Sport Section: Baseball Fever
By Ethan Kang and Harrison Reisner
The Dodgers clinch their seventh consecutive NL West title by defeating the Orioles 7-3 with the help of two home runs by Corey Seager and Gavin Lux’s first career home run. Walker Buehler gets the win by striking out eleven Baltimore players and has gone through seven innings once again. Caleb Ferguson has gotten the save, and lately, ever since he was called up from Triple-A Oklahoma City, he is terrific. The bullpen has not been doing great in the first half of the season ever since they got more bullpen relievers like Joe Kelly, who was usually with the Boston Red Sox, but in the second half, they have all been amazing.
Walker Buehler has been terrific during this second half of the season, though he had given up at least four earned runs in his last two of three starts at home against the Colorado Rockies and at the road against the Miami Marlins. In both of those rough starts, he only went five innings though he averagely goes six or more innings.
Corey Seager has been getting hot lately. He has three home runs in his last two games. Two out of three of those home runs have been three-run home runs. In September, Seager has been dominant, he has been getting a lot more RBIs and home runs lately. He had gotten two injuries in the first half of the season, and one of the injuries was pretty hard for him since he was hot during that span. He had a hamstring injury in the Freeway Series against the Angels while going to 3rd base for a triple. After he came back a few months later, it took him a while to get back to where he was.
Since the NL West title is out of the way, the Dodgers are hoping to end the season with the best record in baseball. But, there are teams that are getting closer and closer to the best record in baseball like the New York Yankees, Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves, and the Minnesota Twins. The postseason is real risky since there are lots of good players, relievers, and starting pitchers.
There are also a lot of other things that the Dodgers are hoping to get first place on which is the leader in home runs in MLB. Though the Dodgers are in the top five in MLB in home runs, the other that is right above the Dodgers are the New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins, Houston Astros, and the Boston Red Sox. Cody Bellinger is hoping for being #1 in home runs, but other players are right above him like Pete Alonso of the New York Mets and Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Hyun-Jin Ryu, a possible CY Young winner, was terrific in the first half of the season. He developed a lot of different pitches like the two-seam fastball, sinker, and changeup. His changeup as been his best pitch and the most chased pitch. The second half of the season is a whole different story. He at least gave up at least three runs in every start he made in the second half. He has only given up more than three earned runs once in the first half. This might be one of Hyun Jin Ryu’s best offensive seasons in his six-year career. He had his first career home run on September 22nd against the Rockies. The most embarrassing part of giving up a home run to a pitcher is the pitch count. Antonio Senzatela has given up a home run to Ryu on a 0-2 pitch.
The Dodgers have had a great season and are projected to go to the World series. They have also already in the regular season have played the Yankees who won the 3 game players weekend series two out of three. The outcome of that series may have not gone the Dodgers way but they still have a great chance at beating the Yankees in the World series. They have seven straight division titles and this year they clinched early because of the magic number. But they still had to work hard after that because they were still fighting for home-field advantage in the World Series.
The postseason is really soon, and everyone is going to watch this. For the two NLDS, it will be the St. Louis Cardinals against the Atlanta Braves and the Washington Nationals against the Milwaukee Brewers. For the ALDS, it will be the Minnesota Twins against the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays against the Oakland A’s. The outcome is unknown hopefully the Dodgers will perform and make it to the NLCS. They have won Game 1 of the NLDS against the Washington Nationals with the help of the offense and great pitching for pitching a shutout giving up only two hits. The Nationals rely on their offense to perform because their pitching is not that great. Also, their bullpen does not have great stats so the Nationals rely on their starters to pitch as many innings as possible. This was clearly shown on the first game of the series when the Dodgers scored most of their runs off the bullpen. We want to wish the best of luck to the Dodgers that they will make it very far this postseason. Fingers crossed that they make it all the way to the World Series.
The Dodgers, for the first time since 2016, is not going to advance to the World Series. In Game 5 of the NLDS against the Nations, Buehler did give up a run, but Clayton Kershaw came in the games and strikes out Matt Adams in a first and second jam, but he gives up back to back home runs in the 8th inning against Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto that tied the game at 3. In the 9th inning, Joe Kelly came on to pitch in the 9th inning and retired the side. In the 10th inning, he has given up a grand slam to Howie Kendrick to get the Nationals to a 7-3 lead to win the NLDS. The Nationals sweep the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals. Now, they play the Houston Astros in the World Series.
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