2021 Dodgers become latest best Dodgers team to not win a World Series

The 2021 Los Angeles Dodgers won 106 games, tied a franchise record for most wins in a season, and made a playoff run that fell short of the World Series.

It’s not the first time a successful and talented Dodger team didn’t live up to expectations.

The Dodgers lost 4-2 in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves on Saturday night. The Braves won the series and will play the Houtson Astros in th World Series.

The last time a Dodgers team that won 106 games in the regular season and didn’t reach the World Series was the 2019 version. 

That team lost to the Washington Nationals in the National League Championship Series and ruined an otherwise season of elation for Dodgers fans.

That 2019 Dodgers team featured fan favorites Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager and Kike Hernandez, and welcomed newcomers Joe Kelly and AJ Pollock. Clayton Kershaw was still the ace, although he was showing signs of decline. Even with all that star power, the 2019 Dodgers were not the best Dodger team to not win a World Series.

The first one of those teams played in 1942.

The 1942 Brooklyn Dodgers won 104 games and still fell short of playing in the World Series. The St. Louis Cardinals, with Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter, won 106 games, in a 154-game season, and beat Joe DiMaggio’s New York Yankees in five games in the World Series.

That 1942 Dodgers team, with Pee Wee Reese and Joe Medwick, had a 10-game lead in the National League standings on Aug. 5. But the Cardinals went 12-1 in the last 13 games of the season and chased down the Dodgers, who won eight games in a row to end the season. 

The 1951 Dodgers broke the hearts of their fans in a worse way than those 1942 Dodgers. That was the year of Bobby Thomson’s Shot Heard Round the World, a three-run home to win the third game of a three-game series to decide the National League pennant. The Dodgers, with Hall of Famers Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella and Reese, won 97 games and tied with the Giants for first place in the National League standings. They played a three-game series to decide who would play the Yankees in the World Series.

Thomson hit a home run off of Ralph Branca in the ninth inning of the third and deciding game of the series, sending the Giants to the World Series. The Yankees won the World Series, their third in a row, in six games in 1951. And the Dodgers were four years away from winning their first World Series.

The 1962 Dodgers shared the same fate as the 1951 Dodgers. The Dodgers and Giants finished in a tie for first place in the National League standings. Both teams won 101 games and both teams were loaded with stars. The Dodgers had Sandy Koufax, who pitched the first no-hitter of his career in 1962, Don Drysdale, who went 25-9 and won the Cy Young Award, and Maury Wills, who stole 104 bases breaking Ty Cobb’s record and won the National League MVP. The Giants had Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda and a rising star in Willie McCovey.

And like in 1951, the Giants won a three-game series over the Dodgers to decide the NL pennant. 

The Dodgers started Johnny Podres, instead of Drysdale, in Game 3 in one of the biggest managerial blunders in baseball history. The Dodgers were leading 4-2 heading into the ninth inning. But the Giants scored four runs in the top of the ninth inning to take a 6-4 lead and knock the Dodgers out of the World Series again.

Dodgers manager Walter Alston didn’t start Drysdale because he was saving him for Game 1 of the World Series the Dodgers never played.

The only gratifying part of the 1962 season for Dodger fans was that the Giants lost to the Yankees again in the World Series.

In 1983, the Dodgers had one of the most talented teams in their franchise history, a mix of NL Rookies of the Year and Cy Young Award winners that won the National League West Division with a 91-71 record. It was a team with Steve Sax, Pedro Guerrero and Fernando Valenzuela in their primes, a pitching staff with Bob Welch, Dave Stewart and a very young Orel Hershiser, and a shut down closer in Steve Howe. 

But the 1983 Dodgers lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, with Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton. in the National League Championship Series and wasted a chance to legitimize a World Series they won in the strike-shortened 1981 season.

Sound familiar?

The 2021 Dodgers had a chance to quiet the critics who say their 2020 World Series championship was somehow tarnished because it was won in a shortened, pandemic-induced bubble. All World Series championships are legitimate, even the ones won during a labor dispute and a pandemic.

But these 2021 Dodgers will go down in history with the 1942, 1951, 1962 and 1983 Dodgers: great teams that didn’t live up to the hype. 

It was fun while it lasted.

Dodgers and Roberts call check swing mate

Before Game 5 of the National League Division Series between the Dodgers and the Giants, Vin Scully declared on Twitter it was the biggest, most important game in the history of the rivalry.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants have played a long list of important games. The Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants have a history too. 

The Dodgers and Giants tied for the lead in the National League in 1951, when the two teams were still in New York. It produced one of the biggest home runs in baseball history, Bobby Thompson’s Shot Heard Round the World. It was possibly the first walk-off home run in baseball history. It was definitely the first one that was recorded on film.

