On the final day of a historic regular season, Freddie Freeman and Trea Turner each totaled 100 RBI over 162 games as the Los Angeles Dodgers were able to end a three-game skid.
Freeman homered to center in the bottom of the third and Turner blasted a three-run homer in the fifth to lift the Dodgers to a 6-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday at Chavez Ravine.
“It’s been a pretty special year,” said Freeman, who played a huge role in helping the Dodgers tie for the fourth most wins in MLB history.
Los Angeles recorded a team-record 111 wins, the second-best in National League history, becoming the only organization to win at least 106 games in three consecutive full seasons.
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The NL West champions officially ended the regular season 111-51 while the Rockies closed out its year with a 68-94 record.
“Winning 100 games is crazy. The fact that we won 111 is wild. It’s really hard to do,” Turner said. “We just kind of kept chugging along.”
Cody Bellinger added a solo homer in the seventh, and Freeman singled to bring home Miguel Vargas and Turner.
“This teams in elite company for the regular season,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said following the win. “But we still know the most important part of the season is yet to come.”
The Dodgers will now enjoy some days off while preparing for the Division Series at home Tuesday against the winner of the New York Mets and San Diego Padres.
“The first tournament’s over. Now the big tournament starts,” Freeman said. “No one cares what your numbers were, how many wins you had. Starting Tuesday, it’s first one to 11.”
“My goal every year is to hit .300 with 100 runs, 100 RBIs and a .900 OPS,” said Freeman, following a career season. “To check that off in my first season with the Dodgers and to set a franchise record in wins? I don’t think you could ask for much more.”
Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw made history while recording his 2,804 strikeout and passed Cy Young for 24th all-time in strikeouts. He allowed one run and one hit in five innings while tallying nine strikeouts.
“It’s obviously incredible company,” said Kershaw, who is a three-time NL Cy Young Award winner. “I don’t even know the right word, but it’s cool.”
With such a deep bullpen that has been successful throughout the season, left-hand pitcher Julio Urías also finished with an NL-best 2.16 ERA for the Dodgers.
“2020 was something incredible, but we get some criticism for the shortened season,” said Urías. “But winning another one in Los Angeles would be incredible. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish.”
The Dodgers will next take the field Tuesday, October 11 for Game 1 of the NLDS versus the winner of the Padres and Mets wild card series which gets going on Friday, October 7.
“It’s day games after night games, getting in at 4 a.m., long travel days … for us to keep getting up and grinding and winning that many games over a course of six months, it’s really hard to do. As a group, we can appreciate a lot of good things that happened this year,” said Freeman.
