Just six weeks ago, the Los Angeles Dodgers looked destined to run away with the National League West division title yet again, and it appeared no team was going to be a threat.
They sat eight games ahead of the San Francisco Giants and nine in front of the San Diego Padres on July 1 with a 54-32 (.628) record.
But following their loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday night, the Dodgers and Padres are now tied in the NL West standings with each club having a 68-52 (.567) record.
The Dodgers have gone just 14-20 (.436) since July 1, and every time they seem to be breaking out of their slump, they come back the next day with the same struggles showing.
It’s been a frustrating time for the Dodgers with an inconsistent offense and bullpen that has failed to protect leads.
The Dodgers need to turn things around soon, and the pressure is building for them to do it.
“You’ve just got to play better baseball,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We got doubled off in a triple play situation, just some things that we’re not helping ourselves by playing good baseball
“Tonight, I thought I saw some good things. (Edgardo) Henriquez was really good tonight, Emmet found a way to get through five innings, but yeah, we’ve still got to be better on all fronts.
“Now it’s a new season. You look at the standings, and we’ve just got to play better baseball and find ways to win games.”
How the Dodgers get back on track remains a major question. Their starting pitchers are healthy, their offense is only missing a few bench bats, and the bullpen consists of multiple arms the Dodgers had high expectations for.
The talent is all there for the Dodgers to win consistently, they just haven’t been able to.
“I think there’s just certain things you can kind of manage and control,” Roberts said. “I don’t think we’re doing a good enough job of that as far as focusing on the little things that are certainly coming to show as big things, that you can control. You really can’t control wins and losses, but you can control how you go about it.
“Like I’ve said this last three weeks, or whatever it’s been, we just haven’t been able to stack good, clean, solid baseball games together. Once we feel like we do, and then we don’t.
“I know we’re all frustrated. It’s not going to turn by itself. We’re going to come back to work tomorrow, try to salvage this series and find a way to beat these guys this year.”
Common baseball logic suggests the Padres will cool off as they’ve been among MLB’s best teams since July with a 23-13 record. It should also be expected that the Dodgers’ slump won’t continue lasting through the end of the season.
But their issues have already gone on longer than anyone would have guessed, and it now becomes their job to get their problems fixed rather than waiting for things to just turn around.
It’s easier said than done, but this Dodgers team has too much talent to be losing at the rate they are. The Padres now making a real case for the division, so the Dodgers need to find that urgency and focus that they currently lack.
Max Muncy downplays Dodgers, Padres NL West race
Although the Padres are tied with the Dodgers heading into back-to-back weekend matchups, Max Muncy said the team is only focused on what they can control.
“I’ll let you guys scoreboard watch for me. You’ve heard me say it a million times. We try to focus on what’s going on here and on this field,” Muncy said.
“We don’t worry about what’s going on anywhere else. It sucks, but we’ve got to focus on ourselves. We can’t worry about what anyone else is doing. We need to focus on ourselves and like I said, snap out of what’s going on.”
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