There are no easy answers for how the Los Angeles Dodgers must proceed in the aftermath of the demoralizing sweep they suffered at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks during the 2023 NLDS. For now, it's a matter of addressing who's responsible for this embarrassing playoff exit, with Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman both owning up to the part they played in the team's struggles to generate offense.

Betts, who hit .307 with 39 home runs during the regular season, and Freeman, who hit .331 with 29 dingers, went ice cold from the plate for the Dodgers at the worst possible time. The 31-year old outfielder reached base just once throughout the series, going hitless in 11 at-bats, while the star first baseman wasn't much better, hitting 1-10, making it that much easier for the Diamondbacks to pull away and come out with a sweep.

No one will know what happened to both Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman to cause them to struggle to the degree they did. But as manager Dave Roberts said, despite his confusion, these sort of slumps are just part of baseball. After all, during the regular season these three-game stretches don't mean much in a 162-game season. But at the end of the day, Roberts could do nothing but slump his shoulders and throw his hands up in the air, lacking answers for what went wrong for the NL West powerhouse.

“You know what. I know that those guys are prepared. Those are our guys, two great players. It’s one of the things that baseball … I don’t have an answer. I really don’t,” Roberts said, per Alden Gonzalez of ESPN.

This will be an offseason filled with feelings of being perplexed, as the Dodgers definitely had more than enough talent to combat the Diamondbacks in the NLDS. But the MLB playoffs is a crapshoot, and the unpredictability is built into the format of the postseason itself.

Given their status as two of the best players in the MLB, expect Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, after a long offseason full of rumination, to bounce back stronger than ever before as Dave Roberts and the Dodgers look to put yet another NLDS exit in the rearview mirror.