The 4-games-to-1 victory in the best-of-seven series is the Dodgers franchise’s eighth World Series title, the second in five years and the first since the pandemic-impacted 2020 season. The Dodgers before that hadn’t won Major League Baseball’s Fall Classic since 1988 and before that 1981, when they beat the Yankees.
By Lucas Camacho
Thirty-six years ago, legendary announcer Vin Scully said it best during Kirk Gibson’s legendary home run: “In a year that had been so improbable, the impossible has happened.” Flash forward to 2024, despite all the injuries and all the “experts” that said it couldn’t be done, the Los Angeles Dodgers are the 2024 World Series Champions. Four years after winning during the COVID-shortened season where people said that the Dodgers’ championship came with an asterisk. Not this time.
Everyone thought there was no chance as the Dodgers had no pitching help. The Dodgers had three healthy starting pitchers: Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Walker Buehler. The list of injured Dodgers pitchers included Tyler Glasnow, Gavin Stone, Tony Gonsolin, Evan Phillips, Joe Kelly, Michael Grove, and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw. Not only that, but Freddie Freeman was also nursing an injured ankle during the post season, and even Shohei Ohtani got hurt during Game 2 of the World Series. Nevertheless, despite all the injuries, the Dodgers overcame it all to beat their hated World Series rival, the New York Yankees.
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It was a wild clinching game in New York. The Dodgers were down 5-0 in the fifth inning when the unthinkable occurred: presumptive AL MVP Aaron Judge had a flare hit directly toward him…only for him to drop it. After that…the wheels completely fell off. Anthony Volpe then threw it wide of third base, and Anthony Rizzo fielded a slow roller but had nobody to throw it to at first base. Three errors in total, after the Judge dropped ball, it took three errors…to send the mighty Yankees crashing down.
Maybe Freddie Freeman’s walk-off Grand Slam in Game 1 didn’t win the series for the Dodgers…but Judge’s unforced error did. Three errors in one inning were all it took for things to change: from the possibility of returning to LA for a Game 6 to the Dodgers winning it all before the Yankees’ fans.
But all credit where credit is due. The Dodgers’ remaining pitchers stepped up big time to win it for LA. Many teams throughout all of sports, not just in Major League Baseball, try to preach the “next man up” mentality. The Dodgers didn’t just fulfill that mentality…they exceeded it. Dave Roberts managed his bullpen like a chess master. Add to the amount of team chemistry this team built…and the Dodgers finally hit upon that winning formula that they were missing the last few years when they got early exits at the hands of the Padres and the Diamondbacks.
The city of Los Angeles is more than just Hollywood: it’s made of different neighborhoods and suburbs full of hard-working people that manage to persevere day after day. That’s why this Dodgers team managed to win the hearts and minds of many LA natives. The team kept coming despite every obstacle and all the injuries that came their way. They even faced hardships (from the sudden health scare of Freddie’s son to the shocking recent death of Dodgers legend Fernando Valenzuela). After a long time, the city of Los Angeles will have their parade…
