For the first time this season, the Los Angeles Dodgers are not the betting favorites to win the World Series.
asserted
Dodgers → win → Series
The Milwaukee Brewers, who lead the Dodgers 2-0 in the NLCS, are the betting favorites to win the World Series.
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who → lead → Series
Despite the funeral arrangements demoralized Dodgers are making, Los Angeles isn't eliminated yet.
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Angeles → demoralize → arrangements
The Blue Jays overcame a 2-0 deficit in the ALCS to defeat the Mariners just last season.
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Jays → overcome → Mariners
Fifteen other teams have done the same.
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teams → do → same
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page → contain → partners
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News → sign → wager
This content was created by a team that works independently from the FOX newsroom.
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that → create → newsroom
Those aren't great odds, but as Dodgers fans kept reminding everyone while assembling their superteam, baseball is inherently random.
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baseball → keep → superteam
Teams get hot.
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Teams → get → ?
Players go cold.
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Players → go → ?
Great lineups disappear for a week.
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lineups → disappear → week
Struggling pitchers suddenly look formidable.
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pitchers → struggle → ?
We are not writing off this Dodgers team until someone actually eliminates it.
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someone → write → it
Even so, the prospect of a Dodgers-less World Series feels real for the first time in a while.
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prospect → feel → while
That said, the prospect of a Dodgers-less World Series feels real for the first time in a while.
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prospect → say → while
As pure a form of baseball as those clubs play
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clubs → play → baseball
For comparison, the past two World Series featuring the Dodgers, against the Yankees in 2024 and Blue Jays in 2025, averaged around 15.3 million viewers.
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Series → feature → viewers
In 2023, the Texas Rangers-Arizona Diamondbacks World Series averaged just 9 million.
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Series → average → million
A Brewers-Rays/Guardians matchup would probably land much closer to the 2023 number, barring a long, dramatic seven-game series.
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matchup → land → series
However, the long-term gains off the Dodgers missing the World Series could prove worth the smaller viewership this season.
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Dodgers → miss → Series
The Dodgers have been World Series favorites for nearly the entirety of the past three years, dating back to the signing of Shohei Ohtani in December 2023.
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Dodgers → date → December
There was a brief stretch during Game 7 of last year's World Series when the Dodgers were trailing and the Toronto Blue Jays had shorter live odds.
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Jays → be → odds
Los Angeles ultimately came back to win, clinching its second straight championship.
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Angeles → come → championship
The Dodgers entered 2026 as even heavier favorites than the past two years after adding Kyle Tucker and Edwin Diaz in the offseason.
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Dodgers → enter → offseason
Then, in August, they traded for Tarik Skubal, arguably the best pitcher in baseball.
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they → trade → baseball
ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan likened the 2026 Dodgers to the Avengers, citing their unprecedented collection of star power.
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Passan → liken → power
The back-to-back champions adding more stars while much of the league declines to spend or trade aggressively has intensified discussion about a potential lockout and demands for a salary cap.
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much → add → cap
Various outlets — including this one and this author — have argued that the growing disparity between the Dodgers and much of MLB is "ruining baseball."
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disparity → include → baseball
To be clear, the Dodgers are not at fault for relentlessly trying to improve.
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Dodgers → try → fault
They are doing exactly what every fan should want their team to do.
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team → do → what
The criticism is directed at a system that allows such a competitive imbalance to develop in the first place.
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imbalance → direct → place
As the NFL has demonstrated, fans need to believe their team has a chance.
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team → demonstrate → chance
It doesn't even have to be true.
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It → have → ?
The same handful of franchises tend to contend for the Super Bowl every year.
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handful → tend → Bowl
But constant roster turnover gives most fanbases enough reason to talk themselves into hope before each season.
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turnover → give → season
Jets and Dolphins fans are, of course, excluded from this demonstration.
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Jets → exclude → demonstration
That becomes harder in baseball when fans suspect their franchise is more likely to trade its homegrown stars to the Dodgers than build around them.
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franchise → become → them
There's a reason spoiling movies is considered so obnoxious.
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spoiling → be → movies
People don't want to know the ending before the story begins.
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story → want → ending
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
