Major League Baseball should be thanking the baseball gods after the Yankees and Dodgers advanced toward a marquee matchup on Friday. This entire baseball season can be summed up with two words: Judge, Ohtani. Clash of the Titans in four days.
Cool Facts
1) No World Series has had two teams with a 50-hr hitter. In fact, the only time two 50+ homerun hitters have been in the same World Series was in 1961 when Maris and Mantle did it as teammates. Technically we will have one 60-hr hitter since Judge has already reached the mark with his playoff stats. Ohtani could well be in the sixties by the end of the Series.
2) No DH has ever won the MVP. This will not be the case after the 2024 season. No chance Ohtani is not the NL MVP and since the DH is now universal, look for another MVP season by a DH in the coming years.
3) This is Ali vs. Foreman for baseball. The Dodgers and Yankees have met 11 times in the World Series before this season, more than any other teams. The Yankees hold an 8-3 record.
4) Counting this hear, the Yankees have 41 World Series appearances, and the Dodgers have 25. With 12 times playing against each other, this means the Dodgers have played the Yanks 48% of the time in the World Series.
5) Two regular season MVPs have not met in a Series since 2012 when Miguel Cabrera (Tigers) and Buster Posey (Giants) faced off. In fact, two MVPs have only met 6 times in a World Series in the divisional era (1969 and later). But before that, it happened often. Twenty times in fact, between 1931 and 1969.
6) Speaking of MVPs, this Series has 6 former league MVPs on Yankees/Dodgers rosters. Let's count them. Yankees: Stanton, Judge Dodgers: Freeman, Betts, Kershaw, and Ohtani.
I cannot find enough stats to back my play, but I am going to say this is a record for most former MVPs in one World Series.
Things to Watch For
Yankees
Some of the Yankee bats have been on fire. Stanton has carried the team in key moments while the heir to the MVP has fallen flat. Juan Soto is doing things when needed, and Torres has shined, but the rest of this lineup has been in ho-hum status for a while. Thankfully for New York, even win this lineup is running a little flat, they make pitchers work for it. The first five batters are like a pitching meat grinder. The plus side to this underperforming lineup is that it can underperform and still win. But so can the Dodgers. If the Yankees are to win the series, two things must happen. The pitching needs to continue keeping run totals down AND Aaron Judge needs to join the party. Keep the pitching as is, add Aaron Judge as himself, Yankees hang their 28th banner.
Dodgers
Take the Yankees, put them on the west coast, and you have the Dodgers. Vice versa is also true. Built to win, a lineup of MVPs, and perhaps the greatest player of our time playing in mid-gear. That gear is about to change. I get the feeling when watching Ohtani at bat that he is playing around with the pitcher to make the mere mortals around him feel like he has a weakness. It's as if he is thinking "Should I hit a homerun, or just ground out?" It would not surprise me to see the man unbutton his jersey to reveal a big S and then hit a 600-ft homerun to center that he flies out and catches. He is that good. But he cannot take every swing, and this pitching staff is going to face the Yankee grind. If the Dodgers are to win this series, Ohtani needs to be Superman, and the Dodger pitching staff needs to play better than they have been. If they can contain Soto and Judge and keep the Yankees to 4 runs or less per game, the Dodgers take this Series.
Prediction
I have been a Yankee fan my whole life. I did not expect them to make it to this World Series. In fact, I picked them to lose to the Royals. I was making my predictions based on the Yankee team I saw during the regular season. The lackluster, ho-hum, and sometimes lazy, Yankees. Fortunately for me as a fan, and unfortunately for Dodgers fans, the Yankees team playing Friday night is not the same team from the regular season. Stanton is on a mission. Judge is due. Boone must win this.
Yankees in 7
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