Dodgers 'Have to Go Through Heaven and Hell' as 'Nothing is Easy,' Says Rojas After Loss to Braves

The Los Angeles Dodgers have the second-highest payroll in baseball and a star-studded roster that has led them to the past two World Series titles. But that doesn't mean that earning the three-peat will be easy.

"People think because we have a really good team, it should be easy. In baseball, nothing is easy," infielder Miguel Rojas told reporters on Sunday after the Dodgers lost Game 2 of the NLDS against the Atlanta Braves, 3-2. "If we're going to do this, we're going to have to go through heaven and hell."

In Game 2, the Braves survived yet another bullpen game, with unlikely heroes in Ray Kerr and Didier Fuentes largely silencing the vaunted L.A. lineup. Shohei Ohtani remains mired in a slump, going his last 20 games without a homer. And the Dodgers will have to face ace Chris Sale in Game 3 back in Atlanta.

Hard mode, activated.

"I've been saying this for a long time now: I don't think people truly appreciate how hard it is to make a deep postseason run year in and year out," Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy noted. "You see it every year with teams that make these runs and the next year they're not even close to the same. They're hurt. They're worn out. They've got things going on. We've been able to weather that for a lot of years now. The Division Series is obviously not as much of a sprint as the Wild Card. But it's a sprint. It's five games. It's short. They're really, really tough to play."