SAN DIEGO — Three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw, nonetheless in uniform, reached into the cooler to snatch a few Pacifico beers Saturday night time prior to taking flight to his locker.
Third baseman Justin Turner, the guts and soul of the crew, sat in entrance of his locker along with his head buried in his palms.
Manager Dave Roberts, who in spring coaching assured the Los Angeles Dodgers would win the World Series, stared blankly forward in an interview room.
All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman, like maximum of his teammates, temporarily dressed, and addressed newshounds in regards to the cruelty of postseason.
“October baseball,” Freeman mentioned, “can be brutal.”
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It was once an evening they by no means envisioned going down, a 5-3 loss to the San Diego Padres, their wonderful season going up in smoke in in 4 video games in the National League Division Series.
The loss despatched them house for the wintry weather, ruining their 111-victory season, leaving them in a daze, attempting to work out what took place.
“Shock factor, very high,” Roberts mentioned. “Disappointment, very high. It’s crushing.
“Nothing I will be able to say goes to make it really feel any higher.
“Obviously we didn’t expect to be in this position.”
This wasn’t meant to occur to the Dodgers. Not this 12 months. They had been too deep. Too proficient. Too wealthy. Too shrewd.
It was once the finest crew cash should buy.
They had been making plans to be on parade floats in November in downtown Los Angeles, celebrating their first World Series identify in a complete season since 1988.
They as an alternative had been left as a doubtful footnote in historical past, turning into the primary crew because the Chicago Cubs in the 1906 World Series to lose a postseason collection to a crew with 22 fewer victories.
“I don’t think any of us expected to lose tonight,” Kershaw mentioned. “I don’t think any of us expected to be going home tomorrow. It’s a weird feeling.”
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The Dodgers have no longer gained a World Series in a complete season in 34 years, so they’re used to October letdowns, however this one felt other than all the relaxation.
“Hugely disappointing how it ended,” Roberts says. “I think that right now it just stings a lot more in the moment. I don’t know how long it’s going to take to sort of look back and appreciate what we did do.”
The Dodgers would possibly by no means totally clutch what they completed in 2022, profitable essentially the most video games in franchise historical past, the second-most ever through a National League membership, and generating probably the most dominating common seasons in the previous 80 years.
Still, with a handy guide a rough first-round go out, they couldn’t assist however really feel as though it was once a fully wasted season.
“I don’t think anybody’s going to really care, you know?” Kershaw mentioned. “It’s just another good regular season.”
And but every other absolute dreadful postseason.
“When you don’t win the World Series,” Freeman mentioned, “it doesn’t topic in case you gained 80 video games or 120 video games. It’s only a sadness. …
“It doesn’t remove incontrovertible fact that this was once a in reality excellent baseball crew. We simply didn’t win the World Series this 12 months.”
Freeman, who earned his sixth All-Star nomination and will likely finish in the top five in the MVP balloting, was stopped by teammates and coaches, hugging him, telling him thanks, and congratulating him on his season.
He appreciated the sentiments, but was left with a feeling of emptiness, knowing it wasn’t good enough.
“I’ll remove that we misplaced,” Freeman said. “I’ve been in numerous October collection we idea we had been going to win, and we didn’t. There’s simply numerous sadness.
“This is what, my 13th season, and I’ve only got one World Series, so that’s a lot of disappointments that I’ve had.”
This one, in fact, would possibly sting essentially the most.
The Dodgers had been a runaway educate all season. They gained their one hundredth recreation with 3 weeks ultimate in the season. They bludgeoned their combatants, outscoring them through 334 runs, essentially the most through any crew because the 1939 New York Yankees. They led the key leagues in runs. They led the league in fewest runs allowed. Their starters led the league in ERA. Their bullpen led the league in ERA.
Everywhere you grew to become, there was once greatness.
Right up till the time they performed the Padres, a crew they’d bullied for the previous decade, beating them 23 occasions in the former 28 video games.
The Dodgers’ offense disappeared on the unsuitable time. They scored simply 12 runs and had a .227/.302/.402 slash line in the collection. They had been putrid with runners in scoring place, batting .147 that together with a zero-for-20 streak. They controlled one meager run in 16 innings in opposition to the Padres bullpen.
“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to the Padres,” mentioned Kershaw, who plans to go back for every other season. “They played really well. They had great (at-bats) the whole series, and made big pitches when they had to.
“They performed higher than us. It’s onerous to admit occasionally, but it surely’s the truthful reality that they only beat us.”
Who knows, the Padres will tell you they might have been the hungrier team. They openly questioned why the Dodgers would remove starter Tyler Anderson after he dominated them for five shutout innings, yielding just two hits. They wanted to know what was going on with their strange bullpen decisions during their meltdown in the seventh inning.
It was an inning that will haunt the Dodgers all winter, watching a 3-0 lead turn into a 5-3 deficit that they could never recover. They had gone 74-0 when having a three-run lead or greater in the seventh inning until Saturday’s debacle.
“We had a in reality nice crew,” said Dodgers All-Star right fielder Mookie Betts, who hit .143 with one extra-base hit. “Won 111 video games. It was once tremendous cool to win that many video games, but it surely way completely not anything in case you lose in the postseason.”
It will take time to fully dissect the season, but the emotions were too raw now to really ascertain why it unraveled.
“They all suck,” said Justin Turner, who hit .154 without an extra-base hit, run, or RBI. “Obviously, the purpose is to win a championship. To fall in need of that in any around doesn’t topic.”
The Padres, of course, took great pride in reaching the NLCS, knocking off the Dodgers for the first time in a playoff series in their 54-year history. To them, it was David vs. Goliath, Buster Douglas vs. Mike Tyson and the U.S. hockey team vs. the Soviet Union, all rolled into one huge underdog.
“I’d really feel the similar regardless of who we performed if we misplaced,” Turner says. “Doesn’t topic in case you win 111 video games, 88 video games, in case you get in playoffs it’s a couple of brief collection.
“It’s about winning three games. They accomplished that.”
The Dodgers gained only one recreation in the best-of-five collection, dropping in a fashion that didn’t deliver tears, however left them in search of solutions, questioning how lengthy it’ll take to get better.
“There’s certainly fans that are going to think it was a wasted season,” Roberts says. “I don’t think there’s anybody in our clubhouse, in uniform or with the Dodgers, that feels that way. But every person has their opinions, which they’re entitled.
“This one hurts.”
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