Hall Of Famer John Smoltz Analyzes The World Series On 'Don't @ Me With Dan Dakich'
The World Series is upon us, and John Smoltz is ready for it.
The MLB Hall of Famer and Fox MLB color commentator discussed this clash of baseball titans on the "Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich" show earlier today. With Game 1 set for tonight at 8:08 p.m., Smoltz gave his opinion on how he thinks this series will unfold.
Despite the Dodgers having the second-highest payroll in the MLB, Smoltz has seen Los Angeles find ways to be gritty and win games when their roster has been plagued by injuries.
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"The Dodgers have something special right now. They’ve been beat up, so they’ve had to approach this in a different way, and have a different attitude about them," he said.
Even though Los Angeles has shown a remarkable amount of grit to win the NL pennant, he still believes the Yankees have an edge in this series for a couple of reasons.
"The Yankees…went from dominant, to probably the worst stretch of baseball in all of baseball, to now playing really good baseball. I think the Yankees really understand what’s before them, and everything they went through has put them maybe, just maybe one inch ahead of them in what I consider a very dead-heat series," Smoltz said.
While it’s one thing to talk about how much intangibles can help you win games, Smoltz believes there is one particular area: starting pitching. The former Cy Young Award winner said the Dodgers' lack of starting pitching and the Yankees' over-abundance of it could play a huge role in this battle.
Yankees Have The Edge Due To Their Starting Pitching
"When you (Los Angeles) throw 70 percent of your innings or more out of your bullpen and the series goes six or even games, you gotta be heroic to win that series. They (New York) have four starters, we haven’t seen four starters all year," Smoltz said. He continued to say that he believes that this could help the Yankees win their 28th title.
Regardless of which team wins, he believes that the team that is the most patient will come out on top.
"I think this is going to be a tighter-played World Series. Patience is going to win out this World Series," Smoltz said.
Click here to watch the whole interview.