The favored Los Angeles Dodgers and the surprising Cincinnati Reds play for the NL pennant.
Two teams with long histories of post-season frustration met in the simulated 2020 NLCS for the right to advance to the World Series.
The Los Angeles Dodgers haven’t won a World Series since 1988. They reached the Series in 2017 and again in 2018, but lost both years …to the Houston Astros and then to the Boston Red Sox.
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In 2019, they failed to reach the NLCS, losing to Washington in five games in the division round.
The Cincinnati Reds, who eliminated the Atlanta Braves in the division round, have waited nearly as long. Cincinnati’s last World Series win – indeed, its last NL pennant – came in 1990.
Entering the NLCS, the essential difference was postseason experience. Since 1988, the Dodgers have made 13 post-season appearances, including those two, missed World Series opportunities. By winning the NL Central, the Reds qualified for only their fifth post-season appearance since 1990, and their first since losing the 2013 wild card game.
In fact, prior to eliminating the Braves, the Reds hadn’t won a postseason series since they eliminated the Dodgers in the 1995 division round.
For those reasons among others, the Dodgers loomed as a heavy NLCS favorite even though they qualified as a wild card entrant. With a 99-63 regular-season record, Los Angeles actually had by far the better record, eight games better than the Reds’ 91-71.
But a note of caution had to be attached to those season records. The Reds actually won the season series from Los Angeles, taking four of the teams’ seven regular-season meetings and out-scoring the Dodgers 39-33 in the process.
In summary, the Los Angeles Dodgers looked like winners on paper. But the Cincinnati Reds remained dangerous.