{"id":240939,"date":"2025-10-26T00:36:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T00:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/240939\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T00:36:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T00:36:16","slug":"2025-world-series-the-dodger-offense-has-now-grown-in-importance-by-megan-garcia-oct-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/240939\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 World Series: The Dodger offense has now grown in importance | by Megan Garcia | Oct, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Megan<\/a>Press enter or click to view image in full size\"\"Max Muncy hits a single during the second inning against the Toronto in Game 1 of the 2025 World Series at Rogers Center on Friday. Muncy has three career home runs against tonight\u2019s starter Kevin Gausman. (Gregory Shamus\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

by Megan Garcia<\/p>\n

Since the National League Wild Card Series, the Dodger offense has stood mostly in the background behind a dominant starting rotation.<\/p>\n

The lineup found ways to drive in enough runs to get past some elite arms on the Dodgers\u2019 way to the World Series.<\/p>\n

But with the Blue Jays showing their prowess for contact and power in Game 1 of the Fall Classic, scoring 11 runs against Los Angeles pitching, the urgency for the Dodger offense to produce has reached its height.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a known within the Dodgers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think just in totality in the postseason, I think that we can be better,\u201d said manager Dave Roberts. \u201cI think that we have done a nice job at times of building innings, but when it comes down to winning a pitch, getting a base hit, hitting the ball the other way, whatever it might be \u2014 taking a walk, we haven\u2019t been great situationally. We really haven\u2019t in the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo my hope is that once we create stress, then we can sort of finish off innings. Yeah, I think we\u2019re doing a good job of getting there, but we got to do a better job of finishing, which I think that we\u2019re certainly capable of doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers are hitting .227 with runners in scoring position, the second-lowest mark among playoff teams (minimum five games played).<\/p>\n

They average nearly seven runners left on base per game in October. The Blue Jays average just over five per game.<\/p>\n

During the regular season, the Dodger offense ranked third in baseball with a .292 batting average with runners in scoring position. Their .475 slugging percentage was the best in Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n

Things have been different in the postseason. The first Fall Classic game was an example of it.<\/p>\n

During Friday\u2019s 11\u20134 loss to the Blue Jays, the lineup did go 3-for-7 with runners in scoring position. But the inning that most are pointing to is the second, when the Dodgers scored once and left the bases loaded.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers also left a runner on third base in the third inning.<\/p>\n

Game 2 presents a chance for the Dodger offense to hit its stride against Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we\u2019re going up against a great pitcher,\u201d said second baseman Tommy Edman. \u201cHe has a couple of really good pitches, good execution, so we\u2019ve got to be really disciplined with our game plan. But we\u2019ve talked that through as a team. And I felt like yesterday we had a pretty good approach against their starter and hopefully we can do the same today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers slashed .252\/.331\/.439\/.769 against right-handers in the regular season. Their OPS was the third-highest in MLB.<\/p>\n

Mookie Betts is a career .309 hitter against Gausman in 53 plate appearances with three home runs. Max Muncy has a 1.423 OPS in 23 plate appearances. Each has three homers against the veteran right-hander.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s a different day,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cThe psyche, the mentality, the mindset is good from our guys.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Press enter or click to view image in full sizeMax Muncy hits a single during the second inning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-240939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}