The Los Angeles Dodgers saw their season come to an end much sooner than they would have anticipated and hoped as they were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League Division Series.
The result made unfortunate MLB history for the Dodgers as they joined with the Baltimore Orioles to mark the first time that multiple 100-win teams were swept in a single year during the postseason.
In addition, the Dodgers have been eliminated by a team that had at least 15 fewer wins in the regular season in each of their last three playoff appearances, which has only happened six times in MLB history.
“Kind of frustrated, kind of disappointed,” Kiké Hernández said after the Dodgers were swept. “You could say embarrassed with the way the whole series went. They kept punching us in the face and we weren’t able to get back up. It’s hard. There’s just not a lot of words other than hurt, disappointed, frustrated and a little bit embarrassed.”
The Dodgers had their chances to score and tie Game 3, or take the lead multiple times throughout the NLDS, but they failed every time. The Dodgers did not hold a lead at any point during the series and totaled just six runs across the three games — or the same number of runs the Diamondbacks scored without recording an out in Game 1.
“It’s just how playoff series go,” Hernandez said of failed opportunities to drive in runs. “You’ve got to capitalize every time you have a chance. You only get so many chances, and it just seemed like it was the repetitive story or narrative, whatever way you want to word it. We just weren’t able to capitalize.
“Regardless of what they did, for us as a group, with the guys that we have, only score two runs each game. Not taking anything away from their pitching staff. They have a great pitching staff, and that’s why they’re here. They have a really young group with a lot of hunger, and they just played better.
“There’s no other way of putting it. We fell short and didn’t capitalize on the few opportunities that we had.”
Hernández was inserted into the Dodgers lineup for Game 3 and put together his best effort to help the offense, finishing 2-for-4 as one of the two players to reach base multiple times, joining Will Smith.
Dave Roberts acknowledges need to prepare Dodgers better
The Dodgers still managed to win 100 games this season 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.”
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