Fifteen days ago, with the third game of the National League Division Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves soon to begin at SunTrust Park, visiting pitching coach Rick Honeycutt discussed what he liked about this year’s Dodgers.
“The playoffs are all about momentum,” the Lakeview High School and University of Tennessee product said that Sunday evening, when his Dodgers were already up 2-0 in a best-of-five series they would win 3-1.
“We finished the regular season with momentum (winning 14 of their final 18 games). Everybody is throwing well in the postseason. That’s what you always hope for this time of year.”
Let the record show the Dodgers’ momentum has now reached the World Series, which will begin Tuesday night in Boston’s venerable Fenway Park against the Red Sox.
And while the BoSox are no doubt eager to show they’re worth every penny of their MLB-leading $223 million opening-day payroll – the Dodgers are tied for fourth with the Washington Nationals at $180 million – Honeycutt and the Dodgers have a more painful reason to want to add to their five World Series crowns since the organization left Brooklyn for the Left Coast in 1958.