Dodgers fans better hope columnist just didn't jinx everything with Phillies take

The Dodgers took a commanding 2-0 lead in the NLDS over the Phillies on Monday night, despite getting into some trouble in the ninth thanks to Blake Treinen.

Everything except the bullpen (and maybe the defense) has been exactly as advertised. The starting rotation is the best among the contending field and the offense is clutch, which have been enough to make up for the weaker parts of their game.

The Dodgers get to take the series back to LA as they try to walk away with a sweep. Their chances look pretty good with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound, but it would behoove Dodgers fans not to get too ahead of ourselves, especially when the Yankees managed to stay alive and come back from two absolute beatings in Toronto and an early 6-1 lead for the Blue Jays in Tuesday's Game 3. We wouldn't want to jinx anything, would we?

Dylan Hernández of the LA Times doesn't seem to believe in jinxes. He wrote after Game 2 that the Phillies are "done," and the Dodgers will not only win the NLDS, but also the NLCS.

"Technically, they still have to close out their National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. They still have to win the NL Championship Series," he wrote. "But they will."

LA Times writer underestimates Phillies, Brewers in jinx-filled column following Dodgers' Game 2 NLDS win

No one is saying that the Dodgers don't look very good right now, or that the Phillies don't have their backs to the wall. Yamamoto vs. Aaron Nola, who has a 6.97 ERA on the road, and the best of the Phillies' offense currently struggling draws a Game 3 win up very nicely for the Dodgers.

But the Brewers, up 2-0 over the Cubs on the other side of the bracket, shouldn't be discounted. The Cubs' pitching has been awful, but Milwaukee is bringing power and clutch hitting, and they finished the year with the best record in baseball. Of course, they have an even more well-known habit of choking in the postseason, but this year they look like they're for real.

Baseball fans are a superstitious bunch, which makes it hard not to cringe any time a writer deals in such absolutes. Hernández continued, "They will because they won't blow the two-games-to-none lead they have after their 4-3 victory over the Phillies on Monday in Game 2 of their best-of-five series. They will because the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs don't have the firepower necessary to take down these Dodgers in the next round."

Maybe he's just trying to speak it into existence, but the rest of us shouldn't be acting like this. One game at a time, and we'll pop the champagne when the deed is done.