threepeat

A spectacular run that included back-to-back World Series championships and delivered unforgettable memories ended with a whimper for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday.

The Milwaukee Brewers, humiliated by the Dodgers last year in a four-game sweep, returned the favor at Chavez Ravine, defeating L.A., 6-4, in the National League Championship Series. The loss eliminated the Dodgers and ended their run at a vaunted three-peat, or three consecutive titles.

No North American sports franchise can claim such an accomplishment since the Shaq- and Kobe Bryant-led Lakers from 2000 to 2002.

How did a team of All-Stars fall short? Our sports team delivered tremendous coverage that answers that question and many more.

Columnist Bill Plaschke wrote how a team with seemingly every advantage fell short, beat writer Maddie Lee documented what led to the demise, while columnist Bill Shaikin provided updates to several questions on the team’s future. The devoted fans of the Boys in Blue have also had a chance to react.

Let’s sample some of their in-depth reporting.

Shohei Ohtani’s declining health was too much to overcome

Plaschke wrote that the single biggest reason the Dodgers didn’t three-peat centered on the health of designated hitter and pitcher Shohei Ohtani.

The owner of four MVP trophies, Ohtani began the season with a goal of also winning the Cy Young Award. So he focused on pitching, and he pitched well, going 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA in 14 starts.

Then he injured his knee, but he still pitched, long past when he should have been pitching, said Plaschke. He was finally pulled off the mound in early July, but by then he had also injured his elbow and his offense suffered because he was so worried about the pitching. It was at this point the Dodgers should have shut him down entirely, given him a month off to ensure he would be ready for October, according to Plaschke.

But no. Ohtani insisted he was fine even though his plummeting batting numbers said otherwise. When he was finally placed on the injured list in early September, Plaschke said it was too late, and he entered the playoffs as a shell of his former great self.

An autopsy reveals much

Lee agreed with third baseman Max Muncy when he said, “The train finally ran out of steam, I guess.”

A major aspect of the challenge of winning three straight is simply workload. The Dodgers not only have played more games than any other team the last two years, but their schedule has included grueling travel.

The Dodgers started both the 2024 and 2025 seasons early and overseas, playing in the Seoul Series and Tokyo Series in consecutive years. And both years ended with coast-to-coast travel for the World Series, as the Dodgers won titles over the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays.

The team’s collective age — the oldest lineup in the majors this year, according to Baseball Reference, weighted by at-bats and games played — may not have helped.

Cap concerns

Shaikin wrote about a lockout expected this winter as Major League Baseball owners attempt to implement a salary cap, which limits the amount of money a team can spend on player salaries.

The owners initially proposed a salary cap of $245 million for next year. The Dodgers already have $347 million committed to 14 players next year, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts.

Under a cap, the owners have promised a transition period to account for existing commitments, and an actual negotiated cap could be higher, said Shaikin.

Even if the players do not agree to a cap — and they insist they won’t — whatever economic system emerges from collective bargaining would likely make it painful for the Dodgers to spend so freely, according to Shaikin.

What some Dodgers fans are saying

Most baseball teams create a now well-anticipated “thank you fans” social media post after the conclusion of a season.

Passionate fans use the post as a sounding board for everything that ails them about their favorite teams. Just look at the “thank you fans” X posts from the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies laced with profanities and vitriol fiercer than any East Coast nor’easter.

But on Friday, Dodgers fans were gracious and supportive on the fan appreciation post on X.

“Thank you for the great run over the last three years. Let’s come back stronger,” wrote one user.

“Thank you for the ride,” another tweet noted. “We’ll be back next year!”

The week’s biggest stories

A house burns off Calle Miramar in San Juan Capistrano during the Norte fire on Friday.

(Sandy Huffaker/For The Times)

Southern California wildfires

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Editor’s pick

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Things to do

(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)

• 🎭The world premiere play “Bobby Robotowitz” brings AI questions into your living room — literally — with performances on the Eastside and Westside.
• 👀 The 10 biggest revelations of Nathan Fielder’s new Elizabeth Holmes documentary, ‘You Can See Everything.’
• 🍽️ For many, like the preservationists pushing to save Santa Monica’s Mel’s Drive-In, the mere thought of demolishing the iconic restaurant is offensive. Eating there was certainly on the bingo card for columnist LZ Granderson when he and his son first drove across the Southwest decades ago, and it continues to be a favorite breakfast spot of theirs.

