Jason Burke
There aren’t very many series over the course of a baseball season that can draw the eyes of the entire baseball world. The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox used to. The St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs will occasionally. But the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers have fans everywhere checking in to see the next chapter in what has become high drama on the diamond.
This year’s matchup will be a little bit different. Houston (41-34) and L.A. (41-33) have nearly identical records and both squads hold slim leads on the third wild-card spot. Not necessarily the position that fans have expected to see either team in. The Dodgers have won the NL West nine of the last 10 seasons, with the only blemish being in 2021 when the San Francisco Giants won 107 games. The Dodgers only won 106 that season.
The Astros have won the AL West five of the last six seasons, with their only exception being in the shortened 2020 season. Both Houston and Los Angeles went on to defeat the division-winning teams from the Bay Area in the postseason en route to a Championship Series loss. Houston has a streak of six straight appearances in the ALCS with two of those seasons ended in winning a World Series ring, which is remarkable.
The first of those championships came at the expense of the Dodgers in 2017, and as it came out a couple of years later, they may have had some electronic assistance that season. Much of the baseball world turned on the Houston Astros after the sign-stealing scandal was uncovered, and Los Angeles has been particularly peeved since it was their team that lost in the World Series.
Even MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is having second-thoughts about whether or not he handled that situation correctly.
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Different faces, same contention for the rivals?
The rivalry kicked off in 2017 with a thrilling World Series, followed by the report of a sign-stealing scandal that rocked the baseball world. But a decent amount of the core players from both teams have moved on to other teams or retired six years later.
Carlos Correa signed with the Minnesota Twins after the 2021 season, then nearly signed with the Giants and New York Mets, before ultimately re-signing with the Twins. It was a whole thing. George Springer is in his third season with Toronto Blue Jays, and it’s unclear if anyone has ever actually disliked him, even with the attachment to the Astros.
Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman are the only two players from that ’17 World Series squad still on the active roster. Lance McCullers, currently on the IL, is the only other player still in the organization. For the Dodgers, Clayton Kershaw, Austin Barnes, and Chris Taylor are the lone survivors from the World Series roster.
Instead, there are loads of new faces that will be taking center stage in Hollywood. Two of the Dodgers’ scheduled starters this weekend (Emmet Sheehan and Bobby Miller) weren’t even in college when these teams played in 2017. Sheehan, 23, made his MLB debut last weekend against the Giants. Miller debuted a month ago and has made five big-league starts.
So, does that mean that the rivalry will have simmered down a bit? It’s possible. Yet not being a part of the 2017 Dodgers didn’t stop Joe Kelly from inserting himself into the rivalry back in 2020.
Baseball rivalries are built on tradition. The Dodgers and Giants rivalry flew across the country from New York to California with them and has spanned over 100 years. Sometimes it doesn’t matter what happened originally, or who was involved. That animosity carries over year after year.
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As the Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers series begins
The Dodgers are 5-5 in their last 10 and have won their last two after sweeping the Freeway Series against the Angels. Last weekend they were swept by the Giants at home and outscored 29-8 in the process. That sweep included a 15-0 loss, which was their most lopsided shutout defeat since 1965. It was also the first time they had been swept by the Giants at Dodger Stadium since August of 2012.
Houston is 4-6 in its last 10 and won back-to-back games against the visiting New York Mets to take the series and snap a five-game losing streak before heading West.
One-time Dodger farmhand Yordan Alvarez has missed the last 12 games for Houston as he recovers from an oblique injury. He still ranks fourth in baseball with 55 runs batted in. Michael Brantley is also on the IL after undergoing shoulder surgery. Pitchers Luis Garcia (Tommy John) and José Urquidy (shoulder) are also out.
L.A. has a more extensive list of ailments that are causing Max Muncy (hamstring), Walker Buehler (Tommy John), Dustin May (flexor), Julio Urias (hamstring), Noah Syndergaard (blister), and Blake Treinen (shoulder) to miss time. It’s nearly an entire rotation that’s missing for the boys in blue.
Without Yordan, the Astros hold a slightly better than league average offense with a 103 wRC+ (100 is league average) and have been scoring 4.4 runs per game thanks in part to rookie Yainer Díaz, who is batting .333 with five home runs and 10 rbi in June. With the help of Díaz, this is roughly in line with how Houston had performing as a group with Alvarez, albeit in a small sample size.
The Dodgers’ bullpen hasn’t been great this season as a unit, with their 4.88 ERA ranking 29th in baseball, ahead of just the 19-win Oakland Athletics. That said, Evan Phillips has been a fantastic piece of the Dodger ‘pen, posting a 2.12 ERA through 29 2/3 innings and locked down both games against the Angels this week, giving him nine saves on the year.
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The key for the Dodgers will be to score at least four runs as the team is 36-13 when they do. The Astros haven’t had great luck when being outhit, going 4-27 in those contests. Both squads are able to lock it down fairly consistently with a lead after six innings with the Dodgers at 31-4 and the Astros at 33-2. Scoring runs and hold a lead late will be key for both teams. Who would have thought?
Baseball fans don’t necessarily care who wins this particular series. Instead they want the next meme-able moment. They want words to be exchanged. They want this rivalry to keep going full steam, even with new players on the field.
Jason Burke covers Major League Baseball for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.
