In case you hadn’t noticed, the Dodgers are rather confident. Alex Wood explains why.

“We’ve got a pretty talented group,” he said. “I think it’s obvious, at least in our opinion, that we’re the most talented team in baseball. So you start there. Top to bottom, bullpen, starting pitching, the lineup on any given day, facing a right or lefty, whatever it may be, we feel really good about our chances and our talent.”

That said, how did the Dodgers fall behind the Braves 2-0 in the National League Championship Series? And how did they rally to win three consecutive elimination games to get to the World Series?

“You know, I think, going into that Braves series -- it’s been a crazy year, coronavirus, no fans, short season, don’t start until the end of July -- this team is so talented we were never really tested the whole season,” he said. “We just showed up and out-talented everybody every day. It was easy. We never had much of a challenge the regular season and through the first two rounds.

“Then you get punched in the face, down 2-0, and it’s like, ‘Whoa, what just happened?’ We had just been out-talenting everybody the whole entire season and then we really didn’t know what we were made of, what we were truly as a team. You’re down 2-0, see how you respond. Now we know who we are. Not only are we the most talented team, we’ve got that swagger. We’re here to win a World Series and take the title back to LA.”

Barnes may start at catcher with Smith at DH
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts indicated he’s considering starting Austin Barnes behind the plate and having Will Smith serve as designated hitter in Friday’s Game 3 of the World Series against the Rays.

Walker Buehler is the Dodgers’ Game 3 starter, and Barnes has been Clayton Kershaw’s personal catcher this year. In Buehler’s first three postseason starts, Smith caught Buehler. But in Game 6 of the NLCS, Roberts went with the Barnes/Smith combination at catcher/DH. Generally speaking, Smith is the better hitter and Barnes the better defender, particularly with pitch framing. The latter is something valued highly by Dodgers management.

“It’s an elite skill,” Roberts said. “I think Austin is one of the top two or three in all of baseball, and it certainly has to be weighed in. There’s a certainty of impacting potentially 125-150 pitches in a ballgame. And Will is very good as well. You can say Will is a better hitter and thrower than Austin. Austin’s skill set to catch the baseball is elite. There are a lot of variables, and that’s the fun part of putting a lineup together, in particular the catcher-pitcher battery and what the cost and benefit is. There’s a lot of different layers.”

Non-strike call hurts LA in Game 2
Tampa Bay’s two-run fourth inning in Game 2 was prolonged when Dodgers second baseman Kiké Hernández bobbled a potential double-play grounder on a ball hit by Ji-Man Choi and had to settle for only a forceout at second instead.

But the preceding at-bat was just as important, as Rays slugger Randy Arozarena walked after a 2-1 pitch from Victor González was called a ball by home-plate umpire Todd Tichenor. Statcast saw the pitch as a strike, and Tichenor heard about it from the Dodgers’ dugout, but Arozarena ultimately walked. Choi’s grounder became the second out, Manuel Margot singled, and Joey Wendle gapped a two-run double to right-center in a game the Dodgers lost by two runs, 6-4.

“You just never want to say that one pitch changed the game or was the result of the game,” said Roberts about the disputed pitch. “But, you know, this situation you’ve got a certain amount of pitches and it’s a big spot. That’s their hottest hitter. It would have been a 2-2 count. I thought it was a strike; we didn’t get the call.

“So, then it flips it to 3-1 to a guy that’s pretty dangerous, and he ultimately gets a base and we don’t convert a double-play ball. It extended the inning, and you just never know what could have happened. But the numbers certainly speak to 3-1 vs. a 2-2 for the hitter. But we had other opportunities and gave them opportunities, so that’s just baseball.”