The Los Angeles Dodgers started their road trip with a disappointing 9-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates after overcoming an early deficit before ultimately falling late.
Clayton Kershaw struggled early in his start. He allowed six baserunners as part of a four-run first inning, but he was able to settle in from there and managed to complete five innings without giving up another run.
The Dodgers eventually pulled even in the sixth, but it didn’t take long for the Pirates to go back ahead. L.A.’s bullpen would collectively struggle as they allowed five runs over the final four innings.
It resulted in another loss for the Dodgers against a sub-.500 team. After the game, Kershaw said the Dodgers try to win every game regardless of their opponent’s record, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“I don’t think we look at it winning record, losing record. We’re just trying to win games,” Tuesday’s starter Clayton Kershaw said. “I’ll tell you right now, the Pirates are just trying to beat us probably worse than anybody else. That’s just part of being the Dodgers. We take everybody’s best shot and we’re trying to win every game. So every game that we lose is frustrating. Every game that we win feels good.”
Mookie Betts, who went 2-for-5 in the Dodgers’ loss, echoed Kershaw’s sentiment and said the club needs to find ways to win games no matter what the opponent’s record is:
“Nothing we can do about it,” Mookie Betts said. “Obviously we didn’t play well. We all know that. Don’t have to necessarily have a team ‘come-to-Jesus’ about it. We’ve just got to find ways to win games. There’s no secret formula about it. It doesn’t matter if a team’s below .500 or above .500. Especially times right now we’ve got to find ways to win games. We’re not doing it.”
Since July 28, the Dodgers are just 7-11 against sub-.500 teams. In contrast, they are 11-4 against opponents with a winning record. Overall this season, the Dodgers are 39-33 against teams with winning records and 39-27 against teams below .500.
Dave Roberts: Dodgers flipping switch a ‘dangerous way to live’
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts recently criticized his players after a sloppy loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks and implied that they were relying on eventually flipping a switch.
Roberts believes that is possible but would prefer the team treat each game equally.
“It is, but I do think a switch can be flipped,” Roberts explained. “But it doesn’t feel good saying that, because I think there’s a certain way you go about things and each day should be equally important.
“Every little play, pitch, should be equally important. How you do anything is how you do everything, that adage, I believe in that.
“Again, when you’re playing a long season, it’s hard to be that locked in every single pitch. But I’m not going to not try to ask our guys to do that.”
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