They hit their magic number, but minus the magic.
The Dodgers trudged toward October by clinching their 13th National League West title in 14 years on Thursday, their customary march mired in a quicksand of questions.
Has any Dodger team during this golden era entered the playoffs with more injuries, more uncertainty, and a greater fear of underachievement?
Will the party in Cincinnati be the last time they celebrate this season?
The magic is indeed missing, and after two seasons of conjuring up postseason greatness, these back-to-reality Dodgers appear headed for an early fall.
The Three-Peat looks like a no-go.
Despite the best efforts from baseball’s best braintrust, their latest creation simply doesn’t have the appearance of a championship team.
They’re aging, they’re hurting and, with only a couple of weeks left until the beginning of their annual autumnal angst, they look tired and taut and unprepared for this monumental tussle with history.
“I think for me, the message was, ‘We haven’t come close to playing our best baseball yet.’” manager Dave Roberts told reporters when relaying his speech to the team earlier this week upon clinching a record-tying 14th consecutive playoff berth.
He added, “The message was, we’ve accomplished a lot up to this point, all the while not playing our best baseball. So let’s get some of these guys healthy.”
Haven’t come close to playing our best baseball… Let’s get some of these guys healthy.
Not exactly “Win one for the Gipper” stuff, but completely accurate. These postseason’s themes are more realistic than inspirational, and for good reason.
No, they haven’t come close to playing their best baseball. Forget what you see in these season-ending games against some of the worst teams. Remember, instead, what they’ve done against some of baseball’s best.
Since the All-Star break, they are 4-12 against the five National League playoff contenders. The Atlanta Braves swept them. The Chicago Cubs swept them. The Milwaukee Brewers dominated them.
These teams will be waiting for them in October, and even baseball’s richest roster might not be enough to carry this staggered bunch through their toughest stretch. They’ve played a lot of games in three years, all under baseball’s brightest spotlight, every night, scores of media, millions of fans, a worldwide whirl for 28 regular dudes, and it’s finally taken its toll.
They’ve hit the wall… and the wall is about to hit back.
“It’s not easy, I think it’s a lot harder than people think it is,” said Roberts. “Human nature alone, when you’re hungry, when you’re chasing something, it’s a lot more easy to be motivated, versus, having been there, done that, it gets a little trite, a little old.”
He added: “To keep guys enthusiastic, focused, hungry, that’s harder. But to their credit, they stayed the course. And for me, we’re just as hungry as we were in ‘24 and ‘25. This is a separate season. Our guys understand.”
The 1988-89 Lakers understood, too. And they still got burned in ways that Dodger fans will find painfully familiar. Showtime was chasing the original “three-peat” trademarked by Pat Riley when the Lakers were swept by the Detroit Pistons in a Finals that seemed cursed,
Byron Scott missed the series with a hamstring injury and Magic Johnson essentially missed the final two games with a hamstring injury and they couldn’t survive.
This looks like the Dodgers today. Their injuries feel too major, and the impact too deep.
Start with Shohei Ohtani. The Dodgers haven’t won a full-season championship in 38 years without him at the top of the lineup. He’ll be there again, but his body has been breaking down for the last couple of months, and, before being recently placed on the injured list — finally! — he was only a shadow of himself.
He hasn’t hit a home run or driven in a run outside of Coors Field in more than a month. In his last 24 games before going on the IL with biceps and knee issues, he was batting .198. The Dodgers can’t admit it, and Ohtani would never acknowledge it, but this is a man in serious need of an extended rest.
Also on the injured list in these final days is Andy Pages, who was having a career year before breaking his hand. He’ll return without much time to get ready for October, and this is a man who will need some time, as he has a career .114 average in the postseason and was even benched last year before he redeemed himself with that picturesque catch over Kiké Hernández.
Speaking of last October’s heroes, the biggest savior has also spent the summer in pain, Will Smith battling neck issues until recently returning to the lineup. But the comeback has been bumpy. In his initial games since returning at the start of September, Smith was batting .171. Last October he set a major league record by catching 73 innings in the World Series. He is still paying the price.
Then there’s Freddie Freeman, whose bat doesn’t have the same pop, who’s step doesn’t have the same spring, and who has his worst OPS in 14 years. Add an inconsistent Mookie Betts and an incredibly streaky Teoscar Hernández to an already-shaky lineup.
It’s been such an unsteady year, Andrew Friedman’s two big offseason acquisitions have been busts. Edwin Díaz has been terrible, and then injured, then terrible again. Kyle Tucker has been terrible, then worse, then mostly invisible.
Even the Dodgers two role-playing heroes have seemingly disappeared. Kiké Hernández, at age 35, has his lowest home-run total — three — in 12 years. Miguel Rojas, at age 37, has his lowest home run and RBI totals in nine years.
As if they didn’t have enough problems on the field and at the plate, check out the mound. No, don’t.
Even what should be their strength is now being threatened. Blake Snell left Wednesday’s game early with groin issues and Tyler Glasnow recently complained of general discomfort. This leaves a proven playoff rotation of two, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tarik Skubal, and if you think Yamamoto threw a lot of innings last October, this time he won’t be able to leave the mound for a month.
In all, this is a Dodger team facing its toughest challenge yet, their quest for an historic three-peat much tougher than the last two journeys, one that will require arguably the greatest stretch of baseball in franchise history to complete.
This division title is a nice beginning.
It could also be the end.
The post No more bubbly — NL West champion Dodgers appear headed for early fall appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
