Last night wasn’t your typical regular season game.
With a win, the Dodgers would clinch the division and lock up a first-round bye in the playoffs. Every Dodgers fan knew the importance of winning this game.
The Dodgers players did, too.
If you’ve been a longtime viewer of my Substack or my tweets, you would know that I have been begging the Dodgers to show passion. Any kind of passion at all. I want them to show that this isn’t just a game and that they can acknowledge the big moments.
We’ve seen it often with the Phillies in recent years, as well as the Padres. We see other teams with crazy bat flips and celebrations and showing a high level of emotion. The Dodgers on the other hand, well…. we haven’t really ever gotten that.
They’ll do their silly celebration when they get a hit. They’ll celebrate by getting hit with sunflower seeds in the dugout. That’s fine and all. But I’m talking showing some REAL PASSION.
I’m not saying it is the main reason they’ve struggled in the postseason the last couple of years, but it definitely played a factor. Every team the Dodgers went up against just appeared to want it more.
Maybe it was the high expectations. Maybe it was the high payroll. Whatever it was, the Dodgers just didn’t show the kind of passion we’d see from other teams. Sure, there might be a bat flip here or there or a really excited dugout after a home run. But looking at the team as a whole, we just haven’t seen it in a while. Probably since their 2020 World Series run.
That all changed last night.
I don’t know if Tuesday’s heartbreaking loss was a wake-up call. I don’t know if Shohei Ohtani’s passion is rubbing off on everyone. I don’t know if the Dodgers realized how massive of a game Thursday night was. I don’t remember a game in which I saw SO MANY players fired up and acting like it was a big deal.
We’ll start with Will Smith.
You rarely see him get fired up. In his big league career, we’ve only really seen him show emotion a handful of times. Last night was probably the most hyped I’ve ever seen him.
He hit a game-tying home run in the seventh inning. His bat toss is up there for best of the entire season. I mean, he LAUNCHED that thing. Just look at this photo!
As he rounded first, he screamed “LET’S F***ING GO!!!”
This was a massive home run in a massive game. Smith treated it as such.
Later that inning, Ohtani drove in the go-ahead run with a single. As he reached second base, he raised his hands in the air and screamed “LET’S F***ING GO!!!”
This wasn’t too much of a surprise, as Ohtani has been leading the way for the Dodgers this past week. Every time he reaches base, you can tell how badly he wants to win. He’s treating all of these games like postseason games. Again, maybe it is finally rubbing off on his team.
Following Ohtani, Mookie Betts delivered a much needed hit, driving in two runs to give the Dodgers a comfortable 3-run lead. For Betts, it was his biggest hit of the series after struggling to begin.
We saw the fire from Mookie. We could tell how much that base hit meant to him. He was amped up. I think we’ve only see him react like THIS a handful of times since the 2020 postseason.
This right here.
THIS is what I want to see from our superstars. It’s one thing if it comes from someone else, but seeing your $300+ million guys showing THIS MUCH passion and energy is what I’ve been begging for over the last couple of years.
An inning later, Andy Pages crushed a two-run homer. A rookie who has rarely shown any emotion this season spiked the hell out of his bat. I think he was trying to flip it, but it was more of a spike. We hadn’t seen that emotion at any point this year from the rookie.
Last night, though, the moment called for it. We saw a side of Pages we had yet to see before. This game just felt different. The emotion from the players felt different.
Like I said earlier, I’m not sure what did it. Whatever it is, I’m glad it happened because this is what we need to see from the Dodgers in October. As Jessica Mendoza said on the broadcast, it’s OKAY to have fun. It’s OKAY to enjoy these moments and show emotion.
I want to FEEL like the Dodgers want this more than any other team. It hasn’t felt like that in other years. It has felt like they show up to the stadium expecting to win because their payroll is higher and they have better players. Last night felt like the scrappy underdog pulling off the upset victory.
Following the game on SNLA, Dave Roberts addressed the team and something really stood out to me. He said no team this postseason is going to play with more fight than this Dodgers team.
If that is true, and the Dodgers can play with the intensity and passion they played with last night, they’re going to win the freaking World Series this year.
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How do you say LFG in Japanese?