Los Angeles Dodgers: The Boston Red Sox are not scary

The Los Angeles Dodgers battled in a seven-game NLCS to win the National League Pennant; awaiting them in the World Series in the Boston Red Sox.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are Champions of the National League for the second consecutive season. After going 29 years without making the Fall Classic, the Los Angeles Dodgers find themselves in a second consecutive World Series.

We all know the narrative from last year. The Dodgers were the most dominant team in the MLB and at one point, looked to challenge for the MLB wins record. A cold September, in which the team was playing more September call-ups than anything, attributed to them falling short.

This year was different. The Dodgers started the 2018 season off on the wrong point. At one point, the team was 10 games under .500, nine games out of first place and still did not get a firm grasp of first place in the National League West until Game 163.

Los Angeles matched up with an inexperienced Atlanta Braves team who nearly took them to Game 5. Then the Dodgers matched up against the red-hot Milwaukee Brewers, which produced one of the best Championship Series of recent memory.

Now, the Los Angeles Dodgers square off against the Boston Red Sox in the two team’s first ever World Series matchup. Just from a baseball mark perspective, this series has so much history that it is going to be fantastic to watch. From a Dodger fan perspective, seeing the Boys in Blue play in Fenway, in October, is such a cool spectacle.

When it comes to the Red Sox themselves, some fans seem to be worried. I have heard multiple fans state that they are scared of the Red Sox; then again, they are 2018’s version of the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers.

And while we are saving our deep-dive breakdown of the two teams for Monday morning (be sure to look out for it), I just had to get this column out of the way to ease some nervous fans.

The Boston Red Sox are not as scary as you think. Are they a great team? Absolutely. Are they significantly better than the Los Angeles Dodgers? No.

In fact, from a pure talent perspective, the two teams are very similar. You could make the case for Boston in some areas, Los Angeles in others. Quite frankly, I would be more worried if the Dodgers had to play the Brewers in another seven-game series for the World Series more than the Red Sox.

My main reason? The bullpen. The Red Sox bullpen has not been good and head coach Alex Cora has constantly had to use starting pitchers out of the bullpen to stop the bleeding.

That will not work against the Dodgers. This is a team that grinds out at-bats, grinds out pitchers and will force a starting pitcher to be at 75 pitches after four innings.

The Dodgers did struggle against the Brewers starting pitching, however, they completely flipped the narrative of the team’s dominant bullpen. The bullpen threw a combined 41 and one-third innings, allowing 17 earned runs (3.70 ERA).

A 3.70 ERA is not terrible but it is certainly not what the Brewers expected. Just imagine what the Dodgers will do to a decent starting rotation and extremely shallow bullpen.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers’ bullpen threw 31 innings (including an inning each from Rich Hill and Clayton Kershaw) allowing just five earned runs (1.45 ERA). Narrative.

Is the Red Sox offense great? Oh, yea. It is one of the few offenses that I would say is better than the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, at least two of these games will have to be played without a DH, something that is undoubtedly going to help the Dodgers.

Plus, LA is so deep that Dave Roberts can dictate the matchups. That worked out great against the Brewers and it is something the Red Sox are unfamiliar with, being an American League team.

And while the Red Sox have a good offense, I have confidence that the Dodgers can go toe-to-toe in a slugfest, if needed.

What was worrisome is when the team had to go into a pitching battle against the Brewers. The bullpen prevailed there, and hopefully, the whole team can prevail and win the World Series.