The Dodgers and Giants tied again for the National League lead at the end of the 1962 season. The Giants won the playoff series that year to advance to the World Series. And the 1962 Los Angeles Dodgers, with Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, became the best Dodgers team to never win a World Series.

It’s probably been 60 years since the Dodgers and Giants played a series as important and meaningful as the 2021 National League Division Series. The Giants have usually prevailed in these matchups, 1951 and 1962 being the two times it resulted in a trip to the World Series.

It was no surprise when the 2021 National League Division Series was headed to a fifth and deciding game. The Dodgers and Giants have been evenly matched all season. 

Game 5 did not disappoint in highlighting how evenly matched the Dodgers and Giants were.

They played the first five innings of the game to a scoreless tie. They both scored a run in the sixth inning to tie the score, 1-1. 

The Dodgers finally broke the tie in the ninth inning, taking a slim one-run lead.

Then, the Dodgers brought in their difference maker, Max Scherzer, acquired at the trade deadline to plug the holes left in an injured starting pitching rotation. Scherzer recorded the final three outs and the Dodgers eliminated the Giants from the playoffs.

The final out was a check swing strikeout that Giants fans won’t soon forget. The Dodgers have the Shot Heard Round the World. The Giants have the Check Mate Swing from Wilmer Flores to end the NLDS. 

Credit Dodgers manager Dave Roberts for this win.

Roberts started playing baseball chess with the Giants manager Gabe Kapler and the front office hours before the first pitch was made in Game 5.

Roberts started by announcing Julio Urias, the Dodgers 20-game winner and Cy Young Award favorite, was coming out of the bullpen for Game 5. Corey Knebel started and Roberts called his shot.

The Dodgers false nine strategy worked. The Giants didn’t score off Knebel or Brusdar Graterol, who pitched the second inning, before Urias started the third inning and pitched four innings.

The Giants took the conventional road, starting Logan Webb, who nearly shut out the Dodgers in Game 1 of the series. Webb matched the Dodgers trio of pitchers with five shutout innings.

Neither team won that move.

But Roberts made two moves that put the Dodgers over the top. His first was playing Cody Bellinger, who struggled the entire season at the plate. Despite the year-long slump, Roberts played Bellinger in every game in the NLDS. The move paid off in the ninth inning of the biggest game of the year for the Dodgers.

Bellinger drove in the go-ahead run in the ninth inning. He came through with the clutchest hit of the season and gave the Dodgers a slim edge when the team needed it the most.

The second move Roberts made was giving the ball to Kenley Jansen to pitch the eighth inning. Jansen went through his own struggles this year. But instead of giving up on Jansen, Roberts stuck with him through the rough patches. He had confidence in Jansen during the regular season, when he blew two saves against the Giants in July. He had confidence in Jansen in a tie game in the deciding game of the playoffs, one that determined if the Dodgers would continue in the playoffs.

Roberts deserves all the credit for keeping the Dodgers alive in the playoffs with his moves in Game 5. 

The Dodgers face the Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series starting on Saturday. It is a rematch of the NLCS from last year. The Braves were up 3-1 in the series last year before the Dodgers rattled off three wins in a row to win the series and advance to the World Series.

The Braves might want a little revenge. The Dodgers might have used all their baseball magic in the NLDS. Perhaps Roberts has some magic left in the clubhouse. The Dodgers are going to need all of it against the Braves.

Chris Taylor’s home run ends wild playoff game against Cardinals

Chris Taylor hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a 3-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Wild Card game on Wednesday night.

It put the Dodgers in the National League Division Series against the surprising San Francisco Giants, pitting the two teams with the best records in baseball against each other.

It is also the first time the storied rivals have met in the playoffs. Game 1 is Friday night. 

While Taylor’s home run kept the Dodgers playoff run alive, how does it rank among Dodger playoff home runs?

Kirk Gibson hit the biggest home run in Dodgers World Series history. His two-run home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series against the Oakland A’s is the undisputed champ of this debate. But it is only one of many dramatic World Series and playoff home runs in Dodgers lore. Here is a look at some memorable Dodger playoff home runs:

Kirk Gibson: Down 4-3 in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, Gibson came up in the bottom of the ninth with a chance to win the game. He was hurt, could barely walk and looked overmatched against Dennis Eckersley, the dominant closer for the A’s. But Gibson battled and became a Dodger legend, with a pinch-hit, two-run home run to win the game and propel the Dodgers to an unlikely World Series championship.

Mickey Hatcher: Gibson’s home run gets all the attention in the 1988 World Series. But Hatcher, who played left field in place of the injured Gibson in the World Series, hit a game-changing home run in Game 5 of the series against the A’s. The Dodgers won the World Series in five games and Hatcher’s home run was the crowning moment of the championship.

Mookie Betts: His solo home run in the eighth inning of Game 6 of the 2020 World Series gave the Dodgers a little cushion and insured another World Series championship for the Dodgers. It gave the Dodgers a 3-1 lead in the game and a seventh World Series championship for the Dodgers.

