NEW YORK — Well before the craziness of Wednesday night, before the insane comeback and the gallant relief efforts by Blake Treinen and Walker Buehler, Dave Roberts saw his club as different, the grittiest of the nine he had managed with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Roberts declared as much two days earlier, sitting in his office at Yankee Stadium in a meeting with the Fox broadcasters. The Dodgers led the World Series, three games to none. And Fox’s Joe Davis, preparing for the possible clincher, asked Roberts how the 2024 Dodgers should be remembered.
“We learned how to street fight,” Roberts said.
In the 2022 Division Series, Roberts said, the Dodgers were “out-toughed” by the San Diego Padres. In the 2023 Division Series, they were “hit in the mouth” by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
This Dodgers team was different. This team again met the Padres in the Division Series, but rallied from a two-games-to-one deficit by throwing shutouts in the final two games, the first of which was a bullpen game featuring eight pitchers.
To Roberts, the comeback epitomized the Dodgers’ newfound edge.
“We out-fought the Padres. And that’s their style,” Roberts said. “They’re like brawlers. They’re like the UFC. We’re like the technical (fighters). But we showed ourselves that we can brawl.”
Wednesday night, even more was at stake. And the Los Angeles Brawlers were at it again.
Trailing the New York Yankees 5-0 after three innings, the Dodgers were on the verge of becoming the first team to take a three-games-to-none lead in the Series and then be forced to play a Game 6.
Through four innings, they had no hits against Yankees ace Gerrit Cole. They had allowed home runs to the Yankees’ Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Giancarlo Stanton. Yet somehow, they emerged with a 7-6 victory, securing their second World Series title in five years and first in a full season since 1988.
Yes, the Yankees were most generous hosts, gifting the Dodgers five unearned runs in one of the most embarrassing defensive innings in Series history. But the Dodgers took full advantage of the Yankees’ missteps in the fifth, running the bases alertly and aggressively, producing a pair of two-strike, two-out, two-run hits to tie the score.
Afterward, Roberts recalled a postseason game that started similarly, Game 7 of the 2017 World Series against the Houston Astros. The Dodgers were at home. After two innings, they trailed 5-0. And they never came close to recovering, losing 5-1.
“In years past, we would have lost this game,” Roberts said. “This team, look what they did.”
All series, the Dodgers displayed their resilience. Series MVP Freddie Freeman hit four home runs on a sprained right ankle. Designated hitter Shohei Ohtani played through a left shoulder subluxation. The oft-injured, 36-year-old Treinen went a season-high 2 1/3 innings in Game 5. Buehler closed out the victory on one day’s rest after a 76-pitch start.
The game’s second-highest payroll did not make the Dodgers immune from adversity. Their regular season featured one malady after another. Twelve starting pitchers went on the injured list. Right fielder Mookie Betts missed almost two months with a fractured left hand. Third baseman Max Muncy was out more than three months with a strained right oblique.
On Sept. 15, Roberts sensed his team was discouraged. The Dodgers had lost two straight in Atlanta, reducing their lead over the Padres in the NL West to 3 1/2 games. To make matters worse, they had just learned that right-hander Tyler Glasnow would miss the rest of the season with an elbow injury.
That night, Buehler was scheduled to start the series finale against the Braves. He had returned May 6 after missing nearly two full seasons recovering from his second Tommy John surgery. After 13 starts, his ERA was 5.95.
Roberts rarely holds team meetings. Some with the club advised him not to call one before Buehler’s start, reasoning that another rocky performance by the pitcher would blunt Roberts’ attempt at inspiration. Roberts went ahead with the meeting anyway, even challenging Buehler, who had been the Dodgers’ ace during their run to the 2020 World Series title.
“I just said, ‘Walker, hey man, you need to go on a heater,’” Roberts said. “In front of everyone. I was like, ‘Hey, you’ve pitched in some of the biggest ballgames in Dodgers franchise history. You need to go on a heater. Let’s go.’”
Buehler wasn’t surprised Roberts singled him out, saying, “I was pitching that day. If I was trying to give a hype-up speech, I would go right after the starting pitcher, too.” Sure enough, Buehler responded, allowing one earned run in six innings in a 9-2 victory.
As it turned out, the Dodgers did not shake the Padres until beating them two of three at Dodgers Stadium in the next-to-last series of the regular season. Super-utility man Kiké Hernández said he welcomed the hard-fought games in that series, the relatively late clinch, the testing of the team’s mettle.
“For the guys who hadn’t been there before, it taught them what we had to go through,” Hernández said. “It taught them how to win.”
Walker Buehler (center) celebrates after closing out the Dodgers’ win. (Brad Penner / Imagn Images)
As a wild Champagne and beer celebration took place in the visiting clubhouse at Yankee Stadium, Hernández paused for a quiet moment, recalling that some viewed the Dodgers as underdogs in each of their three postseason series. On paper, the Padres, New York Mets and Yankees all had better rotations than the Dodgers.
“The rest of the world thought we had 2 1/2 starters,” Hernández said, “because no one knew what Walker would be able to give us.”
Buehler’s Division Series start against the Padres featured a messy pitching line, but the six runs he allowed all came in the second inning. By continuing through the fifth, Buehler helped save the bullpen, laying the foundation for the turning point of the Dodgers’ postseason, the combined shutout by eight pitchers the following day.
From there, Buehler began to look more like his old self. Four scoreless innings against the Mets in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series. Five scoreless against the Yankees in Game 3 of the World Series. And then one more inning in Game 5, on one day’s rest.
