PHOENIX (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers’ third straight 100-win season led to a third consecutive postseason flop.
A three-game Division Series sweep by the Arizona Diamondbacks that ended with a 4-2 defeat Wednesday night highlighted how much expanded playoffs have devalued the regular season.
Los Angeles has reached the playoffs in 11 straight years, the third-longest streak in major league history behind the Atlanta Braves’ 14 from 1991-2005 around the 1994 strike and the New York Yankees’ 13 from 1995-2007.
The Dodgers won the NL West in 10 of those seasons, yet their only World Series in that span was following the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Led by manager Dave Roberts, they have 100 or more wins in five of the last six full seasons.
Expectations once again were high this year, with a starry roster and a $222 million opening-day payroll, baseball’s fifth highest.
From April through September, they set the standard. Then in October, they turned so ordinary.
After winning 106 games in 2021, the Dodgers were eliminated in the League Championship Series by the Atlanta Braves, who had 18 fewer wins.
After winning a big league-best 111 games last year, Los Angeles was knocked out in the Division Series by San Diego, which had 22 fewer wins.
And after winning 100 games this season, the Dodgers were swept by Arizona, which had 16 fewer wins.
Clayton Kershaw, Bobby Miller and Lance Lynn, who gave up four solo homers in the third inning, combined to go 0-3 with a 25.07 ERA, .571 opponents’ batting average and 1.809 opponents’ OPS. They lasted a combined 4 2/3 innings, the fewest outs for a team's starters over the first three games of a postseason series, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
An overtaxed bullpen had to get 64 of 78 outs.
Offense fizzled, too, following five off days caused by a first-round bye.
Los Angeles scored a team-record 906 runs during the regular season, second in the majors behind the Braves. The Dodgers scored two runs in each game against the Diamondbacks and hit .177.
Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, who combined for 68 homers and 209 RBIs during the regular season, finished the series 1 for 21. With the potential tying run on base in the eighth inning, Betts struck out and dropped to 0 for 11 and Freeman whiffed and fell to 1 for 10.
Betts is 3 for 38 (.079) over his last 10 postseason games.
Betts, Freeman, Max Muncy and J.D. Martinez all topped 100 RBIs during the season. They combined for one against the Diamondbacks, on Martinez’s Game 2 solo homer.
When Kiké Hernández flied out and the Dodgers were swept in a postseason series for the first time since 2006, Freeman pounded the dugout rail twice. Martinez stared and walked down the runway,
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