Today’s recipe

(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)

Many meatballs are made with a panade, often a mixture of white bread soaked in milk, which lends moisture to the final meatballs. For these lamb meatballs, cooking editor Cody Reiss decided to make his panade out of ingredients that felt more in-line with the mutabbal he was serving them with. He ended up using a mixture of leftover pita bread and labneh (drained yogurt). The resulting meatballs were moist, herby, spiced, seasoned, spicy and just a joy to eat.

Photo of the day

Volunteers led by guerrilla activist Jonathan Hale paint over the faded crosswalks of an intersection near USC on Sept. 19.

(Etienne Laurent/For the Times)

Games

Here’s today’s mini crossword, plus our other free, daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and jigsaw games.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Jack Dolan, investigative reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, Fast Break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew J. Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

The hope for a Dodgers comeback in the National League Championship Series ended with the smack of the ball hitting leather.

Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Jackson Chourio, sprinting toward the warning track, had to leap to reel in Kiké Hernández’s line drive in the gap. But he secured the catch. And ended the Dodgers’ season.

The Dodgers’ hopes of making National League history with a three-peat died with a 6-4 loss to the Brewers on Thursday, completing Milwaukee’s four-game sweep.

“It sucked,” veteran left fielder Teoscar Hernández said. “Especially after [what] we had done the last two years. This year at the beginning of the year, what we’ve been through, a lot of injuries throughout the year the last two years, a lot of ups and downs. It just sucked that we’re in this situation, but it’s part of the game.

“Somebody has to win, somebody has to lose. This time, we’re the ones that lost, and just reflect on everything that we didn’t do great this year and just try to do it next year.”

As the Dodgers’ postseason hype video declared before the game: “October doesn’t remember who came close. It remembers who triumphs.”

The Dodgers, after reinforcing to their back-to-back championship roster in the offseason and entering the year as the World Series favorites, fell short. And instead the Brewers will represent the National League, making their first trip to the Fall Classic in 44 years.

“They may have a bunch of Hall of Famers, but we have a bunch of gamers,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said from the stage. “And the gamers won this week.”

When the Dodgers went down 3-0 in the series, they faced a steep climb that only one team in MLB history has overcome. But the Dodgers showed resolve to begin the game.

Three singles in the second inning gave the Dodgers a lead, with Andy Pages driving in the first run. It was his third hit of the postseason with runners in scoring position and the Dodgers’ fourth overall. Then with two outs, Ohtani not only prolonged the inning but also made it the Dodgers’ highest-scoring frame of the postseason, with their first home run of the series.

It had been a maddening couple of months as Ohtani battled injuries, slid down the batting order and failed to produce when the Dodgers needed him most — in the postseason.

Then on Thursday, with the Dodgers on the brink of elimination, one swing momentarily wiped all that away.

Ohtani got his bat head down to a cutter from former Dodgers pitcher Dustin May on the inside corner. He lifted it into the stands for a three-run home run.

Ohtani turned to the Dodgers’ dugout, spread his arms wide and tossed his bat to the side. He tilted his face to the sky and yelled. He punched the air.

This was the version of Ohtani the Dodgers had sorely been missing. He announced his return with authority. And he breathed life into a stadium that had a crowd of only 49,104 — short of a sellout.

It was his first home run since Aug. 18. And it had been even longer since he’d hit a homer quite like that. With an exit velocity of 113.1 mph, it was his hardest-hit home run since June 20 and his third-hardest hit of the year, according to Statcast.

Even more important, it was the big swing the Dodgers had been waiting for all series.

“It was something that you don’t see very often from Shohei,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I think it was a lot of pent-up anger, frustration. It was the best ball he hit in probably two, three months, and it was a big hit. So I think that for him to look at the dugout, show that emotion, it just shows how much he cares. He’s still human. He still cares and wants to help his team win a baseball game. That was a big hit.”

Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow kept the good vibes going, retiring the first 10 batters he faced. But the Brewers, as they had all series, had a comeback in them.

“We got a nice lead, we got Glas on the mound, we’re confident behind him,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “And they just kept stringing together one good at-bat after another after another after another. They were just kind of relentless.”

It began with one out in the fourth inning, as Brice Turang drew a walk, the first baserunner against Glasnow. Then William Contreras and Jake Bauers each bounced ground-rule doubles into the stands, Bauers’ driving in two runs to cut the Dodgers’ lead in half.

Shohei Ohtani strikes out with a runner on third during the seventh inning.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The next inning, the Brewers used a walk, stolen base and David Hamilton’s RBI single to trim the Dodgers’ lead to one and knock Glasnow out of the game.

Right hander Evan Phillips replaced him and loaded the bases the rest of the way, before left-hander Alex Vesia entered to face Bauers, who had been a nightmare for the Dodgers this series.

Vesia walked Bauers on four pitches, tying the score at 4-4.

The Dodgers had lost their momentum, but they still had time.

Then, in the sixth, Dodgers setup man Tanner Scott took the mound early, at an inflection point in the contest. He worked ahead 0-and-2 in the count to Garrett Mitchell. But Mitchell spat on three straight balls to get to a full count.

Scott missed down the middle with a fastball. Mitchell sent it over the fence to give the Brewers the lead for the first time.

Even down by a run, Roberts continued to manage like he had hope, bringing in Edwin Díaz in the seventh to keep the game close.

The Dodgers’ offense got runners to third in three straight innings. In the sixth, Kyle Tucker hit a one-out double, and Teoscar Hernández moved him over with a groundout. In the seventh, Pages led off with a double, and Kiké Hernández bunted him over. In the eighth, with one out, Will Smith cut out the middle man by doubling into the right-field corner and advancing to third when Milwaukee’s Sal Frelick misplayed the carom off the wall.

The Dodgers stranded all three at third, failing to score the tying run.

“They just outplayed us this series,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “That’s just kind of how it goes. We had our opportunities. We just didn’t get it done.”

Díaz did his part to keep the Dodgers in the game, retiring eight straight batters. But the ninth batter he faced, Hamilton, hit a solo homer to add cushion to the Brewers’ lead.

“I wouldn’t want to go through this with any other group of guys,” Muncy said. “We really tried to do something special in this clubhouse, and I know next year we’ll be ready to get right back to it. But right now, this sucks.”

Once brimming with life, the Dodgers’ historic quest has curled up into a withered heap.

The three-peat is dying.

The three-peat is slowly, agonizingly having the life squeezed out of it by a collection of hardscrabble Midwesterners with no regard for stardom or status.

Two games into the National League Championship Series, the three-peat was formally placed on life support Monday after the mighty Dodgers lost a second consecutive game to those little giants known as Milwaukee Brewers.

Shohei Ohtani strikes out during the sixth inning

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

This time the score was 7-4 after another devastating night at American Family Field, and now the Dodgers trail two games to none in a best-of-seven series that appears beyond their control.

For a second consecutive game, their ace was knocked out. For a second consecutive game, their powerful offense petered out.

For a second consecutive game, they looked like a weary, aging band of fallen stars that had stumbled into a surprisingly deep pothole and had no idea how to climb out.

For the Dodgers to win this series and continue their journey toward a third consecutive championship, they must beat the Brewers in four of the next five games, the last two of which would be played in Milwaukee.

It doesn’t seem likely. It doesn’t even seem possible.

Not once in in their previous two title seasons did they trail anybody two games to none, and they certainly don’t seem equipped to survive it now.

Look at how they lost Monday. On second thought, don’t look, because what you’ll see bears scant resemblance to the swaggering, self-assured Dodgers of postseasons past.

They pitched their October ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and he’s always saved them, right? Not this time. He couldn’t make it out of the third inning, battered by scattered wildness and scathing swings.

