Dodgers News: Austin Barnes Challenges Team to Maintain Intensity Over Next Few Weeks
Anytime a team clinches a division title with a few weeks left to go in a season, it can be difficult to maintain focus. Teams are now looking ahead toward the playoffs, so the regular season games don’t feel as important.
But it’s crucial that the ballclub keeps pushing on and makes sure that they are playing their best baseball before the postseason starts.
For the Dodgers, they have been feeling this for a few weeks now, with the NL West unofficially won a while ago. But after this weekend, they officially clinched it for the 10th time in 11 seasons.
Despite the success they have seen, they want to make sure to keep going forward. Veteran catcher Austin Barnes is challenging the rest of the team to keep the focus and maintain the intensity over the final few weeks of the season.
“We just gotta keep playing baseball,” Barnes said. “When you take your foot off the pedal, it’s hard to turn it on and off. So that’s the biggest thing. Keep going. Keep playing good baseball.”
Barnes is one of the leaders on this Dodgers squad, and he knows what it takes to win at the highest level. He helped LA claim the 2020 World Series title, and he wants to feel that sense of winning again this season. The veteran catcher was also on last year's 111 win club that took an early playoff exit after showing little fight in the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres.
Veteran outfielder Jason Heyward echoed a similar sentiment as Barnes, saying that they need to keep pushing every single day. Like Barnes, Heyward has won a World Series, so he also understands what it takes.
“The finish line, to us, is that we want to be the last team on the field, winning whenever the last game is, and that's to try to win every day,” Heyward said. “We prepare. We don't think about what's going on next or what happened before. We’ve got to go right now. And I think that is just the epitome of our group. So there's no thoughts of the finish line or ‘keep pushing.’ We just push every day.”
The veteran leadership on this year’s version of the Dodgers has been great to see. They have helped this team navigate through some tough times, and it will be heavily relied upon once again in the playoffs down the line.
