Dodgers season ends in the NLCS: ‘We just didn’t get it done’

The Dodgers season is over earlier than they hoped, ending with a defeat in Game 6 of the NLCS in Atlanta.

“We were ready to play through October. We just didn’t get it done,” manager Dave Roberts said after the loss. “But when you take hits like we took, there’s still — I don’t know, it’s tough because I don’t want to take anything away from the Braves. They beat us in a series. We put our best foot forward. We fought. And they beat us in a series.”

Here’s a tour around the baseball world with reaction to all of it.

Links

• From Jorge Castillo’s game recap at the Los Angeles Times: “The result will be remembered as a stunning conclusion. The Dodgers won 106 games during the regular season, matching the franchise record and 18 more than the Braves. Their payroll was $100 million more expensive than Atlanta’s operation. They were the clear favorites to claim back-to-back championships for the first time in franchise history after surviving the division series against the San Francisco Giants, the only team in the majors with more wins during the regular season.”
• Bill Plunkett at the Orange County Register wrote that in the end the Dodgers just didn’t have enough.
• Plunkett also has more on Max Scherzer’s “overcooked” arm.
• Juan Toribio at MLB.com summarized the Dodgers injuries: “In the end, the Dodgers were unable to overcome a string of injuries at the most inopportune time. They lost left-handed ace Clayton Kershaw to a left elbow injury on Oct. 1. Two days later, Max Muncy was also lost for the season. In the postseason, the Dodgers lost Joe Kelly and Justin Turner.”
• The Dodgers pitching imploded because of bad decisions and bad luck, says Andy McCullough at The Athletic.
• Bill Shaikin at the Los Angeles Times writes about the bills that will come due for the Dodgers after an expensive 2021.
• From Chad Moriyama’s Game 6 recap at Dodgers Digest: “It is unfair in many respects to call a team that won so many games and made it to the NLCS a disappointment, but when a collection of talent comes together like this, the expectations understandably follow and it’s hard to describe how 2021 ended as anything but that.”
• The Dodgers postseason pitching experiment was a failure, says Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times.
• A grueling season and too many injuries doomed the Dodgers, says Waffle House aficionado Bill Plaschke of the LA Times.
• The Dodgers’ elimination extended MLB’s run of no repeat World Series champion to 21 years. Andrew Simon at MLB.com has more.