers second baseman Miguel Rojas, proper, celebrates with Max Muncy after the crew received Recreation 7 of the World Collection.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Occasions)
Tradition and camaraderie may be clichéd traits simple to level to within the wake of any World Collection championship, however they had been nonetheless current within the Dodgers’ quest to repeat this yr.
Take the primary massive turning level of this postseason: The long-lasting “wheel play” the Dodgers ran to defend a bunt within the ninth inning of Recreation 2 of the Nationwide League Division Collection.
That maneuver was advised and executed by Mookie Betts — a participant the Dodgers signed for $365 million 5 years in the past to be a Gold Glove proper fielder, however who moved to shortstop out of roster necessity on a full-time foundation this season and reworked right into a Gold Glove finalist.
{Dollars} may be the explanation Betts now performs in Los Angeles. However it was his tireless every day routine of taking infield grounders, and his capacity to study from and overcome early-season rising pains, that made that second potential.
“For him to play that caliber of shortstop, I feel, is underappreciated,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman mentioned. “I don’t suppose individuals are paying sufficient consideration to how troublesome that was.”
Clinching the NLDS required contributions from one other star expertise serving in an sudden new function.
When rookie Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki signed with the Dodgers this offseason, it enflamed the exterior worries about their hoarding of expertise. Sasaki, nonetheless, struggled as a starter, missed many of the yr with a shoulder harm, then confronted a call forward of the playoffs about whether or not or to not transfer to the bullpen.
He accepted, regardless of having by no means been a reliever in his skilled profession earlier than. And within the playoffs, he fulfilled the crew’s gaping gap at nearer, highlighted by the three excellent innings he pitched of their NLDS-clinching Recreation 4 win.
From left, Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki rejoice after profitable the World Collection.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Occasions)
“For Roki to come back by in that spot after the yr he’s had,” Muncy mentioned on the time, “that was simply so large for us.”
The NL Championship Collection was the one time the Dodgers clearly outclassed a playoff opponent, rolling previous the overmatched Milwaukee Brewers behind historic beginning pitching performances from Blake Snell (a $182 million signing final offseason), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (a $365 million signing the winter earlier than) and Tyler Glasnow (a $136.5 million acquisition), then an all-time two-way exhibiting in Recreation 4 from Shohei Ohtani (the $700 million man who has been on the heart of the consternation over the Dodgers’ spending).
The World Collection, nonetheless, introduced an unexpectedly stiff problem from the Toronto Blue Jays — who had been heavy underdogs to the Dodgers regardless of their very own top-five payroll of $278 million.
Within the Fall Traditional, the Dodgers’ sheen of invincibility was shattered. Their lineup struggled. Solely Yamamoto maintained his earlier stage of dominance within the rotation. An extended-suspect bullpen lastly faltered. And in lots of aspects of the collection (through which the Blue Jays outscored the Dodgers 34-26 and hit .269 to the Dodgers’ .203 crew common), the Dodgers seemed second-best.
“I imply, massive picture-wise, we didn’t play very nicely,” Friedman mentioned. “However these massive pivotal moments is the place our guys actually confirmed up … Which I feel will get at who they’re, the compete, how a lot they care about one another, how a lot they care about bringing a championship again to LA in back-to-back years.”
There was Recreation 3, when the Dodgers prevailed in an 18-inning marathon by getting an unexpected increase from little-known reliever Will Klein, who was prepared to sacrifice his arm in a grueling four-inning outing regardless of spending most of this yr caught within the minors.
There was Recreation 6, when the crew survived a possible season-ending, ninth-inning jam due to the veteran defensive intuition Kiké Hernández (the high-energy October stalwart who began each sport of the playoffs after restricted taking part in time within the common season) and Miguel Rojas (who has turn into one of many emotional leaders of the crew since being acquired in a 2023 commerce for a minor-league prospect, regardless of additionally serving in a depth function for many of the summer time) flashed on a victory-sealing double play.
“That’s what makes us actually robust,” Rojas mentioned. “[We’re] competing each single day, and no matter what the scenario is, I feel everyone [is able to] simply sort of neglect concerning the previous and concentrate on the second proper now.”
Recreation 7 offered the final word check.
The Dodgers trailed early, with Rogers Centre shaking after Bo Bichette’s third-inning three-run homer. They couldn’t lean on Ohtani, who seemed gassed whereas beginning the sport as a pitcher on brief relaxation. They needed to claw their approach again as a substitute, taking part in from behind all the way in which into the ninth inning — when their season was two outs away from ending in failure.
“We simply stored going and going and going,” Muncy mentioned. “I’m simply actually pleased with all the fellows for not giving up hope.”
It might’ve been simple to take action. After two exhausting years — stuffed with deep postseason runs and season-opening worldwide journeys and the every day strain that got here with their heavy offseason expenditures — the membership’s tank seemed to be teetering on empty. Sheer expertise, in any case, can solely maintain for thus lengthy.
“It’s been a protracted journey for the crew, for the group, for each participant out right here,” Rojas mentioned earlier than Recreation 6. “It’s been actually hectic and everyone’s mentally drained.”
However this, Muncy declared, is the place the Dodgers’ tradition kicked in.
“It’s all concerning the crew. It doesn’t matter about your self,” he mentioned. “Once you’re coming in off the sphere and you’ve got a complete group of fellows in [the dugout] saying, ‘Hey, nice inning. Let’s scrap one thing collectively. Let’s get a man on base. Let’s get a run in,’ that sort of means the whole lot.”
In the long run, the Dodgers conjured their most heroic moments for after they wanted them most.
With one out within the ninth, it was none aside from Rojas — who was unsure to even play in Recreation 7 after aggravating an intercostal harm the evening earlier than — who tied the rating with a miraculous house run swing.
“Once you play the sport proper, deal with individuals proper, are the teammate like Miguel is, I feel we mentioned it in there, the sport honors you,” first baseman Freddie Freeman mentioned. “Simply doing no matter he might to assist this crew win.”
From there, the Dodgers (turning to their fourth conventional starter out of the bullpen on the evening) summoned Yamamoto, who did one thing no record-breaking contract might have ever predicted by throwing 2 ⅔ scoreless innings on zero days’ relaxation after his 96-pitch begin in Recreation 6.
“Can’t consider that,” Friedman mentioned.
“That’s going to go down in historical past as top-of-the-line championship performances in any sport,” pitching coach Mark Prior added.
Will Smith, one of many few homegrown abilities on a crew of employed weapons, delivered the profitable swing along with his house run within the eleventh.
“To me, he sort of epitomizes lots of the success that we’ve had wanting again,” Friedman mentioned. “When it comes to our scouting course of, our participant growth course of, how nicely they work collectively, after which him coming by and having the impression he’s had on the Main League stage.”
And fittingly, it was Betts who recorded the championship-clinching outs on a double-play chopper hit to him at brief.
“An ideal bow on what was an unbelievable season for what he did at shortstop this yr,” Friedman mentioned.
All of it, Muncy proudly famous, exemplified what the Dodgers preserve was the ethos of their crew; the sort of intangibles that received’t present up on a steadiness sheet or payroll checklist, even with all the cash they’ve spent.
“That’s what we’ve created right here,” Muncy mentioned. “And that’s what I’m most pleased with.”
“We stored going, and we persevered,” supervisor Dave Roberts echoed. “And we’re the final crew standing.”
