Hi and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. I don’t know why everyone is carrying on about Shohei Ohtani, after all, he did give up two hits and walked three batters.
—I was under the impression that David Corenswet was going to be the new Superman. Apparently, I was wrong.
—So, I’m sitting there watching as Ohtani hits three home runs, strikes out 10 and pitches six shutout innings and wondering what to write about it. There are no words.
—Every Dodgers fan, heck, every baseball fan should pause for a moment and make sure they realize just what an amazing athlete we are watching.
—And to do it all with such apparent grace and humility. All you can say is “Wow!”
—Not everyone in my family is as hardcore a baseball fan as I am, but they all realize what an amazing thing this is.
—Colleague Bill Plaschke tried to explain it here.
—OK, maybe the NLCS will be a cakewalk after all.
—Judging just by body language, it looked like the Brewers gave up sometime in the middle of Game 3.
—Brewers manager Pat Murphy spent most of the series telling the media how much the Dodgers spend and how great they are and that’s how the Brewers played, like they were just lucky to be on the same field.
—Dave Roberts is managing the bullpen beautifully, just like he did last season. Blake Treinen doesn’t have it in Game 4, then he gets Trienen out of there as soon as he can.
—Anthony Banda should be high on the trust tree right now. He looks very good out there.
—The Dodgers only had to use 18 players from their 26-man roster to beat the Brewers. Not appearing at all in the NLCS: Position players Hyeseong Kim, Miguel Rojas and Ben Rortvedt and pitchers Ben Casparius, Jack Dreyer, Clayton Kershaw, Emmet Sheehan and Justin Wrobleski. Justin Dean appeared in every game but never batted.
—Just to show it’s a team game, if you take away Ohtani’s three homers, the Dodgers still win Game 4.
—They gave the NLCS MVP award to Ohtani, but consider this: Seven different Dodgers drove in at least one run, six Dodgers scored at least one run, eight Dodgers drew at least one walk.
—The Dodgers had 14 extra-base hits in the series. The Brewers had 14 hits, period.
—Dodgers starting pitchers threw 28.2 innings, gave up only nine hits and seven walks while striking out 35 and had an ERA of 0.63.
—The bullpen threw 7.1 innings, gave up five hits and four walks while striking out six and had a 2.46 ERA.
—This is only the second time the Dodgers swept a best-of-seven series. The other time was in the 1963 World Series, whose starting pitchers were also dominant (they threw 35.1 of a possible 36 innings).
—Speaking of which, up next is the World Series. But we aren’t going to worry about that today, or this weekend. It starts next Friday against either Toronto or Seattle. And I’m telling you now, the Dodgers are going to win that series too.
—But in the meantime, enjoy the weekend. Series like this make it easy to remember that this is supposed to be fun.
Poll time
Which team would you like the Dodgers to play in the World Series, Seattle or Toronto?
Click here to vote in our survey.
In case you missed it
Plaschke: ‘Ohhhhhtani!’ Immortal Shohei Ohtani blasts Dodgers to the World Series
Another champagne celebration for the Dodgers, who still want one more
Shohei Ohtani’s unprecedented performance lifts Dodgers back into the World Series
Hernández: Did the Dodgers figure out their bullpen issues? Roki Sasaki is only part of the story
Shaikin: Shohei Ohtani could pull off a playoff feat even Babe Ruth never achieved
Plaschke: Are these Dodgers the best postseason team in baseball history? They will be
And finally
Highlights from Game 4 of the NLCS. Watch and listen here.
Until next time…
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