The Japan Times - End of a dynasty? Dodgers digest playoff drubbing

A star-studded roster headlined by Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani had already delivered back-to-back MLB championships in 2024 and 2025.

And the gaudy offseason additions of star closer Edwin Diaz and outfielder Kyle Tucker left many convinced that a World Series three-peat for the franchise regarded as baseball's "Death Star" was inevitable.

Yet fast forward to Thursday night, and those predictions had, like every Death Star in every Star Wars movie ever made, been blown to smithereens.

A 4-0 National League Championship Series clean sweep by the relentless Milwaukee Brewers means that for the first time since 2023, the Dodgers will not be headed to the World Series.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said his expensively assembled team -- the Dodgers' current reported payroll of $338 million dwarfs the Brewers' $143.5 million -- had simply been "outplayed in all facets."

"Those guys played flawless," Roberts said.

"Defensively they pitched better than we did, they hit better than we did, they slugged more than we did. You've got to sometimes just tip your cap.

"I personally told our guys that there's no apologies, there's no sorries. We gave it everything we had, and it wasn't good enough. That's part of life."

Yet as the Brewers celebrated a first World Series berth in 44 years before a silent Dodger Stadium, the inquests had already begun.

While the Dodgers had comfortably advanced to the postseason on the back of a 100-win season, the team had been flashing warning lights for most of the latter part of the season.

- Ohtani 'exposed' -

The poor form and questionable fitness of Ohtani loomed large over the postseason, with some even wondering if the $700 million star should be dropped from the starting line-up.

Although Ohtani provided a dramatic reminder of his talent with a spectacular three-run home run to give the Dodgers a 4-0 lead in game four on Thursday, he remained largely ineffective at the plate in his other at-bats.

Niggling knee and bicep injuries had dogged the four-time National and American League Most Valuable Player throughout the final months of the season, leaving the 32-year-old looking a shell of the two-way player who a year ago had belted three home runs and bagged 10 strikeouts in a single outing against the Brewers.

"Honestly I'm just very disappointed," Ohtani, 32, said after Thursday's loss.

"The Brewers were overall very strong and exposed some of the parts of me as a player, so full credit to them for that."

But Ohtani's shortcomings in the postseason were shared by several team-mates.

A vaunted starting pitching rotation, bolstered by ace Tarik Skubal at August's trade deadline, failed to dominate against the Brewers.

The high-powered batting line-up, meanwhile, went ice cold when it mattered most. "They couldn't hit sand if they fell off a camel," was one pundit's withering assessment.

The Dodgers were a paltry 5-for-43 with runners in scoring position during the postseason, an offensive collapse that torpedoed their series with the Brewers.

That under-powered performance has raised questions about the Dodgers' ageing line-up.

The Dodgers had the oldest postseason roster in 2026, averaging 30.9 years of age, and were eliminated by a Brewers team boasting the youngest (27.5).

Several core members of the Dodgers' back-to-back World Series-winning teams are well into their 30s -- 2024 World Series MVP Freddie Freeman is 37, shortstop Mookie Betts is 34, third baseman Max Muncy is 36.

The Dodgers are likely to freshen up the roster during the offseason, with some veterans either already retired or unlikely to return.

"We do know we have an older team," Freeman acknowledged before Thursday's exit.

"That doesn't mean we're old and we're playing bad because we're old. We're just not playing that great, in my mind."

"For three years straight we left it all out there," Dodgers veteran infielder Muncy reflected. "The train finally ran out of steam, I guess. It just sucks."

M.Yamazaki--JT