October 9th, 2019 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka The wisest man I have ever known, my father, once told me as a very young boy: “The best team doesn’t win the World Series, the hottest team does,” and history has shown us time and again that he was right.
The 2019 National League West Division champion Los Angeles Dodgers, statistically the best team in the National League, finished the regular season by winning their final seven games. Hot indeed.
The 2019 National League Wild Card champion Washington Nationals, who basically squeaked into the postseason, finished the regular season by winning their final eight games. Hotter indeed, albeit only slightly.
But what the hot Washington Nationals did do was pull off an incredible and exciting come-from-behind win in that win-or-go-home Wild Card game on October 1 against the Milwaukee Brewers at Nationals Park by scoring three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 win.
Make that nine wins in a row for the Nats.
Even though the Dodgers would shut out a noticeably tired Nationals team two days later in Game-1 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium behind the outstanding pitching of Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler by a hefty score of 6-0 to snap the Nationals string at nine consecutive wins (and give the Dodgers their eighth), Washington would immediately bounce back and take Game-2 of the best-of-five series by a score of 4-2 behind the dominant pitching of Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg over a slightly less dominant – but still very good – left-handed Clayton Kershaw.
After a travel day off on October 4, the Dodgers pounded Washington in Game-3 of the series at Nationals Park by a score of 10-4, once again appearing to be the ‘best’ team. But with their backs to the wall and on the brink of elimination, and behind the stellar pitching of right-hander Max Scherzer, left-hander Sean Doolittle and right-hander Daniel Hudson, the Nationals manhandled the Dodgers by taking Game-4 rather handily by a score of 6-1, with the Dodgers striking out in eight of their combined 32 at-bats while collecting only five hits, once again giving the Nationals the appearance of being the ‘hottest’ team.
And here we are.
On Wednesday evening in front of what will undoubtedly be another sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium and behind Game-1 winner Walker Buehler, Game-5 of the 2019 National League Division Series will be played between the league’s ‘best’ team and its ‘hottest’ team, with the winner advancing to the 2019 National League Championship Series and the loser going home to watch it on television.
Never before in my life have I wished my father – God rest his soul – wrong more so than right now … although he very rarely was.
May the ‘best’ team win.
Play Ball!
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The “best” team or “hottest” team, regardless. The way I look it is both teams are “even-Stephen” at the moment, with the law of averages leaning towards the Nats. They haven’t got any further than this since they moved to Washington and they’ve been a pretty good team, lately. I’m hoping the Dodgers are the “best” team, (as you say) and will prove it tonight.
MLB is the most unpredictable major sport. Anybody can win on a given night, primarily because baseball is and always will be a “game of inches”.
We all knew or should have known that the Nats with their starting pitching and potent offense were going to be tough. Of course, the Dodgers with their starting pitching and potent offense were also going to be tough.
Unfortunately, at this point the Dodgers 106 regular season victories don’t mean anymore than the Astros 107 regular season victories. Crunch time. Let’s see who steps up.
GO DODGERS!