Another 100-win season leads to another October flop for Dodgers

PHOENIX (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers’ third straight 100-win season led to a third consecutive postseason flop.

A three-game Division Series sweep by the Arizona Diamondbacks that ended with a 4-2 defeat Wednesday night highlighted how much expanded playoffs have devalued the regular season.

“There’s some things with the format that people can dissect or whatever, but the bottom line is that the last two years we’ve got outplayed in the postseason,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It doesn’t matter if it was a seven-game series, we lost the first three games. For me, I’ve got to do a better job of figuring out a way to get our guys prepared for the postseason. I’ll own that.”

Los Angeles has reached the playoffs in 11 straight years, the third-longest streak in major league history behind the Atlanta Braves’ 14 from 1991-2005 around the 1994 strike and the New York Yankees’ 13 from 1995-2007.