The Diamondbacks can beat the Dodgers. Those uniforms are just laundry
Fold the laundry, and put it away.
That’s all the Arizona Diamondbacks need to do to win their National League Divisional Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers starting Saturday.
Fold the laundry, and put it away. That’s it.
If Corbin Carroll, Ketel Marte, Tommy Pham, Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly and the gang just play the guys on the field and not the ghosts hovering over it, they’re going to be OK.
These Dodgers aren’t ALL of the Dodgers. These guys might be wearing the same uniforms, but they’re not Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese and Sandy Koufax and Duke Snider and Roy Campanella and Fernando Valenzuela and Orel Hershiser and Steve Garvey and Darryl Strawberry.
And, yeah, the franchise has bought and paid for 10 NL West titles in the last 11 years, but this specific group of players wearing blue letters with red numbers doesn’t have 37 playoff appearances, 25 pennants and seven world titles.
Betts is amazing. So what?
While we’re at it, toss out the last 10 years of Dodgers-Diamondbacks games and all that hogwash in the pool at Chase Field.
We all know the head-to-head record is bad, but so what?
This is nothing more than a best-of-five series against a bunch of guys who tie their spikes and tug on their caps just like everybody else in the big leagues.
Yes, LA has Mookie Betts and JD Martinez. We get it. Betts is probably the best player of his generation, and we all saw Martinez get so hot in 2017 that he almost joined the Fantastic Four instead of the Dodgers in free agency. (That’s a Human Torch joke, kids. Google it.)
But the Diamondbacks have Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte. Those two are as good right now as anybody around. They can hit for average and power. They’re scarier on the base paths than a teenager driving on Halloween. And just try to hit one past them; Carroll and Marte cover more ground than the guys who paint the lines on the field.
Kershaw is amazing. So what?
Of course, the Dodgers might have Clayton Kershaw starting in Game 1, but he hasn’t tossed more than 85 pitches in a game since June.
What if Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Alek Thomas and Geraldo Perdomo go up there and foul off five or 10 each to wear the old veteran out for Christian Walker to take advantage in the third or fourth inning?
I can’t be the only one who remembers Walker hitting a home run off Kershaw in 2018 that went almost 500 feet. (I was at Chase Field that day. All the stat guys were drooling over the exit velocity and launch angle; I was worried about the unsuspecting pilots at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport who might have to deal with the ball bouncing off their windshields.)
I’m not saying Kershaw’s not great. He is. And I’m not saying he doesn’t still have it. He does.
I’m saying that if the DBacks stay disciplined at the plate and remember that they’re just playing baseball on Saturday, they can give themselves a chance to take an early lead in a short series, giving themselves a huge edge against the heavy favorites.
That’s the way to beat a heavy favorite, by the way.
Folks like to say that to beat a bully, you’ve got to hit him right in the mouth.
Maybe.
More DBacks: What to know about the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Diamondbacks' NLDS foe
I think the best way to beat a bully is to take his best shot and smile, like, “Is that all you’ve got?”
That’s how Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson. It’s how the Giants beat the undefeated Patriots in the 2008 Super Bowl. And it’s how the Diamondbacks beat the mighty Yankees in the 2001 World Series.
All they have to do is go out there and forget all the reputation and expectation and legacy and history and everything else that goes along with the Dodger uniforms and remember that at the end of the game, it’s just dirty laundry.
Fold the laundry, and put it away.
That’s it.
Reach Moore at gmoore@azcentral.com or 602-444-2236. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @SayingMoore.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks can beat Dodgers in NLDS if they fold, put away laundry
