2025 NLCS: Third time a charm for champs returning to Fall Classic
by Mark Langill
The rarity of a Dodgers’ defending World Series championship team returning to the Fall Classic the following season was overshadowed by the shock and awe of Shohei Ohtani’s hitting and pitching exhibition — three home runs and 10 strikeouts — in a 5–1 victory in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series on Friday at Dodger Stadium.
Maybe when the dust settles, and Ohtani’s plaque from his out-of-the-stadium home-run blast is affixed to the Right Field Pavilion in time for next week’s World Series against the Seattle Mariners or Toronto Blue Jays, the magnitude of the Dodgers’ feat can truly be appreciated.
Only two previous Dodger teams — Brooklyn in 1955 and Los Angeles in 1965 — won World Series titles and repeated as National League champions. Both those encore attempts failed in the following World Series against the 1956 New York Yankees and the 1966 Baltimore Orioles.
Now the Dodgers can join the 1921–22 New York Giants and 1975–76 Cincinnati Reds as the only teams to go back-to-back in NL history.
While the 1956 and 1966 Dodgers needed a victory on the last day of the regular season to punch their World Series ticket, the 2025 Dodgers are on a prolific postseason streak, rolling through the first three rounds of the playoffs.
While winning nine of 10 games against the Reds, Phillies and Brewers, the Dodgers have also won four consecutive road games for the first time in a single postseason.
The NLCS was the first 4–0 sweep in a best-of-seven series by the Dodgers since Los Angeles made quick work of the New York Yankees in the 1963 World Series, which also remains, of the eight championships in Dodger history, the only title clinched on their home field, which was Dodger Stadium’s second year.
Nearly 60 years later, the quality of starting pitchers like Ohtani, Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow are rekindling memories of an era when starters pitched postseason games, including such famous Dodger names like Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Johnny Podres and Orel Hershiser.
From 1947 to 1956, the Dodgers won six pennants in 10 years and were eliminated on the final day of the season in 1950 and 1951.
The current Dodgers have reached the postseason in 13 consecutive seasons since 2013. Dave Roberts is 10-for-10 since becoming the Dodger manager in 2016, and he’s the first NL manager to win five pennants in that time span.
Before the game, Roberts downplayed both Dodger history and his personal milestones. Friday was the 21st anniversary of his famous ninth-inning stolen base as a pinch runner with the Red Sox that triggered the Boston Red Sox’s comeback from a 0–3 deficit in the 2004 American League Championship Series against the Yankees. Roberts said he hoped “history didn’t repeat itself” in terms of the Brewers taking inspiration from the 2004 Red Sox.
Roberts pondered a question while standing on the verge of a dynasty.
Is it easier to win a championship or repeat the following season?
“I would say winning last year,” Roberts said. “I think this is something that can’t win the second one until you win the first one.”
After the Dodgers swept Milwaukee, a team they were 0–6 against during the regular season, Roberts was asked after the game what he felt watching his team perform at such a high level.
“I think we’re just in a zone,” Roberts said. “We’re focused on playing good baseball. And I still think that there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit offensively.
“But it’s just a very talented group. It’s a very focused and very hungry group. So I think that when you get those components, it’s tough to beat.”
He also downplayed comparisons to the 2024 team because the current roster has many changes, including the presence of Ohtani as a pitcher. They are focused on 2025 and the comparisons to history can be chronicled later.
“We’re hungry,” Roberts said. “We don’t really care what happened before. And we’re playing good baseball. We’re healthy and we’ve still got some work to do, though.”
Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, was asked about the Dodgers’ incentive to elevate their play during the postseason. Although the starting rotation captured immediate attention in October, there were so many things leading to the Dodgers gelling at the right time.
“I couldn’t be less surprised to see the intent, the focus, the work that goes into what these guys do on a daily basis. They are on a mission to repeat,” he said. “And we saw the work they did on the field and how they prepared in the clubhouse and every waking moment was focused on how to win the World Series.”
2025 NLCS: Dodgers return to Fall Classic was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.