It has been a disappointing start to the regular season for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who find themselves with an underwhelming 2-5 record through the first week of play. It’s the first time since 1998 that the team has gotten off to such an opening.
While the club’s pitching staff has lived up to expectations, the same can’t be said for the offense. Through seven games, the Dodgers have been shut out in three of them, and they have scored just one run in another contest to boot.
To make matters worse, Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw has gotten off to an 0-2 start while Kenley Jansen has yielded a homer in each of his first two outings. Though for the former, he has only allowed three runs over his first 12 innings pitched and is one of many arms to receive limited run support thus far.
Nonetheless, the Dodgers, oddly, are 0-4 in games Kershaw or Jansen have appeared in. Despite the rough and unexpected stretch, Corey Seager and Alex Wood aren’t concerned with the Dodgers’ early-season standing.
They both preached that there’s still plenty of baseball to be played, via Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times:
“It’s April 4,” Wood offered as a reminder. Seager echoed that sentiment.
“I don’t think anybody’s really panicking yet,” Seager said. “It’s still early. Hopefully everybody comes around soon, though.”
As Seager and Wood note, the Dodgers are in no position to panic. Last season, the club hovered around .500 for most of April before going on a historic run that spanned through multiple months of the summer.
For Wood, he has played his part in helping the Dodgers succeed, but doesn’t have any wins to show for it just yet. In two starts, he owns a 1.93 ERA, 1.54 FIP and MLB-best 0.50 WHIP over 14 innings with 10 strikeouts and no walks.
Seager, like much of the lineup, has struggled out of the gate. He’s batting just .192/.222/.192 with five singles and not a single extra-base hit.
