MILWAUKEE — The Dodgers have been right here earlier than.
This time final yr, in a season that bore so many similarities to their present one, a first-place and extremely touted Dodgers crew quickly misplaced its manner.
Amid a deluge of pitching accidents (sound acquainted?) and the absence of considered one of its hottest early-season hitters (Mookie Betts, who suffered a damaged hand near the identical time Max Muncy went down with a knee damage this yr), the membership stumbled backward into the All-Star break, going 2-8 in its remaining 10 video games of the primary half and 1-5 in a Philadelphia/Detroit street journey that uncovered plain flaws in its star-studded roster.
Twelve months later, one other pre-All-Star-break tailspin has struck the now defending champions.
The Dodgers have misplaced six video games in a row, swept in back-to-back sequence by the Houston Astros and the Milwaukee Brewers. Their romp by way of June and the primary days of July (after they gained 20 occasions in a 30-game stretch) has been stalled by sudden regression currently, with lackluster offense and a worn-down pitching employees contributing to the group’s longest shedding streak since April 2019.
Now, as he did then, supervisor Dave Roberts has downplayed any alarm.
“I think it is under the ‘it’s just baseball’ type thing,” Roberts stated Wednesday after the Dodgers’ most deflating lack of their skid but. “You never like to lose six in a row. It seems like we’re pitching OK. The defense at times has been really good. It’s just that right now we’re scuffling offensively, to have that big inning or to build an inning and get that big hit.”
However, additionally like again then, frustration is mounting because the Dodgers strategy the commerce deadline.
The Dodgers’ Hyeseong Kim seems up whereas swinging a bat throughout a sport in opposition to the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday in Milwaukee.
(Aaron Gash / Related Press)
“We can’t really feel sorry about ourselves, because there’s a lot of season left, and we know what we’re looking for,” veteran infielder Miguel Rojas stated. “We’re looking to win another championship, and playing this kind of baseball is not gonna get us there.”
By “this kind of baseball,” Rojas means this type of offense.
Over the last week, a Dodgers lineup that leads the majors in scoring on the season has immediately scored the second-fewest runs (10 complete, and greater than two in simply considered one of their final six contests) of the league’s 30 groups. In that point, they’re batting a paltry .190 with solely 4 residence runs, a whopping 61 strikeouts and an on-base share of .269.
The basis causes of that malaise are simple to determine: The Dodgers have been with out a number of key regulars (Muncy, Teoscar Hernández and, till Wednesday, Tommy Edman) of their beginning lineup. Their three wholesome superstars (Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman) are hitting a mixed .194. Their depth choices have supplied little reprieve (Michael Conforto, Hyeseong Kim and James Outman have gone 5 for 38 whereas receiving elevated enjoying time).
And, they’ve run into two proficient pitching staffs, struggling in opposition to high quality opposing starters akin to Framber Valdez, Freddy Peralta and rookie sensation Jacob Misiorowski, and two hard-throwing bullpens from the Astros and Brewers.
Granted, even $400-million payrolls just like the Dodgers undergo such dips in a season. And whereas the losses have piled up, the crew has maintained the perfect document within the Nationwide League (56-38) and a five-game edge of their division.
“We’ve just got to put some at-bats together, keep playing good defense and it’ll turn,” Roberts promised. “When you’re mired in it, it’s frustrating. But we still have some pretty good players.”
The priority, nevertheless, is how shortly the offense has turned within the absence of some key gamers.
Freeman and Betts have been each slumping in June, however the contributions of Muncy and All-Star catcher Will Smith (the one common who has additionally stayed scorching throughout this present shedding spell) helped compensate. Ohtani’s numbers on the plate have declined since he returned to pitching, however stability on the backside of the lineup from youthful bats like Kim and Andy Pages made such struggles really feel moot.
This week, conversely, has highlighted what can occur when the Dodgers face good pitching at something lower than full energy –– the sort of confluence of occasions that might shortly derail any postseason marketing campaign if it have been to occur once more in October.
“You can’t replace All-Stars. You can’t replace guys that have won MVPs in the postseason. You can’t replace those type of things,” Betts stated this week. “The next man has to step up and do what he can do. But I mean, you can’t replace those guys. You can only have someone come step up and do their best.”
“It’s one of those things,” Roberts stated, “where we’ve got to find a way to weather it.”
Nonetheless, the questions this week has raised will loom even when the Dodgers begin to warmth up once more (as they did final yr, after they began the second half with a five-game profitable streak and 26-13 run general).
Already, the bullpen was an apparent space of want heading into the commerce deadline (particularly after Michael Kopech just lately underwent a meniscus surgical procedure on his proper knee that pressured him onto the 60-day IL). The rotation may very well be, too, though the Dodgers stay assured about having Tyler Glasnow (who returned to motion with 5 stable innings Wednesday) and Blake Snell (who’s starting a minor-league rehab project this week) wholesome for the second half.
Now, the membership must resolve whether or not it wants one other influence bat as nicely, probably including to a purchasing record that has grown for much longer than the crew had anticipated after one other massive offseason of lavish spending.
In spite of everything, Freeman and Betts have but to indicate indicators of life amid career-worst slumps. Ohtani’s workload gained’t get any simpler as he continues to ramp up on the mound. And there’s no assure how Muncy will look as soon as he returns, with Roberts noting his bone bruise will most likely linger into subsequent yr.
All of it leaves the Dodgers in a well-known place: Hopeful its proficient, however hardly infallible, roster possesses sufficient firepower to win one other World Collection, however figuring out that — like final yr, when the crew acquired Edman, Kopech and starter Jack Flaherty on the deadline — extra reinforcements would possibly nonetheless be wanted.
“We have to do better,” Rojas stated, voicing a recognition that has reverberated all through the clubhouse of late, because the entrance workplace evaluates its choices forward of the July 31 commerce deadline. “We gotta find ways to be a complete team that we know we can be.”
