The Los Angeles Dodgers were eliminated by the San Diego Padres in the NLDS, and first baseman Freddie Freeman has spoken out about it.
The Los Angeles Dodgers were eliminated from the playoffs by the San Diego Padres on Saturday night. The Dodgers were the favorites, but the underdogs ended up winning.
Los Angeles first baseman Freddie Freeman spoke out on the issue and said, “October baseball can be brutal,” according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.
Freeman is right. It’s certainly crazy to think that a team with the best record in the 2022 season and one of the best regular season records ever was beaten by its division opponent, but the underdogs in this case certainly have a lot talented.
October baseball can be brutal, and anything can happen. Both teams deserved to make the playoffs, but it’s good to see that San Diego has a chance to advance to the World Series.
The Padres beat their biggest rival, the Dodgers, which is a huge achievement.
The Padres are a much smaller market team than the Dodgers and they don’t have as many resources. They struggled to maintain any consistency during the regular season, and few saw them as capable of beating a team like the Dodgers in a five-game series.
They did, however, use what they could during the season to set themselves up for success. One of the biggest moves they made was acquiring Juan Soto at the trade deadline. Soto was the biggest target and turned down what would have been the biggest expansion in MLB history ($440 million), which certainly showed what they are capable of from a front office perspective.
They surprised just about everyone by knocking the Dodgers out of the playoffs. After an 89-73 run in 2022 and trailing Los Angeles by 22 games, it seemed almost guaranteed they wouldn’t overtake the NLDS. It’s one of the many reasons October baseball is amazing.
San Diego is now one round away from the World Series. They have not come this close to winning the championship since 1998, their last appearance in the World Series. They will certainly be fun to watch during the playoffs and they will face the Philadelphia Phillies for the title.
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