Heaven forbid, but should the Dodgers lose ANY of the next three National League Division Series games to their division-rival Arizona Diamondbacks, not only will they be watching the World Series on television, they will be watching the National League Championship Series on television … along with every Dodgers fan on the planet.

As has been (very) duly noted on this site and every baseball site out there:

‘So goes Mookie and Freddie, so go the Dodgers.’

Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman are a combined 1-for-8 with three walks and one strikeout each through the first two Division Series game, both at Dodger Stadium. That one hit was a first inning infield single on Monday night by Freeman to Dbacks first baseman Christian Walker, who underhanded a toss to Dbacks starter Zac Gallen, with Freddie beating Gallen to the bag by an inch.

Needless to say, so goes Betts, who slashed .307/.408/.579/.987 with 39 home runs and 107 RBIs during the regular season, and so goes Freeman, who slashed .331/.410/.567/.976 with 29 home runs, 102 RBIs, and an MLB-best 59 doubles during the regular season, so go the Dodgers, and the pair are not going right now.

“We had a good game plan, and we gave ourselves the opportunities,” an understandably upset Freeman told reporters after Monday’s lackluster 4-2 loss to fall to 0-2 in the best-of-five NLDS. “We just didn’t get the hit.”

‘The hit’ that the Dodgers ‘didn’t get’ occurred in the bottom of the sixth inning when, with the bases loaded and one out, Dodgers center fielder James Outman struck out swinging on a 3-2 pitch that was at the bottom of the strike zone.

Outman is now 0-for-5 in the Division Series with one walk and three strikeouts; this after striking out a team-most 181 times in his 482 regular season at-bats in 2023.

Outman’s bases loaded strikeout was immediately followed by a routine unassisted groundout by Dodgers pinch-hitter Kolton Wong to that same Christian Walker, on which Wong didn’t beat Walker to the bag (by 30 feet) to end the only real threat the Dodgers mounted on the night. It also sent a good many of the sold out Dodger Stadium crowd of 51,449 scurrying for the exits.

Although ‘Hope springs eternal’ and ‘Tomorrow’s a new day’ and all that, needing to win both games at what will undoubtedly be a less-than-friendly sold out Chase Field to keep their World Series aspirations alive is a pretty big ask of Dodgers manager Dave Roberts‘ team.

But as they say: ‘It Ain’t Over ’til It’s Over,’

…and it ain’t over yet.

Play Ball!

  *  *  *  *  *  *