What Went Wrong: Death of a Dynasty?!

A lot of things are running in my mind with this. One, the Sonic the Hedgehog fan in me just can't help but think about that final zone in each game, where Sonic (usually as Super Sonic) faces the ultimate final boss. Secondly, the final moments of Avengers: Endgame, where--with one snap of Tony Stark's fingers--Thanos is no more. A third thought was how hard it has been lately for teams to three-peat, and various leagues have seen at least one team have a viable chance to win three straight.

The Tampa Bay Lightning. Stanley Cup Champions in 2020 and 2021, both times during COVID-affected seasons. NHL returns to full, and the Bolts get back to the Final in 2022, but fall two wins short and lose to the Colorado Avalanche. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Won back-to-back Grey Cups in 2019 and 2021 (there was no 2020 season due to COVID), but they narrowly lose in 2022 to the Toronto Argonauts. The Kansas City Chiefs. After letting go of Tyreek Hill, they win Super Bowls LVII and LVIII. 2024 was messy, but the Chiefs did make it to Super Bowl LIX, only to be flattened by the Philadelphia Eagles. The Las Vegas Aces. Becky Hammon's girls win B2B in 2022 and 2023. 2024? Don't even make the Finals. The Florida Panthers. After losing the 2023 Final, the Panthers win it all in 2024 and 2025, but injuries to Sasha Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk keep them from even reaching the playoffs in 2026.

Which brings us to the Los Angeles Dodgers. We all know how this started. They were swept in the NLDS, badly, in 2023. That was the last straw. They had been looking to silence the people putting asterisks on the 2020 championship, but nothing was working. So they get this guy named Shohei Ohtani. And they get Teoscar Hernandez. Those two to go with the talent they already had? Boom. Instant championship. A five game victory over the new York Yankees in 2024, and while the following year was a little tougher, they got it done. Trailed 3-2 in the Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, won Game Six, trailed in Game Seven, was two outs away from being dethroned, then Miguel Rojas homers. Tie game, heads to extras after the Jays leave them loaded in the 9th. Will Smith homers in the 11th, double play clinches it for the Dodgers. Back-to-back.

2026 saw the Dodgers dominate the NL West again, but something was a tad amiss. For one, Ohtani wasn't the same player he had been each of the last two years. And secondly, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the MVP of last year's Series. I, and many others, had him as a Cy Young candidate, but the numbers haven't exactly lived up to the usual Yamamoto standard. Nevertheless, the Dodgers persisted; winning the division, racking up 100 wins, and ousting the Braves in the NLDS. Then there was the NLCS. A rematch against the Brewers. We all knew what happened the last time these two teams battled for the pennant. Dodgers brought out the brooms, and that included Ohtani winning Game Four literally by himself.

Unfortunately for the Dodgers, the Brewers remembered this. The Dodgers led in every game in that NLCS. However, the Brewers won every time. Four games. It was Milwaukee's turn to bring out the brooms, and they definitely brought them out, along with their strong bats.

The Dodgers' quest for a three-peat ended on quite the whimper... literally. No one was hitting for much of anything. Max Muncy led the team in HRs during their postseason run with three, but only had five total hits in the eight games. Freddie Freeman, the MVP of the 2024 Series, homered twice, but hit .172 in the postseason. Enrique Hernandez's homer was his only hit of the 2026 postseason. Mookie Betts had six hits, but no RBIs at all. Will Smith, the hero of last year's WSG7, went 3-for-31, hitting under .100 during the postseason. Teoscar Hernandez had six hits, but only homered once.

And then there's Shohei Ohtani. Even the greats have bad moments, and in the case of Ohtani, he may not have been running on empty, but he was close. 5-for-26, one homer and three RBIs, but here's the ironic thing. Not only did Ohtani's homer and RBIs all come in the NLCS, he was the only one who homered in the series against the Brewers. As for the pitching, Yoshinobu Yamamoto wasn't lights out, in fact, Game Two of the NLCS was the shortest postseason outing in his career. Tarik Skubal, the big get for the Dodgers, had the lowest ERA of the starters (2.45), but he wasn't much help either.

So for the first time in three years, the Dodgers' offseason starts just a wee bit earlier than usual. A vast majority of baseball fans are celebrating this. A lot expected this to happen. I, myself, figured that the Dodgers would come up short, but I didn't think it would the Brewers who knocked them out. Which begs the million dollar question: is the dynasty dead? We all thought the Chiefs were done after missing the playoffs last year, yet here they are, undefeated.

The National League doesn't have a lot of depth. Until the Padres get their heads out of their rear ends, the Dodgers will continue to run unopposed in the NL West. As for the 10 total combined teams in the Central and East, there's not much there, either. The Brewers appear to have shed their "fool ya team" status, though that moniker has now hit not only the Cubs, but (shockingly) the Phillies as well. The Braves are still looking for that magic they had in 2021. As for the other teams--Cards, Pirates, Reds, Marlins, Nationals, and Mets (especially the Mets), they can forget it.

So yeah, we should definitely count on the Dodgers bouncing back from this exit. They'll cook up something during the offseason. They always do.