Dodgers advance to the World Series: Los Angeles will face the New York Yankees in the 2024 Fall Classic

The Los Angeles Dodgers face the New York Yankees in the World Series. The Dodgers defeated the New York Mets 10-5 in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series on Sunday night at Dodger Stadium, clinching their first NL pennant since the shortened 2020 season. Now comes the repeat of the best historic World Series rivalry ever.

In Game 6, which sent the Dodgers to the Fall Classic and the Mets home, Tommy Edman proved to be the winning hero. In the bottom of the first, Edman doubled for two runs with one out, turning an early 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead. It was the first and last main cast of the series.

Then, in the third, Edman scored on a 1-2 fastball from Sean Manaea with a runner on first:

That’s a 406-foot home run and that’s a 4-1 Dodgers lead. For Edman, it was also a part of the Dodgers’ postseason history, as he tied the franchise’s NLCS record with his 11th RBI. Dave Roberts’ decision to beat Edman in the cleanup spot raised an eyebrow or three, especially since Edman had struggled in the ninth spot earlier in the series. However, from a matchup standpoint, it is justifiable. Manaea, the Mets’ starter, is a left-handed hitter, and the switch-hitting Edman has hit .506 against lefties in his career but only .375 against righties. Thanks largely to Edman, Manaea allowed five runs on six hits in just two innings.

The Mets made it a game again in Game 4 with Mark Vientos’ fifth home run of the 2024 postseason. New York also had a lot of traffic on the bases against a parade of seven Dodger relievers in Roberts’ scheduled bullpen game – a bullpen- Play in the ultimate sense of the word. However, great success all too often eluded them. Overall, the Mets left 13 runners on base on Sunday and went 2 for 9 with RISP. The Mets were within range until the bottom of the eighth, but then the Dodgers blew it all up with a three-run frame. The 10 runs the Dodgers scored in Game 6 were a fitting capstone to a dominant streak by the LA offense, which put 46 runs on the board in those six games.

As the Dodgers now prepare to face Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and the Yankees, the Mets enter the offseason six wins shy of their first title since 1986 and an unlikely series of late-season and playoff miracles have. It looks to be an active winter for the Mets, especially with the aforementioned Soto heading toward the free-agent market and owner Steve Cohen likely planning a serious attack on him. At the moment, however, it is the sting of unfulfilled goals.

Now for some relevant insights.

The Dodger bullpen did its job

It wasn’t the cleanest night in Game 6 as all those Dodger relievers allowed five runs and a lot of traffic. However, they did enough and stepped up to the plate in crucial ways throughout the postseason. That’s because the Dodgers have lost a rotation and then some in these playoffs. What once seemed like enviable rotation depth was chipped away with injury after injury, and Roberts took the Dodgers to the pennant with exactly three healthy starting pitchers. He also made it through the NLCS without Alex Vesia, perhaps the Dodgers’ best regular-season reliever, who is currently nursing an intercostal muscle injury. Roberts had to play multiple bullpen games, and the bullpen was therefore trained hard. In these playoffs, Dodger relievers, including openers, have pitched to a 3.28 ERA over a span of 60 1/3 innings. In other words, LA relievers have averaged about 5.5 innings per game this postseason. Without this hard work, the Dodgers would not have won the pennant.

This may have been Pete Alonso’s last game as a Met

Alonso is a popular figure among Mets fans and a lifelong organizational talent – a Met since he was drafted with a second-round pick in 2016. As a rookie in 2019, he hit a memorable 53 home runs and overall he has hit 226 home runs in six seasons. However, the decorated slugger is set to become a free agent this offseason and despite occasional rumors of an extension, nothing has come to fruition. Senior decision maker David Stearns is probably reluctant to invest heavily in a first baseman who may already be showing slight signs of decline and who will turn 30 in December. With this in mind, it is currently expected that Alonso will sign elsewhere for 2025 and beyond. That was certainly the mood at Citi Field in the late innings of Game 5. No matter what the future holds, Alonso will always be a hero in Queens.

It’s a top duel in the World Series

The Dodgers won the 26th pennant in franchise history on Sunday. The only team with more? That would be their World Series opponents, the Yankees, who have won 41 pennants. Yes, the Dodgers and Yankees are the two most storied franchises in baseball – well-known, lauded clubs with proud histories and, today, enormous resources and cultural legacy. They also have a long and distinguished history when it comes to the World Series. In total, they have met eleven times at the Fall Classic since 1941 and most recently in 1981 – by far the most common duel ever. Of these eleven meetings, the Yankees won eight of them. However, the Dodgers put the finishing touches on themselves by winning the 1981 Series in six games. This issue features plenty of star power – Shohei Ohtani, Judge, Soto, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Gerrit Cole – and has the potential to become an instant classic.