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TORONTO — The Dodgers played 162 games in 193 days during the regular season. Then they played 10 more times in 18 days in the first three rounds of the playoffs.

It was a grind that gave way to a routine as comfortable as an old shoe.

That routine was upended when the Dodgers swept the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series, giving them a week off before the start of the World Series, the team’s longest break since February. And the Dodgers looked anything but rested and refreshed in Friday’s 11-4 shellacking by the Toronto Blue Jays, which left them trailing a postseason series for the first time since last fall’s NLDS.

“I’m pretty sure the guys kind of felt the velocity a little bit more,” said Miguel Rojas, one of just a handful of Dodgers who spoke to the media after the loss. “But there’s nothing that we can do. That’s not going to be an excuse for us to underperform.”

It may not be an excuse. But it could be an omen.

This World Series is the fifth in which a team that swept its best-of-seven LCS, as the Dodgers did, faced a team that needed to go seven games to win its series, as Toronto did. The team that swept and got the break lost each of the four previous World Series, winning just two of 18 games.

Dodger manager Dave Roberts dismissed that history Friday.

“I really don’t think the week layoff had anything to do with tonight,” he said. “We were rested. I thought we were in a good spot. We had a 2-0 lead. So I don’t think that had anything to do with it.”

Blake Snell, the pitcher who gave up that lead, brushed off the break as well.

“There’s no excuses. I need to be better,” said Snell, who went 10 days between starts, his longest break since coming off the injured list in August. “I don’t care if it’s a month off. Find a way to be ready.”

He wasn’t against the Blue Jays. After averaging 16 pitches an inning in 14 previous starts, he needed 29 to get through the first inning Friday. And after giving up two runs and six hits in 21 innings this postseason, he gave up five runs and eight hits in just five-plus innings in Toronto, with two of those runs coming on Dalton Varsho’s fourth-inning home run, the only homer Snell has conceded to a left-handed hitter this year.

Emmet Sheehan, who followed Snell to the mound, hadn’t pitched in two weeks. He had his worst outing of the year, facing four batters and watching three of them score.

“I felt good going into the game. I felt the same as I have been,” he said. “I thought I made some good pitches, and they made some really good swings.

“It’s not a good feeling.”

A prolonged break can affect pitchers more than hitters because after throwing with a slightly fatigued arm all season, they suddenly feel fresh and strong and their pitches lose some of their movement.

“You don’t want to feel too good. You feel too good, you try to throw too hard because you feel good. And it doesn’t go where you want it,” said Will Klein, who mopped up for the Dodgers, pitching a scoreless eighth inning. “[The ball] doesn’t go where you want it to because you’re used to pitching a little down, like 90 or 95%. You’re never really at 100.

‘There’s such a thing [as] too fresh.”

Klein’s last appearance in a big-league game was a month ago; since then he’s been working out at the Dodgers’ facility in Arizona. He said the team tried to keep the rest of their pitchers in their familiar routine with bullpen sessions or simulated games, but it’s not the same as throwing in high-leverage situations against opposing hitters in a World Series game before 44,353 fans, as Snell, Sheehan and Klein had to do Friday.

And the history shows the Dodgers aren’t the first team who have been broken by the break.

But they had less than 24 hours to wait for Game 2, which means they’re back into the comfortable — if exhausting — routine that got them to the World Series in the first place.

“There’s another one tomorrow,” Klein said. “We can’t go and unlose today, as much as we’d like to. Thinking about today isn’t going to help you win tomorrow.”

Hi and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. I was hoping for Seattle, since they had never made the World Series before.

Here we are on Wednesday, with the World Series two days away. It will have been a week off for the Dodgers, while the Toronto Blue Jays will have had only three days off. They say that rust will hurt a batter more than it will a pitcher. Will the time off hurt the Dodgers?

Before this season, there have been four times when one league’s LCS went seven games and the other league’s went four games, giving them much more time off before the World Series. One of these you will be very familiar with:

1988
NLCS: Dodgers defeat the Mets, 4-3
ALCS: A’s defeat the Red Sox, 4-0
World Series: Dodgers defeat the A’s, 4-1

Oakland, which had the mighty Bash Brothers of José Canseco and Mark McGwire, hit .177 in the series, with Canseco and McGwire getting only one hit each (both were homers). They scored 11 runs in the series, and never more than four in a game, which came in Game 1 on Canseco’s grand slam off of Tim Belcher. This seemed not so much a case of rust as it was the A’s running into an outstanding Dodger pitching staff, led by Orel Hershiser, who pitched a three-hit shutout in Game 2. The Dodgers hit .246 in the series and outhomered the A’s, 5-2.

