The Los Angeles Dodgers followed up their best-in-baseball regular season campaign of 111 wins in disappointing fashion after falling short in their first round of the postseason against the San Diego Padres.
In the best-of-five National League Division Series matchup, the Dodgers dropped three consecutive games after taking Game 1 over the Padres to suffer elimination Saturday.
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman spoke with members of the media Wednesday and offered some direct accountability on behalf of the organization.
“The expectations here are incredibly high and that’s awesome,” Friedman said, per SportsNetLA video. “I love how passionate our fans are. Those expectations are shared by everyone that works here. In the front office, in the coach’s room, Dave (Roberts), our players. I personally don’t think the criticism that Dave has received has been fair. I think it’s human nature to want to point the finger at someone. And I feel like this was an organizational failure in the postseason.”
The star-studded Dodgers lineup, which finished first in runs during the regular season among Major League Baseball, finished eighth among teams in Fall Classic contention — scoring just 12 in four games while allowing 31 to the Padres.
“We put ourselves in the very best position you can to go out and win 11 games in October,” Friedman said. “We didn’t come close to doing that. I think there are fairly clear answers as to why and others that aren’t as clear.”
The Dodgers entered the postseason as +340 favorites to win the World Series, according to DraftKings Sportsbook. That would’ve given the franchise its second title in three seasons.
