LOS ANGELES — Fans of big-market baseball are in luck. The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees have kept alive a potential rematch of the 2024 World Series.

The Yankees defeated the rival Boston Red Sox in three games at Yankee Stadium Thursday night, and the Dodgers rolled over the Cincinnati Reds in a pair of lopsided affairs at Dodger Stadium, capped by an 8-4 finale Wednesday. 

How good are the Dodgers, who scored 18 runs in winning the two games?

“I think we can win it all,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, whose club last year defeated the Yanks in a five-game World Series. “We have the pedigree, the hunger. We’re playing great baseball. I don’t care who we play. I just want to be the last team standing.”

Of course, the gold standard would be playing the Yanks again in the Fall Classic. The Yankees hold the advantage over the Dodgers, 8-4, dating back to their first meeting in 1941.

Next up the Dodgers face the Philadelphia Phillies in the best-of-five National League Division Series. For the Yanks, it’s the Toronto Blue Jays in an American League Division Series. The Detroit Tigers head to Seattle in the other AL matchup, and the Chicago Cubs travel 90 miles up the interstate to Milwaukee in the NL, with all of the Division Series opening on Saturday.

The Cubs prevailed over the San Diego Padres and the Tigers defeated their AL Central rival Cleveland Guardians. Both series also ended in three games on Thursday.

Roberts said Wednesday he intends to give Shohei Ohtani his first-ever playoff pitching start in Game 1 at Citizens Bank Park. At the plate, Ohtani went 3-for-9 with a pair of homers, four RBIs and three runs scored against the Reds.

Veteran Reds manager Terry Francona was asked if intentionally walking Ohtani, the Dodgers lead-off man, might have been preferable to pitching to him.

“You’re kidding, right? Have you heard of Mookie Betts or Freddie Freeman?” Francona said, referring to the former MVPs who hit directly behind Ohtani. 

In the seventh inning of Game 2, Francona did indeed give Ohtani an intentional free pass with Miguel Rojas on second base. Betts immediately doubled Rojas in, giving him three doubles in a 4-for-5 day.

“I wouldn’t let Shohei swing, either,” Betts said. “I expect the Phillies to do it. I expect it to happen the rest of the postseason. I understand Shohei. I understand the situation of the game. I just have to be ready to do my thing.”

The Dodgers, like last year, have an abundance of weapons.

But Betts says it’s not the same squad. “It’s not fair to compare us now to last year’s team,” he said. “Last year we didn’t have much starting pitching. This year our starting pitching is pretty deep.”

For Philadelphia to prevail, it’ll likely need to get to the Dodgers’ sometimes shaky bullpen, which should be bolstered by Roki Sasaki and Clayton Kersahaw in the NLDS. Kershaw was not on the Dodgers’ Wild Card roster.

The Yanks also have an abundance of weapons. They finished the regular season with a 94-68 record, tied for first with Toronto in the AL East. Toronto won the division and the first-round bye by owning an 8-5 record vs. the Yanks during the regular season. Likewise, the Phillies have a 4-2 regular-season record against the Dodgers.

But the postseason can be different. The Red Sox came into their Wild Card Series with a 9-4 head-to-head record vs. the Yanks, 5-2 at Yankee Stadium. They began the best-of-three series with a win in Game 1, and then proceeded to become the first team since this Wild Card format was instituted in 2022 to drop the next two games and the series, losing 4-0 on Thursday night.

Om Thursday, they ran into a buzzsaw in rookie right-hander Cam Schlittler, who shut out Boston for eight innings with 12 strikeouts in his playoff debut throwing an array of 100-mph pitches. It was a whiff record for any starting pitcher in Yankees postseason history, which dates back to 1921. He didn’t get his first start for the Yankees this season until July 9. He’s now made 15 Major League starts after pitching at two minor-league levels this past season.

Schlittler so jazzed the 48,833 in attendance, they gave him a standing ovation when Yankee manager Aaron Boone sent him out to pitch the eighth inning. He threw seven pitches and retired the side in order. With 107 pitches, Boone didn’t let him pitch the ninth.

“I was feeling good,” Schlittler said afterward. “It was a win-or-go-home situation.” 

The Yankees held the Red Sox to six runs in the three games, and they still have starters Will Warren and Luis Gil well-rested for the first two games in Toronto. Max Fried, who won 19 games this season, could also pitch on his regular five-day cycle in Sunday’s Game 2.

Like the Dodgers, the Yanks have deep starting pitching this year, even with Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Should the Yankees and Dodgers win their division series, both teams will still need to take a best-of-seven league championship series to meet again in the Fall Classic. But for now, things are on track for an LA-NYC rematch, and the star power and large potential TV audience that would bring.