And the Nats undoubtedly had the two best pitchers in this series. Scherzer/Strasburg out-pitched Buehler/Kershaw/Ryu. Add to that the fact that the Nats best hitters came through in clutch situations (especially the back-to-back homers by Rendon and Soto), and even a Dodger fan like me is comfortable saying that the outcome of this series was not a "fluke", but a result of the Nats just being better built for the postseason than the Dodgers were.

Look - it's always going to be an issue for the Dodgers that Kershaw isn't great in the post-season. You just can't pay a guy $31 million and have him be mediocre at best in the playoffs every. single. year. It really doesn't matter how you tinker with the rest of the bullpen, or how great the 3 reserve off the bench you have is, if you can't count on your ace to go out and pitch lights out for 6-7 innings twice in a series. I don't know what the answer is, because there's no way you can trade him (he's basically the face of the franchise, and the market for a guy who makes that much money is pretty limited). Also, he IS valuable during the regular season, where he's almost a lock to win 15 games every year. I guess you have to hope that Buehler continues to develop into a front of the rotation guy, and that either Ryu duplicates what he did this year or that one of the young guys (May, Urias, or Gonsolin) turns into the #2 starter, because at this point it's hard to imagine Kershaw ever taking this team to the promised land.