Los Angeles Dodgers face familiar playoff peril as Arizona Diamondbacks take 2-0 series lead
Los Angeles Dodgers' reputation and the unfolding narrative of this year's National League Division Series.
For the second consecutive game, the Dodgers, a team boasting 100 regular-season victories and a dominant summer performance, watched their starting pitcher stumble while their offense squandered scarce opportunities to compensate. Once again, they succumbed to the tenacious Arizona Diamondbacks, a team with 16 fewer regular-season wins, this time falling by a 4-2 margin.
This perilous situation now places them at risk of an early exit, an unsettling prospect against a divisional opponent they typically dominate.
Mookie Betts voiced the collective disbelief, with his team trailing 0-2 in the best-of-five series, saying, «Nobody dreamed of this. But you got to play the cards that you're dealt.»
The Dodgers' hand was notably weakened by their severely depleted starting rotation entering this postseason, an Achilles' heel that has haunted them in ways they hadn't foreseen.
Clayton Kershaw, a seasoned veteran with sixteen years of experience, had allowed six runs and managed only a single out in the previous game.
In contrast, 24-year-old rookie Bobby Miller fared no better, surrendering three runs before being yanked in the second inning, with just 28 of his 52 pitches finding the strike zone. While the Dodgers' bullpen held the game within reach, their powerhouse offense once again stumbled against an opposing starter they had previously dominated.
It was Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen, Arizona's top two starting pitchers by a significant margin, who had compiled a 5.93 ERA in six regular-season encounters with the Dodgers.
