Los Angeles Times columnist and frequent ESPN “Around the Horn” hot take machine Bill Plaschke is ready to declare that there’s “no question” the Los Angeles Dodgers will defeat the San Francisco Giants in the National League Divisional Series — before we even know if the Dodgers will be playing in that series.
“If the Dodgers can get by the Cardinals [Wednesday night] I think they go unscathed to the World Series championship,” he said. “I’m the same guy who said the Dodgers were the best team in history and they weren’t, I’m saying now that the Dodgers are going to handle the Giants in a five-game series.”
While it may seem a bit strange to proclaim a winner in a series that you yourself believe will be competitive enough to go to the full five games, Plaschke once proclaimed that the 2021 Dodgers would be the greatest team in MLB history. As we know, the Dodgers failed to even win their division this year, but that did not stop Plaschke from declaring the NLDS over before it begins.
“In my mind, there’s no question about that,” he said of the Dodgers beating the Giants. “It will be a great series, but the Dodgers are going to win that series. And you can have me on after they win it, and I will say that again. When it comes to the postseason it’s all about starting pitching, and I don’t think they have the starting pitching, to match up to the Dodgers’ starting pitching in a five-game series. I think it’s just that simple. You can do the math on this all you want. If you have [Walker] Buehler, [Julio] Urias, [Max] Scherzer going seven on you, I don’t know what to do about that. I don’t see any Giants starter capable of doing that against the Dodgers.”
The Giants are set to use Logan Webb and Kevin Gausman in Games 1 and 2 of the NLDS. For reference, Webb and Gausman have 2.81 and 3.03 ERAs this season, while Buehler, Urias and Scherzer are at 2.47, 2.96 and 1.98, respectively.
Plaschke was a good enough sport to bring up his wayward “best team in history” prediction unprompted, which makes it likely he will indeed go on KNBR again should the Dodgers fall to the Giants in the NLDS (if Los Angeles even gets that far).
