Dodgers starting pitcher Lance Lynn leaves the mound after allowing four home runs in the third inning Wednesday night in Game 3 of the NL Division Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press
PHOENIX — The Los Angeles Dodgers’ third straight 100-win season ended with a third consecutive postseason flop.
A three-game Division Series sweep by the Arizona Diamondbacks, capped by a 4-2 defeat Wednesday night, highlighted how much the expanded playoffs have devalued the regular season.
“There’s some things with the format that people can dissect or whatever, but the bottom line is that the last two years, we’ve got outplayed in the postseason,” Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts said. “It doesn’t matter if it was a seven-game series, we lost the first three games. For me, I’ve got to do a better job of figuring out a way to get our guys prepared for the postseason. I’ll own that.”
Los Angeles has reached the playoffs in 11 straight years, the third-longest streak in major league history behind the Atlanta Braves’ 14 from 1991-2005 around the 1994 strike, and the New York Yankees’ 13 from 1995-2007.
The Dodgers won the NL West in 10 of those seasons, yet their only World Series in that span was following the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Led by Roberts, they have 100 or more wins in five of the last six full seasons.
Expectations once again were high this year, with a starry roster and a $222 million opening-day payroll, baseball’s fifth highest.
From April through September, they set the standard. Then in October, they turn so ordinary.
“Falling this way, not only does it hurt, it’s embarrassing,” Dodgers center fielder Kiké Hernández said.
After winning 106 games in 2021, the Dodgers were eliminated in the League Championship Series by the Atlanta Braves, who had 18 fewer wins.
After winning a big league-best 111 games last year, Los Angeles was knocked out in the Division Series by San Diego, which had 22 fewer wins.
And after winning 100 games this season, the Dodgers were swept by Arizona, which had 16 fewer wins.
Clayton Kershaw, Bobby Miller and Lance Lynn, who gave up four solo homers in the third inning of Game 3 against Arizona, combined to go 0-3 with a 25.07 ERA, .571 opponents’ batting average and 1.809 opponents’ OPS. They lasted a combined 4 2/3 innings, the fewest outs for a team’s starters over the first three games of a postseason series, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
An overtaxed bullpen had to get 64 of 78 outs.
The offense fizzled, too, following five off days caused by a first-round bye.
Los Angeles scored a team-record 906 runs during the regular season, second in the majors behind the Braves. The Dodgers scored two runs in each game against the Diamondbacks and hit .177.
Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, who combined for 68 homers and 209 RBI during the regular season, finished the series 1 for 21. With the potential tying run at the plate in the eighth inning, Betts struck out and dropped to 0 for 11, and Freeman whiffed and fell to 1 for 10.
“Me and a lot of us didn’t play the way we wanted to,” Freeman said. “I had pitches to hit all night and rolled them over, just like I’ve been doing for five weeks.”
Betts is 3 for 38 (.079) over his last 10 postseason games.
“I did absolutely nothing to help us win,” Betts said. “You can point to a million different things, but at the end of the day, you got to play well.”
Betts, Freeman, Max Muncy and J.D. Martinez all topped 100 RBI during the season. They combined for one RBI against the Diamondbacks, on Martinez’s Game 2 solo homer.
“Going back to last year and this year, we’ve had a lot of runners in scoring position and we didn’t get the big hit,” Muncy said. “And in the postseason, the team that gets that big hit is the team that’s going to win. We just didn’t do that at all for last several years and it cost us.”
Kershaw, a 10-time All-Star and 210-game winner, completed a $20 million, one-year contract and hasn’t said whether he intends to pitch next season. He was in line to pitch Game 4 on Thursday,
“Disappointing no matter how it ends if you don’t win the whole thing, so, obviously, this one hurts a lot just because of how it went down,” Kershaw said. “Obviously, a horrible way to end it personally but that’s ultimately not important. It’s just how I didn’t help the team win the series and that’s the most disappointing part, letting your guys down.”
DIAMONDBACKS: Andrew Saalfrank got the final out of the seventh inning in a crucial moment of the NL Division Series, and fellow Arizona reliever Ryan Thompson was the first one out of the dugout – giving the left-hander a hearty handshake and hug.
A few minutes later, Kevin Ginkel handled the eighth, striking out Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
Forgive even the most seasoned baseball fan for asking: Who are these guys?
The three D-backs relievers are part of a no-name bullpen that’s been fantastic during the team’s unlikely run to the NL Championship Series. Arizona swept aside the Los Angeles Dodgers in the best-of-five NLDS, clubbing a postseason-record four homers in the third inning of Game 3 in a 4-2 victory.
It’s the franchise’s first trip to the NLCS since 2007.
“There is an underdog, brotherhood, whatever you want to call it, with us,” Ginkel said. “We have so many young guys, but then some veterans who balance everything out. It’s just love and appreciation. For me, I’m just proud.
“We were not handed anything this year.”
The combo of Joe Mantiply, Thompson, Saalfrank, Ginkel and closer Paul Sewald has given up just two earned runs on 12 hits over 17 1/3 postseason innings in five games.
“The fact that you have four, five or six guys that you trust to go out there is the difference – instead of just one or two,” Sewald said. “I’m excited to be the closer in that group, but I’m just one of the guys.”
BLUE JAYS: Team president Mark Shapiro announced that Ross Atkins will return as general manager next season but acknowledged the team needs to perform better in the playoffs.
Shapiro also called for “a higher level of transparency and communication” with players around game planning. The Blue Jays finished 89-73 and claimed an AL wild-card berth, their third in four seasons. But Toronto was swept out of the playoffs for the third straight appearance, scoring one run in two losses at Minnesota.
“We need to get better,” Shapiro said at a season-ending news conference. “I’m not satisfied with where we are, Ross isn’t satisfied with where we are. We need to get better.”
Toronto has made four wild-card appearances since Atkins became GM before the 2016 season. The Blue Jays lost to Cleveland in five games in the 2016 ALCS and haven’t won a postseason game since.
“The goal is to play deeper into October,” Shapiro said. “I think at one point, playing meaningful games in September was probably enough. That’s not enough anymore. We need to get deeper into October, for sure.”
Shapiro said he understood fan frustration with Toronto’s latest early playoff exit and acknowledged the year had been difficult.
“This season was a grind,” he said. “It was not ever easy. It was extremely frustrating and it was challenging. I’m not sure why. We still won 89 games. But, you know, I’ve been in the game 32 years and I can’t remember a season that felt like it was more of an effort.”
Toronto’s payroll of $210 million ranked seventh in baseball, and Shapiro said the Blue Jays are likely to continue to spend.
“I don’t expect a dramatic philosophical shift in payroll next year,” he said. “I expect us to stay in the same area. We can support that for now.”
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