Injury-riddled Dodgers facing a much different Yankees test this time around

New York Post

2 days ago

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LOS ANGELES — When last we saw these two marquee, mega-market teams match up, a talented but depleted Dodgers team authored a 4-1 World Series beatdown best recalled for L.A. ingenuity, a hobbled Freddie Freeman's home run heroics and, of course, all those Yankee faux pas predicted in a prescient, pre-Series Dodgers scouting report.
Now, seven months later, the Yankees, having shored up defensive deficiencies, ride another hot streak — they've won nine of 10 — into baseball's most beautiful venue. And the champion Dodgers enter even more talented (on paper) but much more depleted and a lot less self-assured for the rematch.
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Looking at the upcoming schedule facing his Dodgers, aptly nicknamed Dodgers manager Dave 'Doc' Roberts, who seems to run an infirmary as much as the sport's starriest clubhouse, admitted they need to lower near-term expectations. They felt a lot better last October facing the two New York teams than they do starting Friday.
'I'm just thinking about holding serve,' Roberts told The Post a few days before the Yankees and Mets were due to visit. 'With the teams we play, if we can just hold serve, come July and beyond, when we get to full health, we can take off from there.'