The Dodgers won the World Series this year, and they did it with one arm — actually, five arms — tied behind their back. As they swashbuckled their way through 98 regular-season wins, and then 11 more against the Padres, Mets and Yankees, they somehow did all of it missing five starting pitchers.
As most starting rotations consist of five pitchers, that’s quite something. And yet Dustin May and Shohei Ohtani didn’t pitch one inning for Los Angeles. Clayton Kershaw threw only 30 innings, none after Aug. 30. Tyler Glasnow didn’t throw a pitch after Aug. 11. Gavin Stone didn’t see a game after Aug. 31.
That’s actually quite remarkable, but it’s not an outlier in baseball. The Braves have knocked on the World Series door for years. But it was 2021 when they actually won their second title in Atlanta, and they did it despite the fact their best player, Ronald Acuña Jr., a perennial MVP candidate, missed 80 games with a blown-out knee.
You can survive injuries in baseball.
