FINAL: Dodgers 10, Mets 5 The Los Angeles Dodgers are going to their 22nd World Series and will face the New York Yankees. The two teams with the most World Series appearances will face off for the 12th time — and the first since 1981. The two biggest stars in the sport, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, will vie for their first ring. And Juan Soto, Mookie Betts and stars aplenty will be there, too. Both are loaded with power. Both have pitching questions. The Dodgers have been tested, winning a do-or-die Game 5 of the division series against San Diego and needing six games to beat the Mets, whose late-inning magic finally ran out Sunday night. Tommy Edman did the most damage with a two-run homer and two-run double, and the Dodgers bullpen’d their way to the National League pennant. Los Angeles set an NLCS record with 46 runs scored. This is a World Series between teams with two of the three highest payrolls in baseball, and that will turn a lot of people off. It shouldn’t. A World Series between two very good, evenly matched teams is a treat. This is the last big league ball that will be played for five months, and anyone who enjoys intense, high-level baseball will be treated to that this series. The game transcends money and geography.

FINAL: Dodgers 2, Padres 0 Los Angeles takes as good of a division series as you’re going to see. It had drama, memorable moments and great baseball. And it made a tremendous argument for a seven-game division series. More of this kind of baseball is always better. The Dodgers coming back from down 2-1 in the series with a bullpen game and a great Yoshinobu Yamamoto start followed by more excellent bullpen work in Game 5 was truly impressive. The Padres are a very good baseball team. They have the talent and ability to win a World Series. But you cannot go 24 innings without scoring a run in a playoff series. And that’s how the series wound up with the Dodgers. Los Angeles pitched better than San Diego hit. The Dodgers and Padres might be baseball’s best rivalry right now. This series certainly made a compelling argument. Dodgers-Mets for the National League pennant. Rematch of 1988. Sign me up.

Want to add an embedded version of this one, whose excellence @TylerKepner rightly flagged, so everyone can listen here: The whole ninth inning of Vin Scully calling Sandy Koufax's perfect game Sept. 9, 1965 is eight minutes of free-flowing, off-the-cuff poetry. Vin was magical.