In the third game of their National League Division Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday night, the Los Angeles Dodgers experienced a unique form of baseball humiliation. Dodgers pitcher Lance Lynn turned into a successful launch pad for four home runs in the third inning against Arizona. That was the most home runs a team has ever hit in a single playoff inning, and it was made even more absurd by a second attempt at a home shot that went just outside the foul pole. The following pitch resulted in a legitimate home run, and Arizona’s four runs in the inning were enough to secure a 4-2 victory and the D-backs’ three-game sweep. Despite winning 100 games during the regular season, the Dodgers did not win any playoff games.
The Dodgers have faced a variety of issues in prior postseasons. The team’s pitching staff collapsed, which led to the early exit this fall. Walker Buehler, Tony Gonsolin, and Dustin May were the three key starters that the team was missing since they all had to get arm surgery. Julio Urias, the fourth, was arrested for domestic violence twice and is currently on administrative leave. In Game 1, the Dodgers turned to Clayton Kershaw, a future hall of famer who hasn’t been the same since suffering an injury of his own this summer. Kershaw was destroyed in the opening inning. In Game 2, they passed the ball to star rookie Bobby Miller, who was unable to get past the second. Furthermore, Lynn broke down in Game 3 as the Diamondbacks staged their parade of home runs. Lynn is 36 years old.
Against Arizona, the Dodger batters drifted off to sleep amid a pitching problem. In the three games, the team’s on-base plus slugging percentage was a pitiful.498 (compared to.795 during the regular season). The three most effective hitters in LA—designated hitter JD Martinez, first baseman Freddie Freeman, and outfielder Mookie Betts—went a combined 3-for-31. After hitting 249 home runs during the regular season—the second-most in MLB—the Dodgers managed just one.
Unlike the fleeting errors and bad luck that have so frequently plagued the Dodgers in previous Octobers, this one was a thorough meltdown from the beginning. The Houston Astros, who the world eventually found out were cheaters, defeated the 2017 Dodgers in the pivotal seventh game of the World Series at home. The Dodgers had a better than 80% probability of winning Game 5, but they lost by a score of 13–12. In 2019, the Washington Nationals won the Division Series when Kershaw and the pitching staff gave way to an unexpected late-game comeback. In the League Championship Series in 2021, the eventual winners, the Atlanta Braves, absolutely crushed LA. In four Division Series games in 2022, the Dodgers faced the San Diego Padres, who are viewed by many as a little brotherly team. This rivalry was humiliating. In that series, the Dodgers dropped three games by a total of five runs.
This playoff letdown has been replete with references to Clayton Kershaw, the left-hander who has built an enviable career out of throwing hitters off balance. In baseball circles, there will always be disagreement on the cause of the discrepancy between Kershaw’s regular-season and postseason efforts, but it is obvious. His career 2.48 earned-run average during the regular season is astounding, but even more so is the fact that it climbs to 4.49 in 194.1 innings during the postseason—nearly a full season’s worth of labor split over 12 playoff years. The shortest outing of the year will go down as the goriest of them all, as Kershaw let up six runs and only managed one out while obviously not at full strength.
