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Dodgers’ elimination brings end to Joe Torre having managed a team into playoffs 14 consecutive years

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It wasn’t like he couldn’t see it coming. There was no surprise involved, no real room for melancholy.

But when the Dodgers were eliminated from playoff contention Tuesday, it snapped Joe Torre’s streak of having managed a team into the postseason for 14 consecutive years.

Torre ends tied with Bobby Cox (1991-2005) for the all-time major-league record.

‘That’s pretty good company,’ Torre said.

Both managers, of course, are retiring after this season. Anyway, we’re pretty sure Torre is retiring.

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Torre managed the Yankees to 12 consecutive postseason appearances, and the Dodgers to the last two.

‘This year was very trying, it was frustrating,’ Torre said. ‘You know something like that is going to have to come to an end at some point. And unfortunately it was now.’

The Dodgers were 49-39 at the All-Star break and only two games back of the Padres in the National League West.

But the Dodgers have gone 24-39 since the break.

Torre said the first thing he will think of when he looks back on the season is simply how puzzling it was.

‘Just the head-scratching,’ he said. ‘I think we were 12, 13 games over at one point this year [36-24]. It looked like we got through the question marks about how good our pitching could be.

‘I must admit, though, when we left [spring training], I said, ‘We’ll score runs.’ And that certainly hasn’t been the case. The first half, we were up in the first four or five in the league in scoring runs. It just hit a wall.’

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-- Steve Dilbeck

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