LOS ANGELES \u2014 So the big-spending Dodgers have gone and ruined baseball again?<\/p>\n
Sure, whatever they say.<\/p>\n
I must say, though, the Dodgers\u2019 second consecutive World Series title<\/a> \u2013 celebrated joyously Monday by more than 250,000 dancing Southern Californians along the parade route downtown and then by 52,703 more who went to party at the ballpark<\/a> \u2013 did produce an embarrassment of riches.<\/p>\n Just a glut of signature moments, an all-you-can-eat buffet of iconic plays and performances that ranged from unexpected to never before seen. So many wild plot twists that my new friends along the parade route Monday morning had trouble picking their favorite, as if I were asking them to choose among their children and not events that happened on a baseball field.<\/p>\n What was fun about this dogpile of not-so-minor miracles was that the best of them, the real bacon-saving heroics, came not necessarily from the most heralded of Dodgers, but the other guys. Not only the headliners, but so many members of the beloved ensemble.<\/p>\n Or if they came from the headliners \u2013 it was in ways that you wouldn\u2019t have guessed not so long ago. Like, say, slumping-outfielder-turned-Golden Glove-nominated-shortstop Mookie Betts turning a stunning, unassisted double play to finish off the Toronto Blue Jays in the bottom of the 11th inning on Saturday.<\/p>\n So, sure, haters and pundits and fans of the Blue Jays, Brewers, Phillies and Reds, cry that the Dodgers\u2019 $320-some million payroll is out of control.<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t $700 man Shohei Ohtani who snatched victory from Toronto\u2019s grasp in the top of the ninth in Game 7. It was veteran utility man Miguel Rojas did, with his solo shot that tied the score at 4-4<\/a>.<\/p>\n Also, it was Rojas\u2019 off-balance throw that got the Jays\u2019 Isiah Kiner-Falefa at the plate by an eyelash<\/a> to preserve the tie in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7.<\/p>\n And it was Rojas who made the tough snag for the final out at second base in Game 6<\/a> \u2013 actually the highlight of all the highlights for 25-year-old Victor Mu\u00f1oz, a third-generation Dodger fan from L.A. \u201cJust because there were so many doubting that the Dodgers were even going to win the last two games, even Dodger fans,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I always just felt faithful.\u201d<\/p>\n That ginormous payroll and it was Andy Pages who crashed the Blue Jays\u2019 party in the bottom of the ninth inning. It was the guy with the paltry .078 postseason batting average who, in the end, wouldn\u2019t be denied, running over fellow outfielder Kik\u00e9 Hernandez to get to the ball, snatching it and keeping the winning runs from crossing the plate<\/a> to send Game 7 to extra innings.<\/p>\n Rewind to the 18-inning marathon that was Game 3 on Tuesday. Yes, Freddie Freeman \u2013 a World Series hero before for his Game 1 grand slam against the Yankees in 2024<\/a> \u2013 hit another game-winning home run to secure the 6-5 victory<\/a> and send everyone mercifully to bed just before midnight. Ohtani, of course, was omnipresent on the basepaths that long night, going 4 for 4 with two home runs, two doubles and five walks<\/a> the day before taking the mound as the Dodgers\u2019 starting pitcher in Game 4.<\/p>\n