The Los Angeles Dodgers have had a bit of a rollercoaster season thus far on offense.
Through their first 50 games, L.A. averaged 5.2 runs per contest and went 33-17 during that stretch. That figure continued to drop for much of May, and everyone from the top of the order in Mookie Betts to the bottom in Gavin Lux struggled to piece together consistent hits to score runs.
Lux, who had a .679 OPS in the month of May — a slight uptick from his poor April production — knows what the Dodgers are capable of offensively with their star power, and doesn’t believe the slump is reflective of their team, according to Dan Greenspan of The O.C. Register:
“We have like four of the best hitters on Earth, one through four,” Lux said. “Tonight was baseball, it’s just how it goes. But if we can keep doing that, getting on base and set the table for them, we’re gonna score a lot of runs.”
The Dodgers offense has been so inconsistent from top to bottom that it resulted in a bit of history on Friday night for Rockies starter Dakota Hudson.
He became the second pitcher in the last 30 years to face three former MVPs in a game and hold them to 0-for-9 without issuing a single walk of hit-by-pitch. Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman couldn’t muster anything until after Hudson was removed.
That serves as a microcosm of what has been happening to the Dodgers at the plate. And while the baseball season is long and stretches like this are bound to happen, it’s difficult to not reflect on similar trends of year’s past.
But Lux remains confident that the Dodgers can, and will, turn things around in time. They just need the front of the order to be the stars that they are and the back of the order to better set them up for success.
Dave Roberts proud of Dodgers consistency
Despite the frustration around an offensive slump, the Dodgers remain the most consistent team in the Majors. They have won 100 or more games in five of the last six full length seasons and have a World Series championship in that span.
Manager Dave Roberts applauded the organization’s consistency from year to year, saying that it keeps them focused when a slump like this happens.
