The Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball's best team during the regular season, were eliminated from the playoffs on Saturday night after losing Game 4 of their National League Division Series to the San Diego Padres. The Dodgers will now begin their offseason having officially won 112 games of consequence this year: 111 of those came during the regular season, and just one during the postseason.
The Dodgers, then, will not make good on the World Series guarantee made by manager Dave Roberts back in the spring. "We are winning the World Series. Put it on record," he said as part of a radio show appearance.
Who could blame Roberts for his confidence? After all, the Dodgers tied for the fourth-most wins in a single season since 1900. Their plus-334 run differential was more than the best in the majors: it was the best since the 1939 New York Yankees -- you know, the Yankees who rostered Joe DiMaggio, Red Rolfe, Joe Gordon, and other recognizable names.
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It's not a stretch to write that the Dodgers were one of the best regular-season teams of all-time. They just won't have a ring or a trophy or a banner to show for it. That's the beauty and the agony of baseball's postseason, isn't it? You can dominate the regular season, then find yourself on the golf course after four measly games. Now, you can argue that the playoffs aren't the best method to crown the top team; you can argue, with every new postseason expansion, that crowning the top team isn't the intent at all: it's about making an unholy amount of blessed American dollars. You'd be right. (You can also argue that the form and the function don't mean a dang thing since the result is a month of exciting, hectic, high-stakes baseball. You'd be right about that, too.)
"Shock factor, very high. Disappointment, very high. It's crushing," Roberts said after Saturday's season-ending loss. "Each guy gave everything they had all year long, and a tremendous season. The great thing about baseball is the unpredictability, and the tough thing about it is the same thing. Things could have gone either way today to impact the result of the game. It didn't. We got beat in a series. Nothing I can say is going to make it feel any better. Obviously we didn't expect to be in this position."
The Dodgers simply found themselves on the wrong side of the chaos machine three times in four games. It happens. Really, it happens. Seven teams have won at least 110 games since 1900: four of them, including some from the olden days, before there were several rounds to the playoffs, failed to win the World Series. Take a look:
2001 Seattle Mariners (116 wins): Won their division series in five games against Cleveland, but then lost in five games to the New York Yankees in the League Championship Series. 1906 Chicago Cubs (116 wins): No Wild Card, Division, or Championship Series to speak of back then. The Cubs did win two World Series games, but they still lost that series to the Chicago White Sox in six games.1998 New York Yankees (114 wins): The Yankees went 11-2 in October en route to a championship, sweeping both their Division and World Series foes (the Texas Rangers and San Diego Padres). 2022 Los Angeles Dodgers (111 wins): Well, you know.1954 Cleveland (111 wins): It could be worse, Dodgers fans? Cleveland was swept 4-0 in the World Series by the New York Giants, making it the only team in history to win 110 or more regular season games without securing a single playoff victory. (Obviously this was before postseason expansion, so take that statistic with a grain of salt.)1927 New York Yankees (110 wins): They're one of the best known teams in baseball history for a reason. The Yankees swept the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-0 in the World Series. Babe Ruth launched two home runs, the only two launched in the entire series.1909 Pittsburgh Pirates (110 wins): The Pirates, led by a fellow named Honus Wagner, required seven games to defeat the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.None of this philosophy or context will take the sting out of the Dodgers' postseason failures. They're assuredly a disappointment relative to the expectations set forth by their tremendous regular season. But what they're going through isn't a new experience. It's been lived through before, and it'll be lived through again. The Dodgers' NLDS loss is just how baseball goes. Sometimes, it doesn't have to be deeper than that.
