Although a historic losing skid — dropping 16 of 17 games during August and into September made it a race down the stretch — the Los Angeles Dodgers retained the best record in baseball and secured home-field advantage through the World Series.
This season was the first since 2003 home field for the Fall Classic was determined by record, not which league won the All-Star Game. Now, they hope, and need, to capitalize on winning a franchise-record 57 games at Dodger Stadium.
“I mean we obviously enjoy playing at home in front of our fans, and we’ve had a lot of success here this year,” Justin Turner said on a conference call. “And I know that everyone is excited for Game 6.
“And our fans are behind us 100 percent and no one is counting us out. And we’re going to be ready to go, and they’re going to be full of energy tomorrow night.”
Prior to losing Game 2 of the World Series, the Dodgers were 5-0 at home in the postseason. Similarly, the Astros were 7-0 at Minute Maid Park before suffering a loss in Game 4. They avoided a second loss by winning in walk-off fashion to take a series lead.
“I think being able to have the last at-bat in this series is going to be important, as you saw in that game [Sunday] night,” Turner said. “Even with the skid, trying to nail down home-field advantage was something that we had talked about, and something that we wanted to do.
“Obviously, we like our position a lot better being down three games to two playing at home than if we were heading to Houston today.”
The visit to Minute Maid Park was the Dodgers’ first since the 2015 season. Considering turnover and the youth on the roster, not many had prior experience playing at the unique ballpark.
“And I think that you look at us and having the DH, playing at a place that guys haven’t spent much time at Minute Maid. There’s an advantage, you look at the Astros, and you look at us in the postseason,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
“And we knew it was important for us to get home-field advantage. And this is why we played 162 games like we did, for the opportunity to be at home and win two games. So it is a premium and for us it is definitely understated.”
