Yoshinobu Yamamoto was bit by the home run bug and the Los Angeles Dodgers offense continued to struggle in a 6-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night.
The Dodgers have now lost four consecutive games by at least four runs for the first time in Los Angeles franchise history. Their only other stretch with such defeats was from July 1-4, 1936, when they were still in Brooklyn.
Their current stretch of defeats started with a pair of five-run losses to the Atlanta Braves before falling 9-3 to the Giants on Monday night followed by the four-run loss Tuesday.
Dave Roberts not happy with Dodgers’ situational hitting
The Dodgers had plenty of scoring opportunities as they loaded the bases twice against the Giants in Tuesday’s matchup, but came away with only one run on Will Smith’s sacrifice fly in the first inning. Similar to what was the case for Max Muncy in the series finale against the Braves, Smith was robbed of an extra-base hit by a strong catch.
But manager Dave Roberts believes the team’s recent offensive struggles have a lot to do with their poor situational hitting.
“I think that when you’re really not slugging, or you’re not throwing out double-digit hits a night, then the opportunities are few and far between,” Roberts began. “And so that’s where our margins, even on the offensive side, are just more finite.
“You get a guy on second base to lead off an inning, and you got to get him to third, and then you’ve got to get get that point across. And we’re just not doing that, on top of not slugging and not creating a bunch of traffic and stress.”
Kyle Tucker: Dodgers not ‘freaking out’ about losing skid
The Dodgers have been on a downward spiral for nearly three weeks as they’ve dropped 12 of their last 20 contests and find themselves a half-game behind the San Diego Padres for first place in the National League West.
“I mean, we’re confident in our team and everyone,” Kyle Tucker said. “No one’s freaking out or anything. Our pitching staff has done a phenomenal job, and our offense will do what they pretty much do every single year.
“So I mean, everyone has confidence in each other going up to the plate and doing their part. So we’re all good in the clubhouse, at least.”
Tucker added that every team goes through slumps over the course of the regular season and believes the Dodgers need to stay true to their process in order to get back on track.
“It happens,” Tucker said. “You obviously would love to break every single game the entire year, but that’s not always the case.
“So you just got to do your best, try to come in every single day and try to make things happen. Not force anything, but just try to take what you can, whether it’s drawing walks or just moving guys over and just trying to play good, clean baseball.”
Max Muncy remaining confident
Max Muncy also emphasized a need for the Dodgers to stick to their approach and is confident they will eventually start winning games again.
“You just got to keep your head clear,” Muncy said. “It’s easy to dwell on the negative things that are happening, especially in baseball.
“This is a very hard sport, and there are going to be a lot of bad things that happen, but you just have to show up each day, keep moving on, and you have to trust who you are, trust in the team, trust in the process.
“It’s something that we’ve harped on a lot over the years. We’re just going to keep doing that and fully understand we are going to come out of this.”
Have you subscribed to the Dodger Blue YouTube channel? Be sure to ring the notification bell to watch player interviews, participate in shows and giveaways, and stay up to date on all Dodgers news and rumors!
