Dodgers Win 111 Games

Dodgers Slide into MLB Playoffs with an Incredible 111 Wins

By David A. Avila

LOS ANGELES-A big salute to the Los Angeles Dodgers of 2022, the greatest National League team ever assembled in the last 116 years.

No other team including Brooklyn’s mighty teams or the “Gas House Gang” of the St. Louis Cardinals ever accomplished the Dodgers 111 wins in a single baseball season. Not since 1906 has any NL team other than Chicago Cubs won as many games.

How long ago was that?

The San Francisco Earthquake took place that year. Automobiles were still fairly new and Theodore Roosevelt was president of the USA.

Somewhere up in the sky those Dodgers of the past like Tommy Lasorda, Dazzy Vance, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, Don Drysdale and Maury Wills are smiling at the incredible achievement by this year’s L.A. club.

On Wednesday, the last day of the regular season, Trea Turner and Freddie Freeman drove in their 100^th runs batted in as the Dodgers defeated Colorado Rockies 6-1 in front of a daylight crowd at Dodger Stadium. Incidentally, the Dodgers probably led Major League Baseball in attendance again.

Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw passed the great Cy Young in strikeouts with 2804 to start the game on the final day of the season. The left-handed pitching great finished the year with a 12-3 record, 2.28 ERA, 0.94 WHIP in 126 innings. It was yet another great year for the pitcher who decided to come back to the team another year.

“I didn’t feel great until March,” said Kershaw who was injured last year and unable to pitch in last year’s playoffs. “Overall, I’m definitely thankful I pitched well this year and that I held up.”

And how did it feel to be part of a team that won a Dodger franchise record 111 wins.

“It does feel like we won a lot of games,” Kershaw said.

During the last week of the season the number one offensive hitting team lacked that snap and intensity that led MLB in run differential at 334. The next closest team in the NL was Atlanta at 180. The closest AL team was NY Yanks at 240.

Against the Colorado Rockies who were 40 games behind the Dodgers they fell flat until Trea Turner hit a three-run homer. It snapped his own personal slump and made him a member of the 100 runs batted in club.

“It’s a nice way to end the season and get the ball rolling,” said Turner who added that stats have significance to him personally. “You gotta be healthy to grind it out all year- long. Stats are very important to me.”

Freeman joined the 100 runs batted in club later in the game with a single to right field.

“We hugged on the field after I got mine. When Trea hit his homer I was so happy. I’m just glad I was able to come through,” Freeman said.

Though Freeman fell one hit short of winning the batting title, he felt the Dodger team overall had many accomplishments.

“It’s been pretty special heck of a year. All the hard work that went into this. A lot of good things happened this year,” Freeman said. “Julio Urias won the ERA title. Just special. It’s a special group of guys. From day one a great place to play.”

Now the question is can Freeman win his second consecutive World Series title?

Last year he led the Atlanta Braves to the World Series title and this year he’s led the charge to the Dodgers winning 111 games. Is a World Series title next?

Jaime Jarrin

Dodger Spanish broadcast announcer Jaime Jarrin was saluted by the Dodger team immediately after the game on Wednesday. It was a career that began in 1959 with the Dodgers to his role of announcing games to the Spanish-speaking public in Southern California.

Jarrin, 86, introduced baseball to the ever-growing Spanish-speaking public that seemed to gain increased traction when Fernando Valenzuela arrived on the Dodgers in 1980. It was called “Fernandomania” and from that moment on Spanish-speakers all over California headed to Dodger games.

After Wednesday’s game, all the Dodger players looked up to the booth and saluted Jarrin on the final day.