Can Dodgers Flip A 3-Game Deficit? Big Papi, Jeter, A-Rod Know It Can Happen

If the Dodgers want to make it three straight World Series titles, they must now win four straight games against the Brewers in the NL Championship Series. 

Improbable? Yes. Impossible? No. 

Just ask someone who was an integral figure in one of MLB’s most historic comebacks.

MLB on FOX analyst David “Big Papi” Ortiz, who helped the Boston Red Sox overcome a three-game ALCS deficit in 2004 against the New York Yankees, said it’s time for the Dodgers to play like there is nothing to lose.

“It’s funny how that works, because you feel more pressure at the beginning of the series than when you are 0-and-3 because once you get there, when you hit bottom like that, it feels like you have got nothing to lose,” Ortiz said after the Brewers’ 6-2 win over the Dodgers on Wednesday night in Game 3. 

History is certainly not on the Dodgers’ side. In all best-of-seven postseason series, teams with a 3-0 lead have gone on to win the series 41 of 42 times, with 32 of those series being sweeps. Only two teams have forced a Game 7 after trailing 3-0 – and only that 2004 Red Sox squad have come all the way back to win.

So what would Ortiz tell the Dodgers about taking that first step?

“There’s no more room to go back. All you gotta do is just move forward. You hit bottom already. Let’s just let things happen. Let’s not try to get three hits in one at-bat. Let’s not try to get three outs in one pitch. Let’s go to the flow.” 

On the losing side of that 2004 clash were fellow MLB on FOX analysts Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, who added their perspectives on how the Dodgers should approach Game 4. 

“The pressure is almost off them right now. Now, they just go out and win a game,” Rodriguez said. “And how many times have the Dodgers, over the last five years, won four in a row?… But you got to start with one pitch. You got [Tyler Glasnow] now on the mound tomorrow. If you win tomorrow, you got [Tarik Skubal] in Game 5 and then you never know. 

“But it starts with the first pitch of the game, and you’re playing for your life, and you do not want the Brewers to celebrate on your field.” 

Added Jeter: “Coming into this series, no one thought Milwaukee was going to win three games in a row. But no one expected [the Yankees] to win the first three games in a row against the [Red Sox]. We thought it was going to be evenly matched. If going into that series they said ‘we’re going to go to seven games’, everyone would have believed it.

“It’s the same thing here. If you’re the Los Angeles Dodgers, you cannot take the field thinking that you’re down three games. All you have to do is win one game.”

The Dodgers actually have someone in their dugout who also played in that 2004 series. Manager Dave Roberts was Ortiz’s teammate on that 2004 Red Sox team and alluded to that comeback when asked about the Dodgers’ chances, starting with Game 4 on Thursday. 

“It’s certainly possible [to overcome a 0-3 deficit]. I’ve lived it. I think the thing is that our guys have been battle tested, as was that team I was a part of,” Roberts said after the Game 3 loss. “They know what’s at stake and, you know, we’ve won four in a row, a number of times this year …. But again, we got to win tomorrow. So that’s, that’s our only focus.”