Los Angeles Dodgers: The All-Time Bracket
No. 2 vs. 7 seed
The 1963 Los Angeles Dodgers are remembered today for that fabulous pitching staff. Sandy Koufax delivered a virtuoso 25-5 record with a 1.88 ERA in 40 starts covering 311 innings. Don Drysdale’s record was only 19-17, but he made 42 starts and pitched 315 innings. Together they struck out 557 opponents.
The closer, Ron Perranoski, added a 16-3 record with 21 saves.
At season’s end, Koufax won both the Cy Young and MVP. In the World Series, he, Drysdale and Podres – with two-thirds of an inning’s worth of help from Perranoski – polished off the Yankees in four straight, allowing a total of just four runs and 22 hits. Thirty-seven Yankees struck out.
Offensively the Dodgers were not a great team; had they been, nobody would have ever beaten them. But they did have Maury Willis with a .302 average and 42 steals, and they did have outfielder Tommy Davis. His .326 average led the National League. Outfielder Frank Howard hit 26 home runs.
The 1974 Dodgers won 102 regular-season games before losing to Oakland in five games in the World Series. This was the famous infield of Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell, and Ron Cey, which started for LA throughout the decade of the 1970s. Garvey hit .312 with 111 RBIs while left fielder Bill Buckner hit .314 and center fielder Jim Wynn drove in 108.
Andy Messersmith won 20 games against just six losses, and Don Sutton followed close behind at 19-9. But the pitching story was Mike Marshall, who made 106 relief appearances and worked 208 innings, producing a 2.42 ERA and 21 saves alongside a 15-12 record. Marshall won the Cy Young Award and finished third in MVP voting.
Game 1: The 1963 team had a 99-63 regular-season record, but that was three games worse than 1974’s 102-60.
Game 2: The 1963 team swept New York; the 1974 Dodgers lost a five-game World Series.
Game 3: Although not known for its offense, that 1963 team at least produced a decent 99 OPS+. But the 1974 Dodgers got to 112.
Game 4: During the regular season, only Koufax and Perranoski truly stood out in 1963. As a result, the team only produced a 105 staff ERA+. The 1974 Dodgers were deeper and more balanced, and their ERA+ reached 115.
Game 5: The 1974 Dodgers compiled a 52.9 WAR. Despite Koufax’s 10.7 individual WAR, the rest of the Dodgers only raised the team total to 44.8.
Result: 1974 in five games