Lou Johnson: In Game 7 of the 1965 World Series between the Dodgers and Minnesota Twins, Johnson had one of his best games as a Dodgers. He hit a home run to lead off the fourth inning, and with Sandy Koufax on the mound, it was all the offense the Dodgers needed to win that game. The Dodgers won the game 2-0 and won their third World Series since moving to Los Angeles in 1958.

Frank Howard: In Game 4 of the 1963 World Series against the New York Yankees, Howard hit a solo home run in the fifth inning to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. It proved to be the difference in the game. The Dodgers won the game 2-1, completed the sweep of the Yankees and secured their third World Series in franchise history.

Pedro Guerrero: The Dodgers were the comeback kings in the 1981 playoffs. They were down 2-0 to the Yankees in the World Series before storming back to win four games in a row and the World Series championship. Guerrero saved his best game for last, hitting a ninth-inning home run in a 9-2 blowout in Game 6. Guerrero was a co-MVP and the Dodgers were World Series champs for the fifth time. 

Mike Scioscia: The Dodgers hit a number of big home runs in their playoff run in 1988. One of the biggest was Scioscia’s in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets. His two-run home run in the ninth inning tied the score in a pivotal game. The Dodgers won the game, 5-4, in 12 innings -- with Kirk Gibson hitting the deciding home run in the 12th inning -- and tied the series 2-2. The Dodgers won the series in seven games and set up the epic World Series against the A’s.

Rick Monday: The 1981 National League Championship Series between the Dodgers and Montreal Expos went five games. The score in Game 5 was tied 1-1 in the ninth inning when Monday hit a solo home run to break the tie and give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead. The Dodgers advanced to the World Series against the Yankees behind Monday’s clutch home run.

Chris Taylor: His home run in the ninth inning of the National League Wild Card game put the Dodgers in the National League Division Series and kept their playoff run alive.

Is a long playoff run for the Dodgers in the Cards?

Bring on the Cardinals.

The Dodgers will play the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday in the National League wild card round of the playoffs.

The Dodgers won a franchise record 106 games and it wasn’t good enough to win the National League West championship. Not this year. The surprising San Francisco Giants won 107 games and will avoid the wild card round. 

Thank goodness the Dodgers are in the playoffs. Now their season comes down to one game, against a team that has ruined many a Dodgers playoff runs in the past.

Memories of Jack Clark and Ozzie Smith haunt more seasoned Dodger fans. 

Michael Wacha and David Freese ruined the World Series aspirations of the 2013 Dodgers more recently. That was also the series Joe Kelley, pitching for the Cardinals, drilled Hanley Ramirez in the ribs and took him out of the series. There were a couple of Cardinals on that team that ended up becoming fan favorites on the Dodgers. 

But real Dodger fans never forget.

Adam Wainright, who was one of those Cardinal pitchers who shut down the Dodgers in the past, will start the wild card game on Wednesday against Max Scherzer.

When Trea Turner was asked about Scherzer after the final game of the regular season on Sunday, Turner said, “He’s already angry.”

An angry Scherzer is a motivated Scherzer. The Dodgers will need that kind of energy in the wild card game.

The Cardinals went on a 17-game winning streak in September to move into the second wild card spot and make the playoffs.

As incredible a run as that was, the Cardinals finished the regular season going 2-3 in their last five games, including dropping two of three to their longtime rival Chicago Cubs. 

Meanwhile, the Dodgers, with hopes of winning the National League West championship, won the last seven games of the season and nine of their last 10 games, to secure the top wild card spot. 

The Cardinals were the hottest team in baseball in September. But the Dodgers have been harder to beat than the Cardinals over the past 10 games.

It looks like the Dodgers will have to keep up that energy without Max Muncy though. The Dodgers first baseman, one of the most steady and reliable Dodgers in 2021, hurt his elbow in the season finale against the Milwaukee Brewers and won’t be available for the wild card game.

In addition, Clayton Kershaw left his last start of the season on Friday night with an injured forearm and was placed on the 10-day injured list.

The Dodgers will be without two key starters for the playoffs. The Dodgers have overcome a series of injuries to make it this far. What’s two more?

It could be the difference between making it to the World Series and seeing their playoff run end on Wednesday.

It’s do or die time for the Dodgers with the vaunted Giants waiting in the National League Division Series.

But first things first. Bring on the Cardinals.

Dodger starting pitching power rankings:

1. Julio Urias
2. Max Scherzer
3. Walker Buehler
4. Tony Gonsolin
5. Clayton Kershaw

The Dodgers finished with a 106-56 record. Trea Turner won the National League batting title at .328. Juilo Urias was the leader in the National League in wins with 20. Max Scherzer was second in the National League in ERA at 2.46 and second in strikeouts with 236.