Dodgers News: Freddie Freeman Shares About Season’s “Disappointing” Ending
Saturday night’s game has resulted in a loss of words for Dodgers fans, players, and coaches except, Freddie Freeman, who had a few thoughts to share after the loss.
Freeman, who joined the team right after the lockout, shared the same end goal as his new teammates: to win a World Series.
The six-time All-Star, who led the league in doubles and hits, was dominant all season long. He accumulated a .326 AVG over the regular season and went 5-for-14 in the NLDS including 1 home run and 3 RBIs. He went 3-for-4 in Game 4.
The starting lineup trio of Freeman, Mookie Betts, and Trea Turner backed up by an incredible pitching staff put together a historic 111-win season…which later amounted to a fruitless postseason.
“I mean, when you don’t win in the World Series, it doesn’t matter if you win 80 games or 120 games. It’s just disappointment. It’s just October baseball. Like we’ve been saying, it’s hard and it can be brutal.”
The last postseason was not so brutal as Freeman won a World Series with his former team, the Atlanta Braves. However, parting from them and finally moving on was the hard and brutal part. It took Freeman months to accept his new team.
Then, the 2022 Dodgers team seemed to break every record in the book and all those feelings slowly slipped away. But when Dodgers struggled to create action at the plate in games that mattered the most, the possibility of winning back-to-back titles quickly slipped away.
He shared his thoughts after the game with OC Register’s Jim Alexander:
“We didn’t accomplish our goal. You know, there’s not really much more you can really say. You grind all year starting, all these guys in February and me in March (when he signed with the Dodgers after the lockout). This team, we had one goal in mind and it didn’t happen. So, just a lot of disappointment.”
“All the sacrifices you make during the course of the season, leaving your family and doing all that, and you have one goal in mind. You get to that chance, to be able to reach that goal, and you come up short. It’s a disappointment. I don’t know what another word is. It’s just disappointing. We had a really good team. We just didn’t get it done.”
It’s true. There are plenty of questions about players like Trea Turner, Tyler Anderson, and Clayton Kershaw and where they will play next year. This might have been the best team the Dodgers could have ever put together, which is what it seemed like from how the regular season went.
It’s just a shame they couldn’t finish the job.
Too many distractions and not enough focus when it was most important. Get over 2017. Can you imagine Walter Alston going on and on about it like Roberts? He should go. Turner is over the hill. Belli has lost the psychological battle. He needs to go too. Hire Scott Servais. He is twice the motivator than Roberts.
It’s not just the fact that they were eliminated.
It’s especially the way they were eliminated. Starting pitcher pulled for no apparent reason after 5 dominant innings for a parade of relievers who were less than stellar. Hitters putting too many balls in the air and unwilling to try to beat the shift, especially with runners on. Oh, and special kudos to top brass for not getting a closer at the trade deadline.
HEY, FREDDIE, MAYBE IF YOU HAD STUCK WITH THE BRAVES, WE COULD HAVE WON ANOTHER RING…!!!
Here’s the bottom line on the Dodgers. Here’s what Dave Roberts and the whole Dodger Brain Trust can think about when they’re trying to make a 6′ putt over the weekend. We took Anderson out of the game in the 5th inning with a 3-0 lead, and we gave up 5 runs and got knocked out. That’s what they can think about, all of them !! That’s not what you do. You got a pitcher and an elimination game on the road who’s got the padres be-fuddled, and what did the padres say after the game, Thank God they took him out. Thank God they took him out. Dodger fans are not happy!!
You nailed it Max. That is the way the fans saw it to bad Roberts didn’t.
They pulled Kersh to early game 2 as well IMO..