What Freddie Freeman said about Dodgers elimination

The Los Angeles Dodgers were eliminated by the San Diego Padres in the NLDS, and first baseman Freddie Freeman spoke out on it.

The Los Angeles Dodgers were eliminated from the playoffs by the San Diego Padres on Saturday night. The Dodgers were the favorites to advance, but the underdogs ended up on top.

Los Angeles first baseman Freddie Freeman spoke out on the matter and stated, “October baseball can be brutal,” according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

Freeman is right. It’s definitely crazy to think a team with the best record of the 2022 season and one of the best regular-season records of all time was defeated by their divisional opponent, but the underdogs in this case certainly have a lot of talent.

October baseball can be brutal indeed, and anything can happen. Both teams were deserving of a spot in the playoffs, but it’s neat to see San Diego get a chance at World Series glory.

Padres beating out their biggest rival, the Dodgers, is a huge feat

The Padres are a much smaller-market team than the Dodgers and they don’t have nearly as many resources. They struggled to maintain consistency during the regular season, and not many saw them as capable of beating a team like the Dodgers in a five-game series.

They did, however, utilize what they could during the season to set themselves up for success. One of the biggest moves they made was acquiring Juan Soto at the trade deadline. Soto was the biggest target and had turned down what would’ve been the biggest extension in MLB history ($440 million), so that was certainly a statement as to what they’re capable of from a front office perspective.

They surprised just about everyone by knocking the Dodgers out of the playoffs. After going 89-73 in 2022 and finishing 22 games behind Los Angeles, it almost seemed guaranteed that they wouldn’t make it past the NLDS. It’s one of the many reasons why October baseball is incredible.

San Diego is now just one series away from the World Series. They haven’t been this close to winning the championship since 1998, their last World Series appearance. They’ll certainly be fun to watch as the playoffs continue and they face the Philadelphia Phillies for the pennant.