The Los Angeles Dodgers’ postseason run came to an end on Wednesday night after being swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League Division Series. It marked another disappointing end to what was otherwise a good season.
The Dodgers won 100 games despite all of their injuries and roster turnover en route to another NL West title. But like last year with their NLDS loss to the San Diego Padres, they came out flat when it mattered most.
“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,” 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.
“I think we’ve got great players. I’ve got to figure out a way to get these guys prepared for whatever format, whatever series. Yeah, the regular season, I think we do a great job. But the last couple of postseasons it just hasn’t gone well for us and so I’ve got to figure it out.”
Making the Dodgers’ last two postseason eliminations all the more frustrating was that they had at least 15 more wins than their opponent and held the edge in head-to-head meetings.
“I don’t know the answer, and it’s ironic that these are teams that we’re very familiar with,” Roberts said of the team’s struggles against the Padres and Diamondbacks.
“And so why, you get in a series and it gets flipped on its head, I just don’t know that answer. The easy answer is, like I said earlier, they just outplayed us. Their starters went deep. They got leads and we were playing from behind the whole series and their offense was better.
“Regardless of who you play, if you’re getting beat on those facets of the game, you’re just not going to win. I don’t know the answer to that. I really don’t.”
Chris Taylor: ‘No magic answer’ for Dodgers’ postseason struggles
Chris Taylor also had difficulty explaining the Dodgers’ recent postseason struggles. “I don’t know. I think we just didn’t play well. It’s as simple as that,” Taylor said.
“I don’t think there’s a magic answer. It’s not like, if we did this, we would’ve won. At the end of the day they played better than we did.
“When you get to this late in the season, usually the hot team win. They’re feeling good right now and playing their best baseball all year, I think. And we were probably playing the worst baseball we did all year.”
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