p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> <\/p>\n
Dodgers catcher Ben Rortvedt connects for a double against the Cincinnati Reds during Game 2 of the National League Wildcard Series at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 1.<\/p>\n
(Gina Ferazzi\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Neither Alex Call<\/a> nor Ben Rortvedt<\/a> had appeared in a playoff game until this season. And though neither Dodger reserve got off the bench in the first two games of the World Series, they\u2019re a lot closer to the action then they expected to be before the July trades that brought them to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really cool. I\u2019m just soaking it all in,\u201d said Call, who came over from the Washington Nationals at the deadline.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a whirlwind,\u201d added Rortvedt, who was acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays, then spent most of the summer in triple A before being called up when Will Smith got hurt in early September. \u201cI\u2019ve been taking it more day by day, so it hasn\u2019t kind of struck me as much as people think it would. Definitely when this is done I\u2019m really going to reflect and kind of realize how crazy it has been to kind of be on this team and be where we are now.\u201d<\/p>\n Call, 31, who also played with the Cleveland Guardians in a five-year big-league career, appeared in one game in each of the Dodgers\u2019 first three playoff series, going three for four with two walks, getting hit by a pitch and scoring a run.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kind of crazy because it feels like it should have been harder,\u201d Call said of reaching the World Series. \u201cWith the Nats, it\u2019s like we were going to have to grind our way all the way to the top. And then you get to come over the Dodgers and you\u2019re the favorites, World Series champs. You\u2019ve got probably the best roster ever assembled, with amazing stars up and down the lineup, and then they\u2019re like, \u2018Oh yeah, we want Alex Call on our team.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s kind of an amazing compliment.\u201d<\/p>\n Rortvedt, 28, who also played with the Yankees and Minnesota Twins in four seasons, started the first four games of the postseason and hit .429.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I pinch myself, it\u2019s kind of like I\u2019m not sure [I\u2019m here,]\u201d he said. \u201cI just try to be as prepared as I can, understand the magnitude of things, and just try to be prepared and try to slow everything down and do my best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> Dodgers catcher Ben Rortvedt connects for a double against the Cincinnati Reds during Game 2 of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[18954,337,217,18956,426,423,15935,18953,18955,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,278,427,4610,4470,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-24519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ben-rortvedt","9":"tag-call","10":"tag-day","11":"tag-dodger-reserve","12":"tag-dodgers","13":"tag-game","14":"tag-george-springer","15":"tag-hostile-dodger-stadium","16":"tag-houston-astros-team","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-la-headlines","19":"tag-la-news","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","22":"tag-los-angeles-news","23":"tag-los-angeles-times","24":"tag-season","25":"tag-team","26":"tag-thing","27":"tag-world-series","28":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}