2023 NLDS: Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

All the best teams get swept this year, it’s actually a mark of great honour

😢

You have no idea how violent the swing was from innings 1-2 of “Lance Lynn is the greatest post-season pitcher the Dodgers have ever had, move over Sandy Koufax” to whatever the hell happened in the 3rd inning.

I get the Rangers, I get the Phillies. I don't get Arizona at all. They were outscored this year--they won 84 games, and they were even worse than their record. Maybe the Dodgers pitching problems are just far worse than I believed. I knew they had a patchwork rotation, but if you win 100 games, I assumed they had figured a workable way around that.

lol DBacks 1st baseman just did the splits. wonder how many of em can do that

pete alonso gets pretty out there

I can’t say much about the dbacks season, and I am by no means trying to excuse the Dodgers bad form right now, but the dbacks are playing some great baseball and while they might not be the pick in the NLCS, they’re by no means going to get dominated by either team based upon their level of play these past three games. Great pitching, great hitting, just absolutely stumping this Dodger team

Counterpoint i won’t acknowledge: The dodgers might actually just be this bad

alright now the stat guys are dunking on LA cmon guys do something

they doin something

I cannot believe Roberts just pinch hit AUSTIN BARNES there hahahaha

I swear that last pitch almost hit the ground.

just the guy you want to take the most important AB of the season

Lol, for batters with 200+ pitches, only a fellow Austin “Austin Hedges” edges him out as the worst batter in the mlb this season. But even then, Barnes has the lower average (.180).

Like, I love the bloke, and I don’t blame him personally for being pinch hit there (you have to have a backup catcher on the roster!), but what in the hell was Robert thinking GOOD LORD.

200+ AB’s*

UGH, 200+ PA’s* (sorry)

Ginkel looks a little off

Mookie has been getting pitched strikes right on the edge this whole post season. Incredibly frustrating to watch

dont think any of those 10 pitches were in the strike zone!

The story of Dodger post-season hitters the past decade is all our good guys turning off and our marginal players setting the field ablaze, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like what’s happened to Mookie and Freddie this year. Absolutely hate this

Betts looked as lost there as Stanton looked last time I saw him (borderline calls noted).

I’m not even questioning them being strikes (I think all the borderline ones have been, and mlb at-bat shows it to be so for that last one). It just feels like ridiculous bad luck that nearly every pitch is able to live right on that line against him (and only him!). Feel for the guy

Oh no…. This Dodgers season might finish with an Austin Barnes AB

ahhhh fuck I thought that was it

Too hopeful a proposition. Congrats dbacks

'73 Mets, '87 Twins, here come the '23 Diamondbacks.

look on the bright side. pretty good episode of Impractical Jokers on right now

i retroactively vote for D-Backs in 3

I thought the dodgers would put up more of a fight but I did think the Diamondbacks would take it. Flawed team, but they've got some players. Felt like the dodgers were relying on a lot of guys who were ready to turn into pumpkins. I didn't necessarily think they would do it all at once however.

You love to see it

Happy happy Joy joy

-Giants fan

I get the Rangers, I get the Phillies. I don't get Arizona at all. They were outscored this year--they won 84 games, and they were even worse than their record. Maybe the Dodgers pitching problems are just far worse than I believed. I knew they had a patchwork rotation, but if you win 100 games, I assumed they had figured a workable way around that.

also, I know people don't like thinking too much about this but baseball is just an incredibly high variance sport, middling teams can go on hot streaks, MVP candidates can go 3 for 30 in a week, teams can hit .500 with RISP one week and then .100 the next. this shit happens in the playoffs all the time. I mean the Royals statistically weren't even a top 10 team during either of their WS runs. idk I suppose you could add more games or something but this is why I've always found the MLB playoffs unsatisfying

and a narrative is ascribed retrospectively. it's almost disturbing to think about at any length. SORT OF LIKE LIFE

Believe me, I totally get the randomness of the playoffs, small-sample sizes, etc. Even with all of that in mind, the D-Backs are four wins away from being, in my mind, one of the least impressive WS teams ever. Truthfully, though, I can't see them getting past the Phillies or Braves.

See to me if you’re a hundred win team and you dip out in this fashion without a whimper, that’s kind of worse to me because you’re so drastically underperforming. At least the Orioles scored eight runs in game 2 and could have feasibly won game 1. The Dodgers never looked within touching distance of the Diamondbacks.

I think we agree on one thing here: this had a lot more to do with the Dodgers--Kershaw's meltdown, Betts and Freeman--than the Diamondbacks.

The Rangers are also just plain better than the Diamondbacks -- on any given day they're a team that CAN explode and knock out your starting pitcher two innings in and it just happened to happen two games out of three.

If the Rangers took it all, I wouldn't bat an eye--that would make sense to me. (Jays fans saw them at their absolute best in late September.)

I think the reason why I find the MLB playoffs actually very satisfying is because so many of these behemoths get knocked out by scrappy underdogs.

Lance Lynn looked shellshocked last night.

The Rangers are also just plain better than the Diamondbacks -- on any given day they're a team that CAN explode and knock out your starting pitcher two innings in and it just happened to happen two games out of three.

Magic has an interesting take:

We’re all disappointed that our Dodgers didn’t hit or pitch well. That’s why we lost the Series to the Diamondbacks!

— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) October 12, 2023

And I think Bee Ok & I alluded to it a bit in the Rangers-Orioles series when we were talking about Bochy’s willingness to hook his pitchers, but you have to manage differently in the playoffs. I don’t know how Dave Roberts left in Lance Lynn to give up four solo home runs in the same inning. Especially with it being an elimination game and the bats being cold. None of the relievers the Dodgers put out gave up a single run between them. If your choice is burning relievers or hoping the guy who gave up a ton of home runs this season didn’t continue to do so…idk

the Dbacks have a lot of good mid-tier players in the lineup. Gurriel, Marte, Moreno. And having two top SPs like Gallen and Kelly, yeah. that's one more than the Dodgers have had all season.

w/the dodgers, they'd been riding on the MVP-level seasons of Mookie and Freddie, but beyond that it really did feel like guys like Muncy, Martinez, Outman, etc were solvable. I guess i really didn't expect their two best players to completely crap out, hence me picking the Dbacks in 5! Though i did think Kershaw would again have trouble. albeit not that kind of trouble.

Magic has an interesting take:

"We’re all disappointed that our Dodgers didn’t hit or pitch well. That’s why we lost the Series to the Diamondbacks!"

― frogbs, Thursday, October 12, 2023 12:35 PM (thirty-four minutes ago)

Hardcore analytics is ruining the game.

This was my World Series this year. Loved watching how this concluded.

Hard not to compare them to the Braves of the 90's/early 00's - so much talent, so many regular season wins and post season appearances, yet only a single ring to show for it. Yet with these Dodgers, that win comes in a shortened season in front of zero fans. Must be very frustrating for their fans, and I'm here for it.

Weirdly enough, the Braves' one WS win also came in an abbreviated season--not nearly as brief as the COVID season (144 games), but shortened nonetheless.