BOSTON — The important thing isn’t what the Dodgers are right now.
The important thing is what they can be and that’s what the players — and their fans — have to hold onto at the moment. Because their current reality — they’re back in Los Angeles down 2-0 in the World Series after dropping Games 1 and 2 at Fenway Park, and looking a bit overmatched in the process — isn’t pretty.
Trailing 2-0 on baseball’s biggest stage is a daunting task. Only 11 teams in baseball history have come back from a similar deficit to win the best-of-seven World Series.
Also, this not-so-fun fact.
World Series history: the last 10 teams to take a 2-0 lead have won the series, and 16 of the past 17. (The exception: the 1996 Braves.)
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) October 25, 2018
But here’s the thing: The next challenge is to win Game 3. That’s it. They’re only allowed to play one game on Friday. Earl Weaver’s favorite play was the three-run homer, and it was very effective for his Orioles, but there are no games that count for three wins.
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So let’s say the Dodgers win Game 3. That cuts Boston’s series lead in half, and suddenly things look different.
“There we go,” David Freese said with a big grin, on the field after Boston’s 4-2 win in Game 2. “Now we’re talking.”
Coming back from down 2-1 is doable. Very doable, actually.
Hell, teams come back from down 2-1 in the World Series all the time. It’s practically the new Moneyball market inefficiency smart teams are exploiting in October. Think about this: In the past five years, three teams — the Red Sox in 2013, the Giants in 2014 and the Cubs in 2016 — have come back from 2-1 deficits to win a championship.
The Dodgers were down 2-1 in last year’s World Series and managed to force the Fall Classic to the maximum seven games.
If the Dodgers can get the series to 2-1, it immediately ceases to matter HOW the series got there. No different than if they’d won the opener and lost the next two, or split in Boston and lost Game 3. All that matters is the right now, and the Dodgers have an opportunity to change their right now on Friday evening in their home ballpark.
Look at the 2016 World Series. Cleveland owned a 3-1 lead in the series at one point, and parade routes were being finalized. Demons were almost fully exorcized. But by the time Game 7 rolled around and the series was tied, 3-3? You think it mattered at all?
Nah. The path that unforgettable series took to get to Game 7 didn’t play any factor in the Cubs winning in extra innings.
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A 2-1 deficit isn’t ideal, but it’s manageable and to get to a 2-1 deficit, the Dodgers have to win Game 3 in Los Angeles. If they lose? Well, they don’t want to see the numbers for teams that are down 3-0 in the World Series (between you and me, those teams are 0-for-Everything).
And Freese is excited about his team’s chances of winning Game 3.
“We get Walk on that bump,” the veteran hitter told Sporting News. “His confidence will pour out and hopefully fills us up, and we get after it.”
“Walk” is rookie Walker Buehler, of course. The 24-year-old right-hander was brilliant in his first taste of MLB action this year, rolling up a 2.62 ERA in 137 1/3 innings, with 151 strikeouts and a stingy 0.961 WHIP. He has the stuff — and the mentality — to be a star on the October stage.
“He’s a stud. Just wait. I mean, obviously you guys see it, but just wait,” Freese said. “I’ll be long gone, but I’ll be watching him on TV. He’s going to get some Cy Youngs, for sure. I can tell you that. He knows what he’s doing with the ball. The 98 on the black, the 94 with a little cut, all that’s on purpose. He knows what he’s doing. It’s cool to play behind. It’s cool to watch.”
And Dodgers fans hope it’s cool to watch Buehler help his team get back to 2-1.
