But the lineup once again struggled to produce timely hits. The Dodgers' bullpen gave their offense a chance in Game 3, much like it did in Game 2. I don't know what that means, but yeah, just go from there." "That's the most important thing - letting the guys down, things like that. It's just how I didn't help the team win this series," said Kershaw, who will go into another offseason uncertain whether he will retire. "Obviously, a horrible way to end it, personally, but that's ultimately not important. They allowed 13 runs off 16 hits and three walks during that stretch, putting their offense in an uphill battle on a consistent basis. Kershaw, Miller and Lynn combined to throw just 4⅔ innings, the fewest ever for the first three games of a postseason round. This year, the Dodgers entered the postseason with their starting pitchers as compromised as ever - and it showed more glaringly than they could have imagined. These past 10 years have seen them put together one of the most successful regular-season stretches in baseball history, but it has resulted in only one championship, accomplished during the pandemic-shortened season of 2020. The Dodgers won 100-plus games in 2019, 2021, 20 and were eliminated in their first playoff series in three of those years, the lone exception being a 2021 season that ended at the hands of the eventual-champion Atlanta Braves in the NL Championship Series. But the last couple of postseasons, it just hasn't gone well for us, and so I've got to figure it out." "Yeah, the regular season, I think we do a great job. I've got to figure out a way to get these guys prepared for whatever format, whatever series. For me, I've got to do a better job of figuring out a way to get our guys prepared for the postseason. "It doesn't matter if it was a seven-game series we lost the first three games. "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 gotten outplayed in the postseason," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. In each of the past two years, they were defeated in the NLDS by a division rival they previously dominated - first by the San Diego Padres then by Arizona, both in the wake of relatively long layoffs. It marked the third straight year the Dodgers were eliminated in the postseason by a team they finished more than 15 games better than during the regular season. The Dodgers became only the second team in baseball history to win 100 games during the regular season and never have so much as a lead during an ensuing postseason series, joining the 1963 New York Yankees, who were swept in the World Series by the Dodgers of another time. In Game 3, Arizona took a 4-0 lead off four third-inning home runs against Lance Lynn - the major league leader in homers allowed - and didn't need much else. The D-backs, 16 wins worse than the Dodgers during the regular season, scored six first-inning runs off Clayton Kershaw in Game 1 and three first-inning runs off Bobby Miller in Game 2. "There's not a lot of words other than hurt, disappointed, frustrated. "They kept punching us in the face, and we weren't able to get back up," Los Angeles utility man Enrique Hernandez said after a 4-2, season-ending loss in Game 3 of this National League Division Series. This time it was a young, scrappy, confident Arizona team that bludgeoned their starting pitchers, suffocated their best hitters and hardly ever let the 100-win Dodgers come up for oxygen. As the Arizona Diamondbacks' rowdy celebration transitioned from their clubhouse to the Chase Field pool and back late Wednesday night, the Los Angeles Dodgers shuffled through the visiting clubhouse quietly, solemnly, another exhilarating summer spilling into a disheartening autumn, an all-too-familiar outcome for an otherwise triumphant franchise. PHOENIX - The suddenness has become common, but it hasn't become easier. 'Disappointed' Dodgers make another early postseason exit You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser
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