The Los Angeles Dodgers entered the 2018 season with aspirations of returning to the World Series after falling just one win short of ending a 29-year championship drought last November.
But with more than a quarter of the regular season in the books, the Dodgers find themselves with a disappointing 20-27 record and fourth-place showing in the National League West.
The poor results can be attributed to an abundance of injuries that have hindered the team in the early going, in addition to unexpected regression for some of the core players.
The combination of the two led to Dave Roberts admitting this season already has been his most challenging since being named Dodgers manager nearly three years ago, per Bill Plaschke of the L.A. Times:
“Yeah, this is my most difficult year since I’ve been here,” he said Monday afternoon before the Dodgers collapsed again in a three-error 2-1 loss to the Colorado Rockies.
Despite the Dodgers’ all-around struggles, Roberts is standing by his prediction that his club will come out on top in the division when it’s all said and done. Entering play on Tuesday, Los Angeles finds itself just 5.5 games behind the first-place Colorado Rockies.
The Dodgers remain in the thick of the race after an excellent showing against the Washington Nationals over the weekend, successfully conquering two of the league’s best right-handers in Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg en route to a three-game sweep.
Meanwhile, the rest of the NL West has failed to take a stranglehold on the division. The Arizona Diamondbacks, who jumped out to an 8-4 record over the Dodgers in head-to-head play, recently fell to second place after dropping their fifth consecutive game and 11th in the past 12.
