It doesn’t mean a lot, but the Rangers handed the Dodgers their first defeat of the season. After signing nearly every coveted free agent and spending about a billion dollars this offseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers set out to make a statement. They ant to win the World Series. They really want to win the World Series. No, really really really.

Maybe they will.

Or, maybe they will win 110 games and get bounced out of the playoffs early like they did the last three seasons. Being swept by Arizona last year, and by the Padres the year before, embarrassed them, obviously. So, they threw money at the problem.

Lots of it.

The Rangers did some of that the past two offseasons, getting Seager and Semien, then Eovalid and deGrom. It paid off. So, the Dodgers are hoping it does for them, as well.

But the Rangers did something the Dodgers didn’t do. They hired a Hall of Fame manager. And he did what he does. He took the Rangers all the way to the top. The Dodgers still have a manager who is dedicated to by the analytics department, who gets his marching orders from stats, not from gut reactions, not from baseball smarts.

That’s why the Rangers won in 2023 and the Dodgers, despite spending nearly a billion dollars on free agents, will not hoist the trophy.

It takes more than money.

*****

TODAY’S GAME:

Milwaukee vs Texas, 2:05