2006
NLCS: Cardinals defeat the Mets, 4-3
ALCS: Tigers defeat the A’s. 4-0
World Series: Cardinals defeat the Tigers, 4-1

The Tigers hit .199 in the series and scored 11 runs. The Cardinals went 83-78 during the season, including 12-17 in September, so they weren’t exactly a juggernaut. Plácido Polanco went 0 for 17, Curtis Granderson went two for 21 and Magglio Ordóñez went two for 19. They had three guys who hit .353 or better, so it was all or nothing for their offense. Neither side hit well, as the Cardinals hit just .226.

2007
NLCS: Rockies defeat the Diamondbacks, 4-0
ALCS: Red Sox defeat the Indians, 4-3
World Series: Red Sox defeat the Rockies, 4-0

The Rockies hit .218 in the series and scored 10 runs. The Red Sox hit .333 and scored 29 runs, so this was more a case of bad pitching by the Rockies, as their starting pitchers combined for an 8.33 ERA. The Red Sox hit an amazing 18 doubles in four games.

2012
NLCS: Giants defeat the Cardinals, 4-3
ALCS: Tigers defeat the Yankees, 4-0
World Series: Giants defeat the Tigers, 4-0

The Tigers hit .159 in the series and scored only six runs. Jhonny Peralta went one for 15, Prince Fielder went one for 14, Miguel Cabrera went three for 13. The Giants hit .242 and scored 16 runs.

So, the teams that had extra time off lost all four World Series and went 4-16 in the 20 games played. Three of the four hit below .200.

That stat does not bode well for the Dodgers, but it is an extremely small sample size. Keep in mind the Dodgers had six days off before the start of last year’s postseason, and that turned out just fine.

What are the Dodgers doing to combat the extra time off? Jack Harris wrote a story on it you can check out here.

Some key takeaways:

—Now, as they did back last year, the Dodgers are incorporating more simulated game activities into their schedule. On Sunday, they played a seven-inning sim game. On Monday, they took more rounds of live batting practice.

—“I think it’s nice to have rest and kind of let everybody take a deep breath and rest up or whatnot. … Just rest up and keep sharpening your skills.” Mookie Betts said.

—“All we’re trying to do right here is get four more wins to win a World Series,” Miguel Rojas said. “Last year, when we had the bye, and the year before, we were trying to get through one more month of baseball. You’re trying to prepare for that. You’re trying to get some guys healthy. I just feel like the difference with this one [versus] the one we had the last couple years is everybody is locked in on winning the World Series. We’re really close to doing that. And winning four more games is the most important thing.”

America hates the Dodgers

The people at Betonline.ag have analzyed tweets, hashtags and direct keyword phrases about whom fans are rooting for. On X, 92% of fans are rooting for Toronto.

The state-by-state rooting breakdown:

Dodgers – 4 states (California, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah)
Blue Jays – 46 states (All other states)

Poll results

We asked, “Which team would you like to see the Dodgers play in the World Series?”

After 16,483 votes:

Seattle, 84.3%
Toronto, 15.7%

Poll time

What is your prediction for this World Series?

Click here to vote in our survey.

In case you missed it

Shaikin: Most MLB owners want to curb big spenders like the Dodgers. What does the union say?

World Series preview: Are the Dodgers actually the favorites? | Dodgers Debate

Here’s how to see the Dodgers in the World Series in person without a ticket

Nine concerns the Dodgers should have about facing the Blue Jays in the World Series

How Dodgers are navigating their World Series bye week: ‘Keep sharpening your skills’

Why the Dodgers’ return to the World Series was only a matter of time

Shohei Ohtani highlighted in film tracing history of Japanese and American baseball

And finally

Vin Scully and special guest Fernando Valenzuela throw out the first pitch before Game 2 of the 2017 World Series. Watch and listen here.

Until next time…

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