After the Los Angeles Dodgers were swept by the San Diego Padres and no-hit by the Chicago Cubs, it felt like rock bottom for some despite the team still being in second in the National League standings.
L.A. has dealt with many injuries to key stars, including Corey Seager, Max Muncy and Cody Bellinger, and other important players, such as Corey Knebel and Dustin May — the latter of whom is out for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
As some of those players return or get closer to rehabbing, Will Smith said the team can’t wait for them to get fully healthy before getting back on track.
“I mean, yeah, it’ll be nice when we get all our pieces back together. But no one is really thinking we’re losing because they’re not here,” Smith said.
“We’ve lost some games simply because we haven’t played our best. Given away some games, fallen behind, couldn’t get anything going offensively. We still have plenty good players that are active that should be good enough to win ballgames. But once those guys come back, it’s only going to make us even better.”
This season, the Dodgers have been inconsistent with runs where they look unbeatable and other stretches where they can’t buy a hit. While this is somewhat common for every team during a season, it has really stood out with the Dodgers.
“You can probably name 10 different things that it could be,” Smith said. “When it comes down to it we’ve just got to play better baseball as a group. That’ll help us win more games.”
So far this season, the Dodgers are second in the NL West with a 46-31 record, 4.5 games behind theSan Francisco Giants. The Dodgers’ +92 run differential also ranks behind the Giants for second-best in the NL.
Silver lining in Dodgers’ injuries
On top of the Dodgers still being relatively successful as a whole this season, manager Dave Roberts also believes they could benefit from injuries come October because of the reduced wear and tear on some.
“I think that’s my spin on this. I think I would rather have the guys healthy all year long and say we can kind of manage them to be ready through October,” he said. “Since that’s not the case, my spin is we’ve gained some equity going forward in this season.”
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