The Los Angeles Dodgers’ 2022 regular season has come to a close. The Dodgers finished with a record of 111-51, the most wins ever in team history. They won the NL West by a margin of 22 games, over the San Diego Padres.
They also finished with the best team ERA in the majors at 2.80, WHIP at 1.05, and batting average against, .209. They have four starters who made 20 plus starts, and had sub 2.60 ERAs, the first team to do that since the 1919 Cincinnati Reds.
On the offensive side, they had the most run differential at +334, the most RBI and runs scored, and OBS and OPS. Imagine what might have been had they been able to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates and didn’t lose four of their last six to the Colorado Rockies.
Clayton Kershaw had his final outing of the season, tuning up for the postseason. He collected nine strikeouts over five innings of work, ending his day with a gorgeous curveball to get that last strikeout. In doing so, he now sits at 2807 career strikeouts, passing Cy Young and is 24th in all of major league history. Clayton did it a little faster than Cy Young, who averaged one strikeout for every ten batters, where Kershaw averages one strikeout for every four batters.
Kershaw finished the season 12-3 with a 2.28 ERA, his lowest since his 2016 season. Since coming off the injured list on Sept. 1 after a bout with low back pain, he has allowed seven earned runs in seven starts and has a 1.54 ERA.
Trea Turner started the game needing three RBI to reach the 100 threshold, and he achieved just that with a three-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Freddie Freeman finished just short of batting title, a .325 to Jeff McNeil’s .326, going 3-for-4 with a home run. But Freeman also reached 100 RBI, with a run scoring single in the sixth inning. Freddie also lead the league in hits and doubles, and was tied for second with Mookie Betts with 117 runs scored.
Freeman and Turner together ended the season 1-2 in hits, with Freeman at 199 and Turner at 194. They are just the sixth pairing of teammates to lead all of baseball in hits in MLB history. They are the first Dodger pair with 100 RBI since Matt Kemp and Andre Either did it in 2009.
Relief pitcher Chris Martin, acquired at the trade deadline, finished the season with 34 strikeouts and only one walk issued. That ratio is best in all of Dodger history with a minimum of 25 games.
The team will now enter a five day holding pattern, where the playoff roster and who their opponent in the NLDS will be decided. And, put the regular season behind them.
“The first tournament is over, and now the big tournament starts,” Freeman told reporters after the game. “No one cares what your numbers were or how many wins you had. Starting Tuesday, it’s first one to 11.”