Heading into the 2024 MLB postseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers knew they’d have to do something different to avoid repeating their past playoff mistakes.

The disappointing ends to the Dodgers seasons in both 2022 and 2023 — losing each season in the first round to a division rival, particularly getting swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2023, left a bitter taste with nearly each member of the organization.

The team was far too talented to lose in the first round of the playoffs, but did so twice in a row.

To prevent that same ending from happening for a third straight year, the Dodgers made multiple sacrifices during the playoffs to prepare themselves the best they could.

Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas detailed some of those sacrifices during a recent appearance on Dodgers Dougout Live with Doug McKain.

“It happens in the playoffs,” Rojas told McKain. “It happened when October came. We all make a sacrifice. I’m talking about the player group. We all say, ‘We’re going to sacrifice a lot of things that are important for us, really important for us,’ which is family time, which is kids, which is kids in the clubhouse, which is working out every single day in October. We didn’t not work out one day throughout the whole run, one month straight, going to the ballpark, not just at home, but on the road as well.”

During the postseason, the Dodgers did not take a day off from working out, even when they had days off or days between series.

“After a game at night, we had an off day. Next day, everybody showed up on the field, because that’s what we’re willing to do,” Rojas said. “We didn’t know if it was going to work, but we willing to do the sacrifice to not leave anything on the table or anything behind, any work. The work paid off … I think everything changes in October this year, when we all made the sacrifice and say, ‘We’re gonna do this for ourselves. We’re gonna do it for our team, and we’re gonna spend these last three weeks as a team,’ because we don’t know if we’re gonna be together again. And we did that, and we did it together.”

The changes clearly paid off. Not only did the Dodgers move past the National League Division Series, but they went all the way to the World Series and defeated the New York Yankees for their eighth championship.

Given the success, this might be a method worth employing for future Dodgers teams.