Column: To reach their blue heaven, the Dodgers will need heightened focus and resolve

Columnist

Oct. 23, 2017 8:36 PM PT

Four more wins.

Enrique Hernandez spent the weekend watching his phone melt, inundated with hundreds of messages celebrating the three home runs he hit that sent the Dodgers to the World Series.

He would now like to respond with a group text:

“We can’t still be sitting here and thinking like, ‘Oh my gosh, I had a really cool playoff game,’” Hernandez said. “It’s time to get ready for the Astros, and losing is not an option.”

Four more wins.

Charlie Culberson’s wife, Sarah, stood in a blocks-long line at the Dodgers’ merchandise store Saturday to buy a blue Dodgers hair bow for their 5-year-old daughter, Collins. The infielder was awed by the buzz but has grown tired of being idle.

“The World Series is what everyone has waited for, it’s what everyone wants,” Culberson said. “But now we’ve got to win it.”

The celebration is over. The hard work begins. A giddy Los Angeles needs to drain the talk of droughts, shake the euphoria from last week in Chicago, and focus on the four wins the Dodgers must accomplish beginning Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium in Game 1 of the best-of-seven World Series against the equally hungry Houston Astros.

Don’t listen to us, listen to the guy who did that improbable, impossible thing the last time they were here.

“So far, so good,” said Kirk Gibson, the 1988 World Series home-run hero, speaking by phone from Scotland. “This team has answered their test very well. But now they’ve got to finish it out.”

Yes, it’s been 29 years since the Dodgers were in a World Series, but guess what? It’s also been 29 years since they’ve won one, and at this point, after rolling through the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago Cubs with seven wins in eight postseason games, the expectations have increased, and the pain of defeat would be enormous.

“I’m still pinching myself every morning and every night before I go to bed, thinking we’re in this position, bringing the World Series to L.A.,’’ said Andre Ethier, the longest-tenured Dodger with a dozen years invested. “But if we don’t win, it’s a failure.”

It’s not going to be easy. It probably won’t be pretty. The Dodgers should get All-Star shortstop Corey Seager back on their active roster and are betting favorites, but the matchup appears even. Surely no sweeps here. Dodger fans holding tickets for Game 6 and 7 should put them in a safe place, because they’ll probably need them.

Everything the Dodgers did to the National League this season the Astros did to the American League, this being the first World Series meeting of 100-win teams in 47 years.

“I know a lot of people wanted a New York-L.A. matchup in the World Series — sorry to put a wrinkle in everyone’s plans,” Astros pitcher Joe Musgrove said. “We like our team, we like our chances. Nobody is playing for fame and fashion. We’re playing to win a World Series.”

If you think the Dodgers are due, check out the Astros, who have never won a World Series and have only played in one. If you think the Dodgers are on a noble quest, check out the Astros, whose play has helped re-energize their city in the wake of August’s devastating Hurricane Harvey.

“There’s a lot of people who are rooting hard for us now,” Astros outfielder George Springer said. ‘’We’re going to go out there and give them every last ounce of our strength to play hard for them.”

The Dodgers will be led into Game 1 by their ace and leader, three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw. But the Astros will counter with an offense that was the best in baseball in runs scored, batting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage. It is led by 5-foot-6 Jose Altuve, who in this postseason has hit five giant home runs.

Said Kershaw: “I hope after this week is over, they can talk about 2017 a little more and 1988 a lot less.”

Said Houston Manager A.J. Hinch of Kershaw: “We’re not going to back down; we’re not afraid of him. We’re not going to concede anything because we’ve got a pretty good team on our side.”

The Astros will challenge the Dodgers in the first two games with two former Cy Young winners, Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander, the latter who has a 1.77 earned-run average in his last 10 postseason starts. But the Dodgers offense will fight back with a grinding relentlessness, led by shaggy red-haired Justin Turner, showman Yasiel Puig, quiet Chris Taylor and star rookie Cody Bellinger.

“The kind of roll we’ve gotten on, it’s pretty special,” catcher Austin Barnes said. “It’s something I’ve never seen before.”

The biggest difference in the teams is the bullpens. The Astros’ is inconsistent; the Dodgers’ historically strong.

The Dodgers had baseball’s lowest bullpen ERA during the regular season, and a stunning 0.94 ERA in postseason with 32 strikeouts and just two walks. In the National League Championship Series, relief pitchers held the Cubs hitless in one stretch of 29 consecutive at-bats, a major-league postseason bullpen record. They enter this game with a 23-inning scoreless streak.

Closer Kenley Jansen has been virtually untouchable. Brandon Morrow and converted starter Kenta Maeda have provided a powerful bridge from the starting pitching to Jansen.

“The Astros hitter have had an incredible year, but we’ll be ready for them,” Dodgers reliever Tony Watson said. “The old adage is that good pitching and good defense beats good hitting all day long. Hopefully our pitching will be so good that they can’t overcome it.”

The weather forecast for the first two games in Los Angeles is sunny and hot, a climate that might take the Dodgers back to spring training in Arizona, where their mission was stated and their journey began.

”When you fall two games short of the World Series last year, and the team not only stays the same but gets better, then you know your chances are real, and we knew that back then,” Hernandez said. “We were thinking about this year’s World Series and it was, like, this is going to happen.”

Now, in those immortal words of the Great Gibby, they’ve got to finish it out.

The Dodgers are offering no public guarantees, but quietly they believe they will. Just check out the story of the game ball from their NLCS-clinching 11-1 victory over the Cubs last week.

Culberson caught the final out, brought the ball with him into the postgame celebration, soaked it in champagne and beer, then approached manager Dave Roberts with a question: Shouldn’t this ball go to the guy who was on the mound at the end of the game?

“I asked Doc, ‘Should I give it to Kenley [Jansen],’’’ Culberson recalled.

Roberts’ answer speaks volumes about the Dodgers as they hurdle their way toward Los Angeles sports history.

“Keep the ball,’’ Roberts told Culberson. “Kenley will get another one.’’

The Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2017 World Series