LA Times walks back Dodgers World Series prediction with ridiculous argument

We have warred with the LA Times on too many occasions to count, and it looks like we going to have to go right back at it again. In early September, Dodgers writer Dylan Hernández made a sweeping proclamation after Yoshinobu Yamamoto made his return from the IL, writing: "You read it here first, or at least for the first time since their rotation started crumbling like the California coastline:The Dodgers will win the World Series."

He was excited about Yamamoto's excellent showing straight off the IL against the Cubs — four innings pitched, one unearned run given up, eight strikeouts — and there was no reason for him not to be, as Yamamoto was very good. Unfortunately, the Dodgers immediately undercut the argument by committing four defensive errors, one of which allowed the Cubs to take the lead in the eighth, and LA just stopped hitting after the fifth inning.

Yamamoto looked good, and that was a reassuring sign for the Dodgers, but it didn't matter when the rest of the team didn't look like they could do their jobs.

Now, with the odds firmly against the Dodgers going into the NLDS, Hernández is tempering his grandiosity and taking on a much more solemn tone. In his latest column, he definitely didn't sound like someone who was confident the Dodgers would win the World Series. The biggest issue? Well, that would be the thing he was extolling back in September — starting pitching.

LA Times' Dylan Hernández walks back Dodgers World Series prediction as rotation worries mount

There's nothing wrong with getting an infusion of life after a good showing for your team. Yamamoto's first start certainly inspired optimism. But one good start does not a World Series-winning team make, which is what we argued after Hernández's original prediction column. To be fair, Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw hadn't been officially scrapped from the postseason back then, and there was still a glimmer of hope that the rotation would look as it was promised to look.

But now, the realities of how short-staffed the Dodgers' pitching staff is have seemed to sink in on Hernández. The Dodgers' starters, but maybe especially Yamamoto, don't look like they'll be able to go very long into games, and LA needs a lights-out, six-inning (minimum) starter in Game 1 to get off on the right foot and tip the scales in their favor. Yamamoto hasn't gone past five since he came off the IL. That would inevitably put more pressure on the bullpen, which the Dodgers may opt to trim in the roster crunch.

So we do agree with Hernández — this time — but the whiplash in tone is still a little hilarious, and we're begging for a little more consistency than this. Welcome back to earth, LA Times.