David Roth, writing for Defector, reflects on the Dodgers winning the World Series. I’m such a fan of Roth’s writing. Incredibly jealous. So good.

The team that finished off a five-game World Series victory against the Yankees on Wednesday night with an admirably ugly, brutal, and retrospectively commanding 7-6 win was not remotely the most dominant of the Dodgers teams that couldn’t manage that during the team’s tenure atop the National League. This year’s champs were the winningest team in the National League, again, but they were by far less healthy and always seemed less touched by October’s strange grace than the Padres and Mets teams that they dispatched to get to the World Series. They dispatched them all the same.

Destiny and grace are great, and great fun while they last, but a team that refuses to make mistakes in the ways that the Dodgers did this October will always have the advantage. It makes sense that the team that took the best at-bats, and which made the most of the outwardly marginal types that fill out even the best and best-compensated lineups, would wind up on top at the end. It makes more sense when that team also has three Hall of Famers at various stages of their prime at the top of its lineup, as the Dodgers do. And yet, until the moment that Walker Buehler—the starting pitcher, same guy who missed two years with arm injuries and who pitched two days ago—got the last out in the bottom of the ninth at Yankee Stadium, it never quite felt sensible, or remotely ordained. All of which is to say that it fit.

It fit that the most unreasonable Dodgers juggernaut of this generation of juggernauts—a team that entered October with something like 60 percent of a starting rotation, no closer, and a first baseman who ran like he was wearing a parking boot—would be the one to finish the job. October is like that, and baseball is like that. It doesn’t make this Dodgers team any less deserving, but it also doesn’t make the far better teams that preceded them any more undeserving. This Dodgers team absolutely earned it, but this World Series was also about the best organization in baseball finally outlasting the inevitable and inexorable deranging effects of October baseball. Just keep getting there, and eventually what happened for the Dodgers in the top of the fifth inning of Game 5 might happen to you. This is true whether you “deserve” to be there or not. Deserve, in October, has got nothing to do with it.

Not having a dog in the fight made this a much more enjoyable experience.

There’s no question in my mind that these are the two most talented teams in baseball. It’s also no surprise that both teams have the highest payrolls in the top ten (with some interesting caveats for Dodger Ohtani). While both dazzled, one team’s flawless execution contrasted sharply with the other’s costly missteps, particularly in Game 5.