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Good morning! Manage expectations today.
Superteams: The Dodgers haven’t wrecked baseball
First, a disclaimer: The Dodgers are fine. Fans of most baseball teams would kill to watch their team cruise into the postseason while Shohei Ohtani wins a no-contest MVP for the second year in a row as he clubs more than 50 home runs and does things no player has ever done. We don’t feel sorry for them. (And they clinched a postseason berth last night.)
Still, the year hasn’t been what many people around baseball thought it would be. The Dodgers won the World Series last year and then had another splashy offseason, prompting owners and fans of other teams to fret about fairness. “Competitive imbalance in baseball has gotten to the point of ludicrosity,” Rockies owner Dick Monfort said. He said the Dodgers were “poster children” for the need for economic change, presumably a salary cap. There was discussion on whether this was one of the best rosters ever assembled.
But the Dodgers haven’t blown the league away. Entering the day, they are 87-67, four games up on the Padres in a back-and-forth NL West race. Whoever doesn’t win the division gets a wild-card spot. Before the season, FanGraphs projected this team for 98 wins. It should land around 90.
A short selection of things that have gone wrong:
- The pitching staff has been a hospital ward, with up to 14 pitchers at one time sitting on the injured list. New signee Blake Snell, now back, has made 10 starts.
- Roki Sasaki, the 23-year-old phenom who skipped the minors after coming over from Japan, has been a flop in his first year. It’s been a mix of injury and ineffectiveness. Fellow free-agent pickup Tanner Scott has been bad in the bullpen.
- Mookie Betts remains valuable and has had a great few weeks. But as he gets set to turn 33, he’s had the worst offensive season of his career.
- Fans have had to watch Michael Conforto (-0.6 fWAR) bat nearly 500 times.
- This team got swept by the Pirates a few weeks ago.
Yet things might be looking up. The pitching staff is, for now, looking healthy heading into October. The lineup remains as good as any, and Betts has followed up a mediocre five months at the plate with a torrid September. The Dodgers are still the betting favorites to win it all in what will be the final few weeks of Clayton Kershaw’s career. More on his final regular-season start at Dodger Stadium in a bit.
I asked Fabian Ardaya, who covers the team for The Athletic: Having been around this team all year, would you still bank on the Dodgers in October?
💬 If you’re one to believe in projection systems, yes. If you’re banking on talent, it’s hard to argue there is a better collection of players in this postseason field. Their rotation is a legitimate strength. Their lineup is starting to round into form again.
But then there’s the fact that they’ve played the way they have this season, and their bullpen is compounding its issues by the day. This is a veteran team, and the Dodgers have talked more than once about the grind of the past two seasons:international travel to South Korea and Japan, a World Series run and now a competitive division race for the second consecutive year.
They haven’t played well for large swaths of the year. But they’ll be in October, and if anyone knows the importance of playing their best baseball at the right time, it’s them. Whether they actually do it is a mystery.
A closing thought: Most purported dream teams don’t dominate their sports. The 2025 Dodgers are not the 2011 Eagles, but they’re not the 2017 Warriors, either. What are they? We’ll see.
News to Know
Mercury knock Liberty out of playoffs
The defending WNBA champs have officially been bounced in the first round. An injured Breanna Stewart did her best to keep the Liberty alive with a 30-point showing just days after spraining her MCL, but New York’s supporting cast was nowhere to be found against an inspired Phoenix squad. Total Liberty points in the fourth quarter for anyone not named Breanna Stewart? Zero. Next up for the Mercury: the title-favorite Minnesota Lynx.
Kershaw’s curtain call
Seventeen years after making his debut at Dodger Stadium, Clayton Kershaw made his 228th and final regular-season start at the ballpark last night after announcing his retirement earlier this week. To cap off his outing, Kershaw struck out Rafael Devers looking as the entire ballpark rose to their feet to celebrate the LA legend. What an awesome moment.
More news:
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Mike Gundy’s seat has officially reached inferno level after Oklahoma State lost to Tulsa in an ugly showing last night. Things are bleak in Stillwater.
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The end of the tush push? Former Eagles center Jason Kelcethinks the controversial play could soon be outlawed. Read his full comments.
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Both the Commanders and 49ers will likely be without their starting quarterbacks this week. Jayden Daniels was officially ruled out with a knee injury while Brock Purdy is “highly unlikely” to suit up against the Cardinals tomorrow.
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“Inside the NBA” is expected to remain largely the same when it debuts on ESPN airwaves this season, The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch reports. Phew. More here.
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American sprinter Noah Lyles won a fourth straight 200-meter title at the World Athletics Championships yesterday, the first to do so since Usain Bolt.
Watch Guide
Here’s a full CFB schedule for the day. Some highlights:
📺 CFB: No. 17 Texas Tech at No. 16 Utah | 12 p.m. ET on Fox
Texas Tech’s very expensive roster against Utah’s less expensive but still very good and beefy bunch. The line play in this game should be elite. Whoever wins is the Big 12 title favorite for now.
📺 CFB: No. 22 Auburn at No. 11 Oklahoma | 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN
Homecoming for Sooners QB Jackson Arnold, a former five-star who washed out at OU and but has looked rejuvenated at Auburn. Whoever wins is on a good playoff track.
📺 CFB: No. 9 Illinois at No. 19 Indiana | 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC
That’s right: an Illinois vs. Indiana game with legit national implications. Bloomington will be rocking. Indiana is probably very good but has played nobody, so we’ll learn a lot here. The Illini want to be to the 2025 season what Indiana was to 2024. Indiana wants to run it back.
Get tickets to games like these here.
Pulse Picks
What’s the average lifespan of a baseball in modern MLB? Tyler Kepner tracked the fate of every ball used in a game to find out. The results are fascinating.
Playing a trumpet into a dumpster is the soundtrack I needed right now. — Jason Kirk
Fixing a nasty slice helped me consistently break 100 on the golf course. Credit goes to this video, which I needed eight years ago. — Jacob Robinson
Test your knowledge of the week’s sports news with our quiz.
Been on an egg salad kick and I demand you grab a cheap egg slicer like this. Unnecessary and totally satisfying process. — Chris Sprow
As the line between pro sports and college sports continues to blur, do student-athletes even get to be a part of campus life? The real answer is complicated.
“Elio” was great. My kid is space-obsessed right now and it hit the spot. — Chris Branch
When I conjure an image of a backpack, I picture something made with ripstop nylon fabric and paracord zipper pulls. Sure, I want function, but I also want style. Enter: this surprisingly dapper and luxe backpack, which I’m testing alongside Wirecutter’s style experts. Beyond its handsome looks, it’s actually one of the most functional and comfortable backpacks I’ve ever owned. — Maria Adelmann
🎧 A few of our favorite podcasts from this week for your weekend listening pleasure:
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Charlie Eccleshare’s piece on Björn Borg’s life after tennis.
Most-read on the website yesterday: Inside the implosion of UCLA football.
Ticketing links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
(Top photo: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)