Asked if his 16-pitch save in the Game 5 clincher was the top moment of his career, Buehler told two reporters that giving the Dodgers a three-games-to-none over the Yankees was, “pretty fun, too.” Hernández, upon hearing his teammate’s words, shot back, “Nobody is going to watch that game. This highlight, you’re going to be on the mound getting the last out of the World Series for the rest of (your) life. On the mound. On one day’s rest.”
It wasn’t supposed to happen that way, of course. But Buehler had almost a premonition something would go amiss in the Dodgers’ pitching plans, telling team officials on the bus ride to Yankee Stadium that if something got “squirrelly,” he would be ready to pitch.
General manager Brandon Gomes relayed the news to Roberts.
“No thanks,” Roberts said.
Buehler lined up to be the Dodgers’ Game 7 starter if the Series went that far. The Dodgers had their six top relievers ready to go Wednesday night behind their starting pitcher, Jack Flaherty. Seriously, how squirrelly could things get?
Andrew Friedman, the team’s president of baseball operations, recalled Buehler using a different word than “squirrelly,” asking, “What if things get wonky?” Friedman’s reaction: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, Walker, if things get wonky, yeah, sure.”
Well, Flaherty lasted only 1 1/3 innings. By the sixth, the Dodgers were already on their sixth pitcher. Buehler could sense it. Everyone could. The Dodgers were in danger of running out of arms.
After the Yankees took their 5-0 lead, members of the Dodgers front office gathered in the clubhouse, pondering ways to get their potential Game 6 starter, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, as much rest as possible.
Buehler walked into the clubhouse during the sixth and spotted the executives.
“Is this the definition of wonky?” he asked.
Friedman chuckled recalling the exchange.
The definition of wonky indeed had been met.
Before the game, Roberts noted that Treinen had three days off, and would be available for one-plus innings. But in the sixth, the Yankees regained the lead and had runners on first and second with two outs against Brusdar Graterol. Roberts could wait on his top reliever no longer.
“That was the game for me,” he said.
In came Treinen. Six pitches later, after Anthony Volpe grounded out on a 3-2 sinker, the inning was over.
Treinen remained in the game and pitched a 1-2-3 seventh, striking out Austin Wells and Alex Verdugo. Roberts then left him in for the eighth after the Dodgers took a one-run lead, and things turned hairy after Treinen allowed a one-out double by Judge and a walk to Chisholm.
With Stanton next, Roberts met with Treinen on the mound.
“I put my hand on his chest. I wanted to see his heart. I wanted to look in his eyes. And I wanted him to tell me he had more in the tank.”
“I got you,” Treinen told Roberts. “I want him.”
Stanton flied to right. Roberts, reluctant to push his luck with Treinen, pondered calling for Daniel Hudson, who had struggled the previous night and thrown 42 pitches the past two games. From first base, Freeman signaled Roberts to stick with Treinen. Roberts stood down. Treinen struck out Rizzo. But someone still needed to pitch the ninth.
The first ball Buehler threw all day was when he warmed up in the bullpen. He got up once, sat back down quickly. But Roberts warmed him up again to protect a one-run lead in the ninth. Buehler pitched a perfect inning, striking out Austin Wells and Alex Verdugo to end the game. He finished the playoffs with 13 consecutive scoreless innings.
Afterward, in an interview for Fox, I asked Buehler how he felt on the mound. He joked, “I wish I was in a little better shape so my heart could have handled it better.”
“Everybody talks s*** about 2020, but there’s not much they can say about it now.” 🔥@Dodgers P @buehlersdayoff joins @Ken_Rosenthal after getting the final 3 outs in the World Series! pic.twitter.com/wss5nmkIh9
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 31, 2024
Later, in the clubhouse, he said, “I actually felt really good. I was really surprised. I’ve been through so much with my elbow and the surgeries; as weird as it sounds, it’s gotten more black and white after every surgery. You know you can do it or you can’t. I felt like I could do it.”
Both Treinen and Buehler are potential free agents. The sacrifices they made for their team were not lost on Friedman.
“I think a lot is going to be written about what Blake Treinen and Walker Buehler did,” Friedman said. “But it won’t do it justice.”
The Padres weren’t the only team Roberts respected for their fierceness. The Philadelphia Phillies were another club Roberts put in that category, saying, “they kind of have that brawl mentality with (Kyle) Schwarber.”
“I just don’t think people would have said that about us before,” Roberts said.
Hernández said past Dodgers clubs sometimes tried to be too professional. Muncy said this year’s group banded together, adopting a harder edge.
“A lot of us have been here for a long time. We’ve seen so much happen throughout the years,” Muncy said, referring to past postseason disappointments. “We didn’t want to see it happen again.”
To Friedman, the Dodgers’ inner strength was palpable after the team fell behind the Padres, two games to one. The players essentially told one another, “We are not going out like this.” And they called each other out in healthy, productive ways.
“The character in this group, the fight in this group, is just different,” Betts said, citing Game 5 as the latest example. “We could have easily rolled over and said, ‘You know what? We’ll just wait until we get back to L.A. (to win the series).’ But we didn’t.”
How did that fight develop?
“Honestly, I think it came from Doc,” Betts said. “He really led us. Not saying he didn’t do it before, but this Doc was a little bit different. This Doc was fiery, but loving. He made all the right decisions. He managed us. He managed us the way a great Hall of Fame manager does.”
It was the kind of team Roberts always wanted, accountable, self-reliant, fulfilling. Game 5 was the season in summation, the ultimate reflection of the Dodgers’ metamorphosis.
Street fighters. Comeback kids. World Series champions.
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(Top photo of Dave Roberts and Mookie Betts: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
