Dylan Hernandez in the Los Angeles Times lays the blame for the Dodgers failure to repeat as NL champions at the feet of the Dodgers front office:

Readers’ letters printed in the Sunday edition of this newspaper reflected the mistaken view this was manager Dave Roberts’ idea. To be clear: The plan to have Urías follow openers Corey Knebel and Brusdar Graterol in Game 5 of the NLDS, which ultimately led to Roberts calling on Scherzer to pitch the ninth inning, was hatched by the front office.

LATimes.com

Sure. Roberts, as the field manager, could have vetoed that. Roberts built up enough capital with the players and the fan base that the front office likely would have kept quiet if Roberts defied them. The strategy did in fact work in the NLDS and got the Dodgers to the NLCS.

The problem wasn’t putting a starting pitcher in a closing role. Teams have done that for years, including the Dodgers. The Dodgers failed to realize that the hyper-competitive Max Scherzer was old. He is seasonal age 36, but has already turned 37. It’s one thing to do it with a 29-year-old Orel Hershiser, or a 31-year-old Randy Johnson, but this was just too much for an old Scherzer.

Some blame has to go to the offense. In three games, this high power squad scored just two runs. Yes, there were injuries to Max Muncy and Justin Turner, but this is a very deep offense.

So there is plenty of blame to go around, or none at all. Anything can happen in six games, including a great team falling to an 88 win team.