The Los Angeles Dodgers put together a historic regular season in which they tied a franchise record with 106 wins but still went into the postseason via the National League Wild Card Game.
L.A. defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in the single-elimination matchup and proceeded to avenge their streak of NL West titles being snapped by advancing past the San Francisco Giants. However, their postseason run came to an end at the hands of the Atlanta Braves in the NL Championship Series.
“First off, let me just congratulate the Braves, the entire organization, Brian, his staff, Alex, his staff and what they did, the players, coaches. Those guys did a fantastic job and they beat us in a series. So wish them well,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after the Game 6 loss.
Roberts additionally shared details of his final time addressing players for the year, which highlighted what the Dodgers accomplished in totality even with falling short of their ultimate goal.
“I think for my message to our guys, basically it was a tremendous season. It was a heck of a year,” Roberts said. “Going through a lot of different things that we went through that no one talked about, no one needed to talk about, and didn’t let it affect our performance, that’s something I was proud of.
“To win 106 games, to go through a Wild Card Game, to then be pushed in a five-game series against a division rival, to come out of that, and to be two wins away from going to the World Series.
“I think for me I wanted those guys to be proud of that because the entire organization — not just the guys in the room — there’s people that all across our organization that worked really hard for this season and to say that it was a lost season or a wasted season or anything, you’ve never been in Major League clubhouse and understand the sacrifices that people make.
“So it’s still not lost on any of us that we didn’t accomplish our goal. But for me I’m giving credit to the Braves because they outplayed us, plain and simple.”
Roberts: Dodgers had ‘fulfilling’ year
The message Roberts delivered to the clubhouse after the disappointing finish at Truist Park echoed a perspective he previously shared even with the Giants snapping the Dodgers’ streak of NL West titles at eight.
“Obviously the ultimate goal is to win a championship, but I will say the people that don’t appreciate what an organization does over the course of six months and thinks it’s a waste, they have no clue,” Roberts said earlier this month.
“It discredits everyone putting a lot of time into this whole operation, the day to day. I say that still expecting to win a championship this year. But to discredit in any way the regular season is very, very shortsighted and very ignorant.”
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