Peerless in the NL, Dodgers have open road back to World Series

PHILADELPHIA – Clear your schedules for late October. 

Save up for tickets.

Because the Dodgers are heading back to the World Series.

It’s becoming harder and harder to imagine the Dodgers not winning the pennant, especially after they claimed a couple of wins in their three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies this week.

From a matchup standpoint, the Phillies are the greatest obstacle the Dodgers could encounter on their way to their third consecutive World Series appearance.

And the Dodgers thrashed them this week.

At Citizens Bank Park.

Without any of their projected playoff starters pitching.

In a series the Phillies were more desperate to win, as they are in second place in the NL East.

By the time the Dodgers sealed a 9-5 victory in the series finale on Wednesday, there was no question of who was the better team.

If the Phillies can’t stop them in the NL, who will?

The Atlanta Braves? 

They don’t have the pitching.

The Milwaukee Brewers?

They also might not have the pitching, and their lineup is more or less the same as it was last year when it didn’t have a chance against the Dodgers’ collection of frontline arms.

The Braves and Brewers would have to acquire Tarik Skubal by the Aug. 3 trade deadline to even have a chance.

One high-ranking official of a rival team said of the Dodgers this week: “They have as complete a roster as I’ve ever seen. They don’t have any weaknesses.”

The Dodgers’ already-solid bullpen is about to get back its closer, as Edwin Diaz is expected to be activated on Tuesday when the team opens a three-game series at home against the Seattle Mariners.

Utilityman Kiké Hernández, who is on a minor-league rehabilitation assignment, could also return in the Mariners series.

Blake Snell is pitching in minor league games and Shohei Ohtani is scheduled to throw his second bullpen session in four days on Saturday.

The Dodgers didn’t need any of them to take down the Phillies.

Their meeting this week was a rematch of their National League Division Series last year, which was closer than the three-games-to-one margin suggested.

The Dodgers had to execute a difficult wheel play in the ninth inning to win Game 2 of that series. Game 4 was decided in 11 innings.

The Phillies have retained many of the strengths they had then, starting with legitimate power threats in the likes of Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper.

But what separates them from the other teams such as the Braves or Brewers is their starting pitching. They have three legitimate postseason starters in Cristopher Sánchez, Zack Wheeler and Jesús Luzardo. Sánchez and Luzardo are left-handers, which makes them particularly effective against a Dodgers lineup that includes the left-handed-hitting Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy.

In the series opener on Monday, the Dodgers were able to force Sánchez out of the game with one out in the sixth inning, only to come out on the wrong end of a slugfest. But they recovered over the next two days to take down Wheeler and Aaron Nola, who is in the third year of a seven-year, $172-million contract.

Nola was pounded for five runs in 5 ⅓ innings. The shellacking the Dodgers gave him made underscored something the Phillies already had to know: If they are to have any shot at the Dodgers, they have to play them in a short series. Over a seven-game NL Championship Series, the Dodgers’ pitching depth is bound to win out.

But the series also highlighted the Dodgers’ greatest advantage over the Phillies. They make plays when they have to. They don’t beat themselves.

On Tuesday night, the Phillies had runners on second and third base in the ninth inning. They were down by a run. The runner on third, Justin Crawford, bolted home when hitter Brandon Marsch hit a grounder to third base. Crawford got caught in a pickle. The runner behind him, J.T. Realmuto, ran from second to third on the play, only to scamper back toward second as Crawford attempted to return to third. Realmuto was thrown out and the game was over.

The Phillies made another blunder on the basepaths on Wednesday. Bryson Stott was on second base when Trea Turner hit a grounder to Muncy at third base. That didn’t keep Stott from running into an out at third base.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts downplayed the results.

“The postseason is certainly different,” Roberts said. “But they’re going to be in the postseason. There’s a chance that we’re going to see them again.”

The Phillies couldn’t take a series from the Dodgers two months ago in Los Angeles, and they couldn’t take a series from them this week in Philadelphia.

Three months from now, over a five- or seven-game series, it’s hard to picture the results being any different.

Diaz, Ohtani, Snell and Tyler Glasnow will be pitching by then. Will Smith should be back in the lineup.

If anything, the separation between the two teams will be greater than it is now, with a wide-open road to the World Series for the Dodgers.

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