Dodgers Already on Wrong Side of History Ahead of World Series

Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani (17) reacts after defeating the Milwaukee Brewers in game four of the NLCS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 17. | Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

Kiké Hernández wasn't ready to go there yet.

In the hours before the Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers took the field for Game 4 of the National League Championship Series last Friday, Hernández was asked about the potential for a long layoff before the World Series.

"Haven't thought about it," he said. "I'll think about it when we get there. For now, we have a game tonight that we're trying to win. And that's all I'm thinking about. I'm not really thinking about what would happen if we win tonight. I'm just thinking about winning tonight."

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The Dodgers won. Now they wait.

Monday, the Dodgers players went through the paces of a workout in a mostly-empty Dodger Stadium. They won't take the field for a game that counts until Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night.

From a physical standpoint, no player would complain about having a week to recuperate before the most important series of the season. But history isn't on the Dodgers' side.

Since the League Championship Series was introduced in 1969, four series have ended with a clean sweep in one league, and a seven-game series in the other: 1988, 2006, 2007, and 2012.

Each time, the team winning the seven-game LCS won the World Series, too, as pointed out by MLB researcher Sarah Langs on Twitter/X:

Seasons where one LCS was sweep & other went 7 games (LCS best-of-7 since ‘85):

2025
2012
2007
2006
1988

Each of the 4 prior times, the team winning the 7-game LCS won the World Series, too

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) October 20, 2025

The Dodgers will play the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series, fresh off their Game 7 win over the Seattle Mariners.

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The Dodgers have faced a similarly long layoff before. After winning the National League West in 2022 and 2023, they were eliminated by a pair of division rivals (the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks, respectively) in their first-round series.

Each time, the Wild Card round bye didn't seem to help the Dodgers. If anything, it seemed to hurt.

The Dodgers got a bye through the Wild Card round a year ago too, and made a deliberate change to their preparation process.

Third baseman Max Muncy told Newsweek Sports that the Dodgers' front office laid out the program for the five-day layoff that followed the regular season in 2022 and 2023. Last year, "once we clinched and we knew we were going to have those five days off, we as players started talking about 'what do we want to do?' And we went to the front office and basically just said, 'here's what's happening, you have to get on board with it.' And they did.

"They loved it," Muncy added. "I think that's just the biggest difference: everything has been 100 percent player-driven."

Now, the Dodgers are trying to repeat as World Series champions, something no team has done in 25 years. Whatever the Dodgers do between now and Friday, then, don't expect it to be the result of a front office edict.

For more Dodgers news, head over to Dodgers on SI.