Dodgers star-studded rotation gives slumping champs real chance at three-peat

Save for a three-run eighth inning on Sunday that was heavily assisted by the Tigers’ incompetence, the Dodgers’ offense remained in a state of hibernation over the last week.Don’t be deceived by the 6-1 scoreline from the series finale in Detroit. Shohei Ohtani still looks like Popeye without his spinach, and the Dodgers will have trouble scoring runs consistently until that changes.But if a 2-4 road trip showcased the reasons why the Dodgers won’t win the World Series again, it presented an argument for why they will.They have the best starting pitching in baseball.By far.Over the five games they combined to pitch against the Tigers and Braves, the Dodgers’ four projected postseason starters registered a 2.14 ERA.Remove Tyler Glasnow’s three-run first inning in Atlanta at the start of the two-city tour — his first inning of major-league action in close to four months — and that ERA drops to 1.27.Pitch like that in October and the wins will come.There will be games like the one the Dodgers lost to the Braves on Thursday, in which Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a run in 6 ⅓ innings but was outpitched by Chris Sale, who threw a shutout. No matter.No team has ever gone undefeated in the playoffs in the wild-card era, and the Dodgers won’t be the first, regardless of how much they spend on players.The difference between the Dodgers and their opponents is what comes after.The day after Yamamoto pitched, Tarik Skubal started the series opener in Detroit.Skubal was followed by Blake Snell, who was followed by Glasnow.There isn’t a team that can match that.With pitching like that, a team doesn’t have to hit much.

They just have to strike the decisive blow before the other team does.Sort of how the Dodgers did on Sunday.With Glasnow dominating the Tigers, Teoscar Hernández broke a 1-1 stalemate with a two-run home run in the sixth inning.That was the formula the Dodgers used to win the World Series last year, their pitchers maintaining a low-scoring ...