The Los Angeles Dodgers were eliminated from the postseason by a team that had at least 15 fewer wins than them during the regular season for a third consecutive year, which has only happened six times in MLB history.
In 2021, the 107-win Dodgers lost in the National League Championship Series to the 88-win Atlanta Braves. In 2022, the 111-win Dodgers were defeated by the 89-win San Diego Padres, and this year, the 100-win Dodgers were swept by the 84-win Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Dodgers fell to the Padres and Diamondbacks NL Division Series.
That has left the Dodgers searching for answers on their October struggles, with Chris Taylor saying there’s “no magic answer” while manager Dave Roberts acknowledging he needs to improve with preparing the team.
For Max Muncy, he attributes their postseason failures to needing to get hot at the right time and playing better baseball while running into the teams that end up executing better.
“I don’t like using ‘underdog’ or ‘favorite’ or any of that when you get to the postseason,” Muncy said during the NLDS. “There’s 30 teams out there, and yet there’s only a handful that make it to the postseason. In my mind, once you’re in the postseason, every team is as good as any other team.
“In terms of on paper, that doesn’t matter. You see it every year. It’s not necessarily always the best team that wins. It’s the team that plays the best that goes out there and performs, the team that gets the hottest. Really that’s all that matters.
“Doesn’t matter if you’re an underdog or favorite. You’ve got to go out there and play the game and make sure you get the big hits when you need them, make the plays when you need them, make the pitches when you need them. That’s all it comes down to.”
The expanded postseason format may be part of the issue for the Dodgers and most teams that received a bye through the Wild Card round. Every team that won 100 or more games in the regular season was eliminated in the Division Series. The Houston Astros are the only team that received a bye and then advanced to the League Championship Series.
Roberts has pointed out baseball has a rhythm to it, so the idea of stopping for nearly a week and then needing to pick things up again with full intensity is a challenge for hitters. This format also provided the first time in MLB history that two 100-win teams were swept in a single postseason.
Max Muncy not sure if postseason format is to blame
When Muncy was asked if playing in the Wild Card Series would be more beneficial, he said he couldn’t answer that “without having done the other one.”
“So for us, this is the second year we’ve had this format. We’ve been off both times. I don’t know what it’s like on the other side, so I can’t really answer that question fairly,” Muncy added. “I could say that, yeah, we’d rather be playing right away or not.
But the reality is if you have the days off, you’re one of the top seeds and you have home-field advantage. And really when you think about it, that’s the most important thing. But I can’t give you a fair answer because we haven’t done the other side.”
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