This weekend had a lot of baseball fans excited. The New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers met up for a three-game interleague series. There are many reasons this series is hyped up. For instance, this is the first time these two teams have met in three years. Many fans also believed this might have been a potential World Series preview. Also, both side are fighting for the best record in their leagues. Although this late August series does not have much meaning when it comes to the playoff race, it definitely told baseball fans a lot about both teams.
The @Yankees–@Dodgers game tonight will be the first interleague game all-time in which both teams enter 30+ games over .500.
It’s also the latest date that teams with the best record in each league will play each other in the regular season.#PinstripePride#LABleedsBlue pic.twitter.com/7eNxgQ7RMo
— Stats By STATS (@StatsBySTATS) August 23, 2019
The #Yankees and #Dodgers are meeting for the first time in nearly 3 years. They have faced each other in 11 World Series, but this marks the first-ever regular-season meeting when both teams sport their respective league’s best record. pic.twitter.com/qTDEwwMrWv
— Dodgers-LowDown (@DodgersLowDown) August 24, 2019
New York Yankees
If baseball fans learned anything about the Yankees, it was that they can hit. One through nine of their lineup can beat any given team. The Yankees may have singlehandedly taken the NL Cy Young award away from Hyun-Jin Ryu on Friday when they put up seven earned runs against him. This stacked lineup also managed to put three balls into the stands against Clayton Kershaw on Sunday.
Everyone has known the Yankees can hit since April of this year. However, they are proving they can hit the long ball a lot more consistently as of late. As a result, Yankee position players just set a record for most home runs in a calendar month. Aaron Judge showcased his power this weekend by hitting a home run in each game of the series. They have hit 59 home runs as a team this month with five games left to go in August. They could potentially shatter the record by months’ end.
The Yankees are not just hitting the cover off of the ball, but they are also pitching it well. Baseball fans need to take notice anytime opposing pitchers can keep the Dodgers from scoring in bunches. And that is exactly what the Yankees staff did this weekend. The Dodgers managed to score just two runs Friday, two runs Saturday, and only one run on Sunday. Domingo German and James Paxton both had quality starts against the loaded Dodgers lineup. Furthermore, the Yankees bullpen did not give up a run against the Dodgers this weekend.
Los Angeles Dodgers
This weekend was not the greatest showing for the Dodgers. The offense disappointed, and the pitching staff got shelled. The only bright spot for the pitching staff was Tony Gonsolin who went five innings and only surrendered one run on two hits. Cody Bellinger was a non-factor only producing one hit on the weekend. In all reality, the Dodger offense as a whole was nearly non-existent. Hits were not strung together, and runs were hard to come by.
With all this being said, it is hard to be too harsh on this Dodgers team considering they have 86 wins on the year. However, many believe this could have been a World Series preview, and it would have been nice to see a better showing from Los Angeles. Many Dodger fans may be more worried about the struggles from the starting pitchers than the lack of offense by position players. The scary truth for most Dodger fans is that the Yankees were not fooled by the Dodgers pitching staff. However, it could have just been an off weekend for the National League West-leading Dodgers.
What-If Scenarios
Baseball is a crazy game. Most baseball fans understand that records do not mean anything in the postseason. The best record in the regular season does not grant a team a World Series trophy. In all reality, the Dodgers are going to have to scrape and crawl past the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves in the postseason. In the same token, the Yankees have to find a way to get past the Houston Astros and the Minnesota Twins. The hottest team that puts together quality pitching, solid defense, and clutch hitting is the team that wins in October. It will be interesting to see which team is firing on all cylinders come playoff time.
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