After a disappointing weekend series against the San Francisco Giants, the Los Angeles Dodgers were off to face the Arizona Diamondbacks for four games at Chase Field. It represented an opportunity to close the gap in the National League West standings.
Of course, the alternative was the Diamondbacks putting the Dodgers in an even deeper hole that would make it more difficult for them to win a sixth consecutive division title. The week didn’t begin on a positive note for Los Angeles, as it was announced Corey Seager required Tommy John surgery.
Then the Diamondbacks proceeded to win the first two games of the series to move to nine games ahead of the Dodgers in the NL West standings. Hyun-Jin Ryu, arguably the team’s best pitcher this season, came out of his start in the second inning because of what was later determined to be a significant groin injury.
But in the face of adversity, the Dodgers responded with back-to-back wins to earn a series split. They capped it off with a four-run eighth inning on Thursday to complete a come-from-behind victory.
That left Dodgers manager Dave Roberts with a sense of things beginning to break in his team’s favor, per Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times:
“There’s things that happened in the game where you joke about ‘The tide’s turning’ or ‘The worm’s turning,’ ” Roberts said. “That’s the way baseball is. Our guys are starting to see a little bit of it.”
Days before the Dodgers managed to get their victories over the Diamondbacks, Roberts predicted they would claim another NL West title this year in spite of the early-season troubles. On Wednesday afternoon he proclaimed that to be the day the Dodgers would begin their turnaround.
Time will tell if Roberts’ prediction carried any truth, though the Dodgers certainly have an opportunity to gain some traction with the immediate games ahead on the schedule.
