The Dodgers are back in the NLCS again, but one MLB pundit isn’t framing that run as dominance. Rob Parker of MLB Network took aim at Los Angeles after the club advanced out of the NLDS, calling the team the “Luckiest of All Time” rather than simply one of baseball’s best.
“The Dodgers are officially the L.OA.T. of Major League Baseball, which is the Luckiest of All Time,” Parker said on MLB Now after the Dodgers captured the NLDS. “They continue to be lucky, they were 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position.”
He pointed to Andy Pages delivering the hit that helped decide the game while saying the Dodgers’ biggest names didn’t come through.
“Of course, not a big guy, but Andy Pages gets them out of it with a base hit to help win that game. Go look at the players who continually come through for them.
Mookie didn’t hit. Freddie didn’t hit.
Ohtani didn’t hit.
“If you had those big guys coming through for you in some moments, I’d buy into it.”
Parker’s argument is that when the stars are quiet, the Dodgers are living on fortune. He also leaned on last year’s World Series as part of his case.
“But so often they’re bailed out. Last year in the World Series, they got outscored by the Blue Jays and still won the World Series,” Parker added.
“If Rojas doesn’t hit that home run in the World Series in Game 7, they don’t win that World Series.
“If the ball doesn’t lodge under the fence in Game 6 against the Blue Jays, they don’t win that World Series. I could go on and on and on.”
The problem with that read is that the Dodgers’ biggest names have still done plenty of heavy lifting. Freddie Freeman went 4-for-15 with two crucial home runs, and he also had a home run robbed.
He added strong defense as well. Mookie Betts went 3-for-14 with three walks.
And the bigger picture matters, too. Los Angeles has won three titles in the last six years and keeps finding its way into deep October runs. That kind of sustained success doesn’t happen by accident, even if a playoff bounce or two goes your way.
Freeman, Betts, Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto have all delivered big postseason moments during these title pushes, but the Dodgers have also needed contributions from players such as Miguel Rojas, Kike Hernandez and Andy Pages. That’s how October works. Stars matter, but so do the guys who pop up when the game tilts in an unexpected direction.
So yes, one title can come with a little luck. Parker’s point about baseball’s razor-thin margins isn’t completely off base.
But the Dodgers’ run goes well beyond that, and if a third straight championship comes with another unlikely hero, they’ll take it. Any team would.
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