They were handed runs on two errors by the Brewers’ shaky rookie starter, Logan Henderson, and they’ve always capitalized, right? Not this time. They couldn’t make the Brewers pay for their clumsiness, managing just three hits, the slumps of their superstars ever deepening, Will Smith and Shohei Ohtani becoming absolute offensive liabilities.

Even with all this, they sent Henderson packing after four innings and took aim at a heavily used Brewers bullpen and surely they could summon the firepower to send at least one of those relievers running, right? Not this time, as four Brewers relievers set a postseason record by pitching five perfect innings.

The last two innings being a sad microcosm of the previous seven.

Entering the eighth inning, the Dodgers trailed only 4-3 and had the top of their order coming up in what still could have been a trademark Dodgers October comeback.

Mookie Betts strikes out in the eighth inning.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Not so fast.

Facing Abner Uribe, Mookie Betts struck out. Facing Aaron Ashby, Freddie Freeman struck out and Teoscar Hernández grounded out. Yeah, with perhaps their season on the line, they couldn’t even get the ball out of the infield.

The Brewers, of course, sealed the deal with two runs on three singles in the bottom of the eighth, and the Dodgers went meekly 1-2-3 in the ninth.

It was surely, truly painful for Dodgers fans to witness the final out, a strikeout by … yep, last season’s World Series hero Miguel Rojas.

The three-peat is dying, and it’s almost unbearable to watch.

Having both of their aces beaten in Milwaukee, the Dodgers will come home with Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow starting in Games 3 and 4, respectively.

In any other scenario, both pitchers are aces as well, and the Dodgers would have a huge advantage. But neither pitcher has looked great in the postseason, and both will be pitching while bearing the weight of a stressed-out Dodgers Nation.

“Yeah, it’s certainly a challenge,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I think that if you look at Game 3, I like where we’re at as far as in a vacuum, who’s pitching, where our bullpen is at, being at home. Then you’ve got to go from there.”

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about Game 2 is that the Dodgers led … then blew the lead … then led … then blew the lead … then led …then blew the lead.

The Brewers’ final tying blow came on William Contreras’ fifth-inning homer against Kris Bubic, who has struggled in this postseason and perhaps shouldn’t have been in the game. The Brewers’ final go-ahead run came in the sixth on Contreras’ bases-loaded single after Brice Turang surprisingly was intentionally walked in front of him.

But neither of those plate appearances was the game’s most important. The key moment that actually didn’t score any runs was Jake Bauers’ 12-pitch walk in the third inning.

That loaded the bases, and Christian Yelich then greeted an exhausted Yamamoto with a two-run single.

“Yeah, it just got to a certain point where it was straight compete mode, a little bit of like blackout, just kind of in the flow a little bit competing,” Bauers said. “It was fun. It was a fun at-bat. I knew that was a moment where the guys needed something, the team needed something.”

Funny, but those are the kind of things Dodgers hitters used to say, back when they were confident and full of life.

But Smith is one for 23, and Ohtani is three for 19, and the Dodgers have just one extra-base hit against the Brewers, and nobody is saying anything about the fun of competing.

In fact, things are so lousy, Roberts appeared to call out Smith for not using the ABS challenge in the early innings against Turang. Both times strikes were called balls, and Turang took advantage of the missed calls to double and walk and score twice.

Yamamoto also seemed annoyed that his catcher could be letting his batting woes affect his work behind the plate.

“Obviously in that spot, Will didn’t feel like it was a strike, but obviously if you look back, that’s a called third strike, he doesn’t double, and that changes the outing,” Roberts said of Turang’s first-inning at-bat.

Roberts still has hope. But he’s not looking past Game 3.

“As far as can we do it, absolutely, but it’s just you want to get that first one,” he said.

Dodger Stadium will be filled with fans in what could be a celebration. Or a wake.

There are all the stars in this series — Mookie Betts, Matt Olson, Freddie Freeman, Ronald Acuna Jr., Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Chris Sale, Tarik Skubal, Michael Harris II and more — and then there is the face of baseball around the world.

Major League Baseball wrapped a postseason advertisement around the front page of The Times this week. “OCTOBER STARTS TODAY,” the headline screamed.

