MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Just two wins. That is all the Los Angeles Dodgers need to head back to the World Series. Now, they are the most expensive team in baseball. They've got a lineup full of MVPs and All-Stars. But it is their pitchers who are leading the way this week. NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan is here. Hey, Bec.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Hi, Mary Louise.
KELLY: OK, so the Dodgers. And they're playing the Milwaukee Brewers...
SULLIVAN: Yep.
KELLY: ...In this Championship Series. They were 2 of the 3 top-scoring teams, so emphasis on batters this year. But in these first two games - this is a best-of-seven series - it's pitchers...
SULLIVAN: Yeah.
KELLY: ...Who are completely dominant. Is that surprising?
SULLIVAN: I mean, a little bit. These guys, in particular the two guys who have started for the Dodgers so far, are great pitchers. Blake Snell, he pitched Game 1. He gave up just one hit in eight innings the other night. Then last night, we got a treat from Yoshinobu Yamamoto. He pitched a complete game. That was the first time a pitcher has done that in the MLB postseason in eight years.
KELLY: Wow.
SULLIVAN: It's getting really rare. It was very cool to see. Yamamoto, I mean, this is a cool story. He came over from Japan a couple of years ago when the Dodgers signed him to this $325 million deal.
KELLY: Sorry, $325 million?
SULLIVAN: Yes.
KELLY: OK, go on.
SULLIVAN: Yeah. And actually, that number raised a lot of eyebrows at the time because he had never thrown a pitch in Major League Baseball. A lot of people wondered if it was worth it, especially last season when he had a little bit of up and down. This year, he has been stellar. And after last night's performance, his teammate Max Muncy gave him credit for just making that big leap.
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MAX MUNCY: You know, you make that transition and you come to a new country, a new baseball league, it's really, really tough. And, you know, I think it took him a little bit last year to kind of find that groove. And, you know, the way he showed up in spring this year, you could definitely tell he was a lot more comfortable. And this year, he's just kind of taken it to a whole nother level.
SULLIVAN: And for the Dodgers to get eight or nine innings out of their starters in this series has been huge because their bullpen has been shaky this year. They've blown some games. And for the Brewers, it's been really rough. They have only scored two runs so far this series.
KELLY: And just go back to the whole money issue and the Dodgers being...
SULLIVAN: Yeah.
KELLY: ...Having the most expensive team in baseball, that's got to play a role here.
SULLIVAN: Of course. Yeah. I mean, Snell and Yamamoto, they're two of the biggest free agent signings over the last couple of years. We haven't even talked about their starting pitcher for tomorrow's game, a little guy you might've heard of named Shohei Ohtani...
KELLY: Oh, him.
SULLIVAN: ...The best player in baseball, who himself is on a $700 million deal.
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SULLIVAN: The combined annual salary for the Dodgers' top four starting pitchers in this series is $160 million, which is significantly more than the entire Milwaukee Brewers' payroll this season.
KELLY: Wow.
SULLIVAN: Not to mention the Dodgers' other superstars, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman. Before the series began, the Brewers' manager, Pat Murphy, of course alluded to this huge gap.
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PAT MURPHY: I'm sure that most Dodger players can't name eight guys on our roster, you know? No offense to them. They shouldn't have to know the names. But, you know, these are some guys that hopefully they know their names by the time it's over.
SULLIVAN: Unfortunately, now the Brewers are down two games to zero. They are flying to LA for the next three games, if the Dodgers even need that many. It's going to be a very uphill battle to escape this for the Brewers.
KELLY: OK, so whoever wins, Brewers or Dodgers, they go to the World Series. And they will face who?
SULLIVAN: They're going to face the winner of the ALCS, which has the Seattle Mariners playing the Toronto Blue Jays. I think Seattle's been incredibly impressive in this. They were taken to the brink in their series before this, literally. The elimination game, the winner-take-all, went to 15 innings against the Detroit Tigers. Less than 48 hours later, they had to walk into Toronto for Game 1. They won that. Then they won Game 2. Now they're home in Seattle for Game 3 tonight, with a chance to wrap this up tomorrow or Friday at home.
And believe it or not, this would be the first-ever appearance in the World Series for the Mariners. They've been around since the '70s, and this is the first time. However, you can't write off their opponents just yet, or the Dodgers' opponents. Teams down two games to zero in a best-of-seven series have come back to win 15 out of 90-sometimes times in MLB history. So tall odds, but not impossible.
KELLY: Thank you, Becky.
SULLIVAN: You're welcome.
KELLY: NPR's Becky Sullivan.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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