"What A Debacle" Failure Of A Season
Thirty-one years is the magic number.
Does anyone understand what this shameful number indicates? It represents the numbers of years the Los Angeles Dodgers have gone without a championship.
How has this happened to such a historically winning franchise?
I understand teams can go on long championship droughts - the Boston Red Sox went 86 years without a title, only slightly less humiliating than the Chicago Cubs, who held out for 108 years.
It happens.
But these are the Dodgers, man.
I know that Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Kirk Gibson, Jackie Robinson, and Tommy Lasorda are not walking through that door to save this team. But quite frankly, the current Dodgers roster is even more dominant than those World Series teams.
Except - the Dodgers are missing the "IT" and "clutch" factors from players in the big moments in the postseason. And, it's quite clear they are missing the "clutch" factor from many of their star players, which is becoming a huge problem year after year.
The Los Angeles Dodgers went 106-56 during the regular season, a franchise record for wins in a season.
They led Major League Baseball in team ERA with a 3.37, led the National League in runs per game at 5.44, and were second in team batting average with a .257 slash line.
The boys in blue were carried by MVP candidate Cody Bellinger, who set the regular season on fire with his 14 home runs in the first month of April. He finished the year with a .305 batting average, 47 home runs, and 115 RBI.
Thankfully, it wasn't just Cody Bellinger playing well on the field.
Max Muncy, Joc Pederson, Justin Turner, Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, and Hyun- Jin Ryu all contributed with dominant years of their own.
You noticed I didn't mention Kenley Jansen or Joe Kelly. Trust me, I didn't forget them - that's just a topic for another time.
The Dodgers led the National League with five players making the All-Star game as well, which is an honor.
As you are reading this, I'm sure you are wondering with these stats how could the season be such a failure?
But let's fast-forward to the postseason.
The Washington Nationals came to Chavez Ravine for a 5-game series in the NLDS, which can be a crapshoot since it's a short series. You have to win the National League Division Series to get to the National League Championship Series, and if you are lucky enough to win that, to the World Series.
The Nationals looked like a starving pack of wolves when they arrived in Los Angeles.
They were hungry, focused, and loose after their comeback victory against the Milwaukee Brewers in the Wild Card game launched them to a dance with the mighty Dodgers.
After the first game of the series, the Nationals didn't look like an angry pack of wolves. They looked more like wolf cubs in their Game 1 loss 6-0.
That did not last long. Stephen Strasburg punched out 10 Dodger batters (Dodgers struck out 17 times that night) in six innings of work, and the Nats did just enough to scrape three runs off Clayton Kershaw early to steal a 4-2 win in Los Angeles.
Game 3 in DC was a blowout for the Dodgers, who dominated the Nationals 10-4. Juan Soto started the scoring for the Nationals with a two-run homer, but the Dodgers scored seven runs in the Top of the 6th inning to ultimately put the game out of reach.
Game 4 was another story.
Justin Turner smoked a solo home run in the first inning off Max Scherzer to get the Dodgers a lead for about three innings, until Rich Hill started to lose his command.
Anthony Rendon tied the game in the third inning with a sacrifice fly, and in the fifth, he singled to take a 2-1 lead. Washington's first draft pick in 2005, Ryan Zimmerman, tomahawked a 97 MPH fastball for a three-run homer in the fifth off Pedro Baez to seal the deal for a 6-1 win.
Game 5 was one of the best and most depressing baseball games I have ever seen. There were an insane amount of highs and lows throughout that 4 1/2-hour battle.
The Dodgers took an early 3-0 lead after two innings on Max Muncy’s and Kike Hernandez’s home runs off Stephen Strasburg. It was looking like it was going to be a blowout early on, and of course, me being a fan, I declared the game over.
But baseball is the most unpredictable sport there is.
Of course, the Dodgers didn't score another run the rest of the game. But it looked like they didn't need to, because Walker Buehler dominated through 6 2/3 innings.
For some odd reason, the Dodgers front office and Dave Roberts agreed that using Clayton Kershaw out of the bullpen in a high-leverage situation was the best way to bridge the gap to Kenley Jansen/whoever our closer was that night.
Dave Roberts made me eat my words for about 5 minutes, when he struck out Adam Eaton on three pitches with the bases loaded.
But the debacle started in the top of the 8th inning.
After Kershaw fell behind on a 2-0 count on Anthony Rendon, he threw a good slider low and in, but Rendon somehow hit it out of the park, and it was 3-2.
Amazingly, still in the game, Kershaw threw the worst slider of his career to Juan Soto, who of course hit it 450 feet into the bleachers.
The crowd was dead quiet like a funeral, as Kershaw took one knee on the mound, completely shocked at what had just happened.
Joe Kelly gave up a grand slam in the 10th inning to Howie Kendrick to complete the collapse, and many hearts were broken that night. Like they are every year.
Do not blame Clayton Kershaw for the loss. He should have never been in the game. It's time to look at the front office and the putrid offense for the annual October failure.
For L.A. this series was hitting with runners on, and they had about four players in the lineup that were pretty much automatic outs.
Some not-so-good numbers from the NLDS:
A.J. Pollock: 0-13, 11 K’s
Cody Bellinger: .211 AVG, 0 RBI
Will Smith: .077 AVG
Corey Seager: .150 AVG, 0-8 w/ RISP
Clayton Kershaw: 7.11 ERA
Joe Kelly: 23.14 ERA
Those numbers are just flat-out embarrassing. You won't win anything like that, ever. It's also sad because these are players you NEED to succeed if you want to advance in the playoffs.
It's starting to become an annual thing for the Dodgers to collapse when it comes to the postseason, and fans are tired of seeing top players not show up on the biggest stage.
It is going to be a long winter in the city of Angels.