Beneath those enormous letters, Shohei Ohtani smiled. Who else?

And so dozens of reporters crammed into a cramped room within Dodger Stadium on Friday afternoon, on the eve of the National League Division Series between the Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves, waiting for Ohtani to answer a few versions of “How are you?”

It’s not just about attracting casual fans to watch the icon whose face adorns everything from airplanes to skin care products. For the Dodgers and their fans, it’s about whether their most famous player can be a game-changer in October.

The Dodgers could have shut him down as a pitcher rather than let him continue to try to pitch through knee and biceps injuries. They didn’t, and that backfired.

The Dodgers could have shut him down as a hitter, not for the season but for a stint on the injured list. They didn’t. They gave him just a few days off, and that backfired.

Then the Dodgers did put him on the injured list, but activated him for the final five games of the regular season rather than give him extended rest for the playoffs, limiting his activity to controlled workouts.

That might backfire, or it might not, and the repercussions of the former could represent a significant hurdle in their quest for a third consecutive World Series championship. Giving Ohtani time off during the regular season would have carried no penalty; the Dodgers would have won the NL West with or without him.

If the Dodgers decide Ohtani needs a few days off now, they would face this unpleasant dilemma: play one man short, or put him on the injured list. Under MLB rules, a player put on the injured list during a postseason series must sit out the next series. So, if Ohtani starts wincing at the end of his swings during the NLDS, a stint on the injured list would mean he could not play again until the World Series — if the Dodgers get there.

Shohei Ohtani speaks during a news conference at Dodger Stadium on Friday.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

Ohtani has not hit a home run since Aug. 18. Since then, he is batting .157, and he has struck out in 41% of his at-bats. In those final five games, he hit the ball hard in the first two, then hit ground balls in the final three. In the on-deck circle, he did not always take a swing.

In batting practice Friday, he hit lots of home runs.

The general sense of how Ohtani is feeling now: good enough.

Ohtani said he feels “really good” as compared to before he went on the injured list, but acknowledged he isn’t sure what he might need to do to address the injuries over the winter.

“As of now, it’s something I’m just going to have to manage,” he said through interpreter Will Ireton.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts offered this medical update: “Shohei’s not 100%, but he’s going to be in the lineup.”

Same for Freddie Freeman, who has not homered in a month. The difference, Roberts said, is how encouraged the manager was by Freeman’s workouts this week.

“With Shohei, I’m not so sure,” Roberts said. “I know that once the lights turn on, the postseason starts, the focus will be heightened. I expect good things. I really do. We just haven’t seen it enough to really — for me to forecast it.”

Ohtani plays when he says he can. After he tore up his left shoulder in Game 2 of the 2024 World Series, he had trainers tape the shoulder in place and took 11 at-bats over the final three games of the series. He had one hit, a single.

“I do pride myself on playing every day,” Ohtani said. “I do see it as an obligation as a professional to be on the field every single day.”

Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, acknowledged recently that communication with Ohtani has been “awesome” but “fully sharing exactly how he’s feeling, maybe not as awesome.”

Said Friedman: “He’s not always the best reporter of how he feels. Freddie’s the same way. Clayton Kershaw. I’ve been around a lot of these guys that feel like their job is to be out there to help the team however they can, and sometimes will downplay some things that are bothering them. But again, it’s because he wants to help the team win.”

The Dodgers are talented enough that Ohtani not hitting well would not damage their chances as much as, say, Sale not pitching well for the Braves. In the NLDS and the first three games of the NLCS last October, Ohtani hit .103 with no home runs and struck out in 48% of his at-bats.

In the NLCS clincher, he hit three home runs (and struck out 10 batters). The Dodgers could trade a few bad days from Ohtani for that one really good day.

In that MLB advertisement, the one that featured Ohtani, the league acknowledged that its screaming headline was not exactly accurate. The explanation also fits the Dodgers’ hopes of Ohtani starring in October.

The ad, after all, appeared on Sept. 29.

October starts today?

“Logic and reason would tell you otherwise,” the ad read. “But October isn’t about being reasonable.

“It’s about belief.”