The New York Yankees had to win the AL East and then eliminate the Kansas City Royals and the Cleveland Guardians to get to the World Series. Now, they will have their biggest challenge yet: taking down the Los Angeles Dodgers to win their first title since 2009.
The Dodgers have an incredible top-three batters
Los Angeles was the team with the most wins in the regular season and has a legendary “Big 3” in their batting order, with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman, plus some really talented hitters like Teoscar Hernandez, Will Smith, Max Muncy, and others.
Controlling the Yankees offense will be a problem for LA
MLB insider Jon Heyman, despite oddsmakers having the Dodgers as favorites, believes the Yankees will come out on top because they are healthier and have more pitching weapons than Los Angeles:
“Really, it’s a wonder the Dodgers made it this far with these sort of pitching problems. Sure, if any of the talented foursome of Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Gavin Stone and Tony Gonsolin (not to mention Dustin May, Emmet Sheehan and River Ryan) were healthy, or the inexplicably underachieving uber-talented Bobby Miller ready, they’d be able to avoid the dreaded bullpen game,” Heyman wrote.
Right now, the Dodgers have trade acquisition Jack Flaherty facing the Yankees in Game 1 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Walker Buehler following him. Flaherty has a 7.04 ERA in the postseason and Yamamoto is at 5.11. Buehler looked good in his last turn, but owns a 6.00 ERA in October and a 5.38 mark in the regular season. Landon Knack (15.00 ERA in the playoffs) or a bullpen game appear to be their options for the fourth contest of the series.
Sure, Flaherty, Yamamoto, and Buehler could bring their A-game and dominate the Yankees, but the numbers don’t look good in the small playoff sample size. These Dodgers will score runs and they have some serious weapons in the bullpen, but controlling the Yanks’ offense will be a problem.
