The recent stretch of games has been among the toughest of the season for the Los Angeles Dodgers. They have lost five straight games going into play Wednesday, with the last four coming with the opposing team scoring the winning run in the ninth inning.
The skid comes at a bad time given how close the National League West division race is. The Dodgers’ 2-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night dropped them into third place behind the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.
This is not the first time the Dodgers have struggled though, which is why Alex Wood is confident that they will be able to get out of it, via J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group:
“I think we’ve shown the last two years that we have phases like this, where we get cold all around,” Wood said. “We’ve seen this before and we’ve come out of it.”
Wood returned from the disabled list and started Tuesday night’s game, allowing just three hits and one run in five innings while striking out six and walking one. He picked up right where he left off before requiring the minimum 10-day disabled list stint due to a hamstring issue.
The Dodgers starting rotation has not been this issue during the recent losing streak. Rather, it has been the offense that has not been able to score, and the bullpen has faltered each night as well.
With All-Star closer Kenley Jansen out, the Dodgers moved two starters in Kenta Maeda and Ross Stripling to the bullpen to help aid that unit. Maeda gave up the winning run to the Giants, and Stripling was unavailable due to a back issue though, so the bullpen remains an area of concern for the club.
