MLB Championship Series Picks: Oh, Canada?

And then there were four.

Can you imagine telling someone the Blue Jays and Brewers would be hosting the opening game of the League Championship Series back in April? Or even that the Mariners would be on the doorstep of their first World Series ever?

Of course, for all the feel-good stories, the Dodgers are the great equalizer — a dynasty not only in the making, but one that is here to stay for a while.

So with three Cinderellas and one Evil Empire, how will the Final Four shake out? Let’s take a look:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

(1) Blue Jays vs. (2) Mariners

It feels odd that this is a “chalk” matchup in the ALCS. But the Jays and M’s are the AL’s top two seeds (although the Yankees tied Toronto for the best record in the AL), and now they square off for Junior Circuit supremacy.

Right now, it feels like the Blue Jays are at the next level, whatever that may be. For all the talk about how often the Yankees fail in October, you cannot deny New York was a strong team that came into the series as hot as can be (36-15 in its previous 51 games). The Jays dispatched the Bronx Bombers with relative ease, and get to face a Seattle club that wore out its entire pitching staff surviving 15 innings against Detroit in a five-game ALDS.

The return of Bryan Woo to the Mariners’ rotation is big, as is the second straight series absence for shortshop Bo Bichette. But this Toronto offense has not only picked up the slack in Bichette’s absence, it’s thrived, and for all the consternation about the bullpen, it delivered a gem in Game 4 to close out the Yankees. This feels like Toronto’s time, as cool as it would be to finally see the 30th and final MLB team get off the schneid and win a pennant. Pick: Blue Jays in 6.

(1) Brewers vs. (3) Dodgers

Oh, boy. Here we go — another David vs. Goliath (then again, is there any team that ISN’T a David to the Dodgers’ goliath anymore?).

Let me be clear — the Brewers are not a fluke. This is perhaps the best team they’ve had, at least since Harvey’s Wallbangers in 1982, the Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder-led 2011 NLCS team, and Christian Yelich’s MVP 2018 NLCS team. The Brewers score runs in different ways, and they’re pretty good at preventing them, too.

But no Brandon Woodruff hurts, and this is by far the best, most dominant, and deepest rotation the Dodgers have ever (yes, EVER) brought into October, and when you consider they won a World Series with relative ease last year with Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler as the only other two starters behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the prospects look grim for the Brew Crew.

It doesn’t matter how manager Dave Roberts lines up his rotation, because Milwaukee’s offense will be shut down by the quartet of Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, and Tyler Glasnow. The bullpen doesn’t even feel like an issue anymore with the return of Roki Sasaki, who has become an absolutely filthy, unhittable weapon out of the bullpen.

I love what the Brewers have done, and winning one in the year the world lost a true legend in Bob Uecker would be another chapter of this fairytale. But the buck stops here, just as it did for the Brewers against LA in 2018 (when it was Woodruff who provided the biggest fireworks with a home run off Clayton Kershaw in Game 1).

Nearly two years after the (fake) news spread through Canada like wildfire, Shohei Ohtani will, in fact, be on that plane to Toronto. Pick: Dodgers in 6.